Greeley West horticulture classes took the first of many field trips to downtown Greeley.  On Tuesday, they measured out different spaces as they get to design and plant three garden beds. Scheduled to be established in May, the project will focus on landscaping and maintenance, offering students hands-on experience while working with industry partners in this essential and creative industry. The students are working with peers to construct the gardens with the plants that they want that will then be approved by the City of Greeley committee. 

Mrs. Samantha Pierce, the teacher of FFA horticulture classes explained the itinerary for this year long project. “They are going to do their hand drawings by December, and they are going to present to the City of Greeley in February, and then we have to demolish in March, and then we install irrigation and all that kind of stuff in April and then we will plant in May.” 

Students will have the chance to choose between perennials, trees, annuals, and shrubs, but will mostly depend on what the City of Greeley wants. “We are going to come up with five plans and drawings and the City of Greeley gets to select,” Pierce said. 

Students shared their excitement for the project and how this may want to be a future career for them. Junior Lydia Pierce said, “It’s a fun class but I could also see myself going into something like this in the future. I would do floral designing.”

Junior Leon Delafuente said, “I’m very excited because personally I want to take landscaping classes in college so I can have the experience and better chances.”

The students will take what they learned from their horticulture classes and apply it to their project. “They have to figure out what the sunlight requirements are, water requirements, they have to take into account the space being used and who is using the space, so we can’t have cacti obviously,” Pierce mentioned.