News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Clay County High School’s FFA program is opening up its greenhouse to the public for a plant sale starting Friday.
Agriculture Education Teacher James Matthew Craighead said that all proceeds go directly into the program. Craighead said 80 varieties of plants and vegetables are available after students planted over 13,000 seeds.
“We will have hanging baskets with mixed flowers available, we’ll have petunia baskets, we will have ferns,” Craighead said. “We will have flats of flowers and flats of vegetables. We’ll have three-packs of flowers and vegetables and then we’ll have individual pots of premium flowers.”
Craighead said this is a completely student led effort. Craighead said he stayed hands off and just provided guidance where it was needed.
“These students starting at the end of February, we had just a bare greenhouse and since then we’ve completely filled the greenhouse and this week everything started blooming,” Craighead said. “You could tell that the kids got to take a sense of pride in that they planted and grew these and now they’re going to get to sell them to the public.”
Craighead said that building these skills are essential to young people interested in an agriculture career. He said that plants are involved in virtually every aspect of agriculture.
“Whether you are growing plants for crops, like corn and wheat,” Craighead said. “Whether you are growing grass and plants to feed the animals. Of course, beef cattle is a very big operation here in Clay County, whether you’re growing plants to feed to other operations like the poultry farms that we have in the county or whether you’re just a home gardener and want to learn how to grow some of your own food.’
The Clay County High School FFA plant sale will be open 3:00 PM until 4:00 PM, Monday-Friday and from 8:00 AM until noon on Saturdays. The greenhouse is located behind the Clay County High School building.
