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LCHS students (front row, left) junior Gavin Badgley, and senior Haley Hay. (Back row, from left) sophomore Hunter Keller, junior Sara Beth Simpson, and senior Ean Wallace work on transplanting seedlings. (Not pictured: greenhouse manager Michelle Connor.)
Lumpkin County High School agriculture students are working hard on a project that will help beautify the downtown area and help them learn by using hands-on experience.
The project recently began thanks to City of Dahlonega supervisor Troy Armstrong, who got a tip from a friend about a possible solution.
With City workers using flowers several times a year to brighten up the flower pots on the Public Square, Armstrong was struggling to find enough plants for the job.
When he contacted the business called Speedlings in Blairsville, Armstrong found out that the company was eager to donate thousands of seedlings for local high school students to help take care of.
"The grower was begging to give to our school," he said. "I never thought it would work out this way."
In total, Armstrong estimated that there were about 36,000 small seedlings.
The City will benefit because a portion of the seedlings grown by the students will be used to plant in the 100-plus flower pots downtown when they are fully grown.
Armstrong said the public can expect to start seeing the plants around town as soon as March or April.
In addition, the school will benefit because there will be plenty of leftover plants for the class to hold a plant sale in the springtime.
"I really believe it's a great partnership," Armstrong said. "It's a service to the community that they can help with."
But for now it's a race against time to get the seedlings transplanted into larger containers since they are growing so quickly.
LCHS senior Haley Hay said the storms from the recent hurricane that moved through the area caused delays.
"When the it came through a couple of weeks ago we lost power to the greenhouse," Hay said. "The seedlings were cold and some got frostbite."
Therefore, last week students were busy in the high school greenhouse preparing trays with fresh soil for the seedlings to be transplanted into.
"This is a great learning experience," Hay said.
Hay added the best thing about this project is teamwork and learning to work together.
"The seniors are helping the other students because they will have to be more independent next year," she said. "It's good to work with my friends and classmates."
She expressed appreciation that with Greg Murray teaching the agriculture class this year the students are able to work more with plants in the greenhouse.
Murray said that it's a win/win partnership with the City.
"The students are building pride in their community, he said. "And they are learning at the same time."
He said his class has been working on this project for a few weeks and he is relying on them to do their best.
"Agriculture class is about actually learning to do things," Murray said. "They can say 'Hey, I did that' when people see the flowers."