CROTHERSVILLE

Signing up for the horticulture class at Crothersville High School, six students had no idea what to expect.

None of them had experience with planting flowers, seeds or plants, and they had never operated a greenhouse.

Two of the students aren’t even from the United States, so it was new to them, too.

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After learning all they need to know from teacher Linda Myers, doing some bookwork and ordering seeds and soil, they were ready to begin growing vegetables, fruits and flowers in the school’s greenhouse.

That began in January, and now, it’s time to show the community all of the hard work it took to make it all happen.

Saturday marks the start of greenhouse sales at the school. The kickoff from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. will allow customers to buy fruit, vegetable and flower plants that were grown by the students. The first 50 paying customers will receive a free nine-pack garden starter kit.

Also that day, Crothersville FFA will be selling pork burgers for $4 near the greenhouse.

The greenhouse opening and pork burger sales coincide with the community yard sales going on Saturday in Crothersville.

After that day, the greenhouse will be open during regular school hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday until May 24. Proceeds will go toward next year’s greenhouse supplies.

“It’s cool because you’ve done all of it. You know you are the one that did this and your class,” senior Seth Anderson said of the greenhouse. “It’s pretty cool to watch it all grow knowing that you have a part in it.”

Fruit and vegetable plants available for purchase include tomato, cucumber, squash, zucchini, watermelon, basil, peppers, pumpkin and more.

Flowers include petunia, begonia, marigold, alyssum, zinnia, snapdragon, cosmos and more.

Myers said after doing some cleaning in the greenhouse in January, the class planted seeds and started an herb garden.

The students then rotated doing different tasks in the greenhouse, including labeling items, watering, transplanting seeds and planting new seeds.

The way the weather has been this year, moisture has affected some of the plants and flowers.

“Sometimes, it’s hard to tell what will let the plant survive, what will kill it because you won’t know until the next day when you go out and some of them are dead,” senior Clayton Baker said.

Sophomore Alissa Coomer said it was interesting to see how the different brands of seeds panned out.

“We found out that the expensive ones weren’t really as good as the cheaper ones,” she said.

For all of the students, it has been a learning process.

“We didn’t have a greenhouse at Austin, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Now, I know,” Coomer said.

Senior Laura Dial said when she was a student at Scottsburg, she took a botany class. In the horticulture class at Crothersville, she has learned even more.

“Planting is pretty cool. I like that we get to plant different things. It’s not just based on one thing,” she said, noting she liked planting a banana tree, pumpkin seeds and tomato plants.

This week, the class focused on advertising Saturday’s sale on the Crothersville High School Greenhouse Facebook page and on the fire department’s sign along U.S. 31.

To help them be ready for visitors, Myers had teachers stop by Thursday playing the roles of a nice customer, a difficult customer and one with a lot of questions.

The horticulture class is only 50 minutes each school day, so Myers said that’s not a lot of time to get everything done that needs to be done.

“Whatever doesn’t get done, they are coming down during free periods,” Myers said. “It’s their business. I put a lot of pressure on them.”

Now that the students have some experience with planting and managing a greenhouse, several of them said they are interested in creating their own at home.

“It could save you money to plant your own vegetables and fruits,” Baker said.

Coomer said students may be interested in making it a career or teaching horticulture.

When she leaves Crothersville, German exchange student Nele Korte said she might consider maintaining a greenhouse.

“I think it’s interesting because I learned a lot of stuff that I would never do in Germany, and now, when I’m going back, I’m planting my own greenhouse,” she said.

Max Neumann, the other exchange student in the class, said before, he had no idea what horticulture was. Now that he is nearly done with the class, he has liked the hands-on opportunities.

“It’s really interesting,” he said. “I like it, and it was fun. It’s really cool to see the plants grow up with hard work and make all of these plants.”

Along with the knowledge of plants and flowers, Anderson said the class has picked up teamwork skills.

“That’s what I got out of it more than really just planting plants,” he said. “It can help you a lot.”

Myers said if the class encourages a student to raise one tomato plant at their house, she is happy. That’s a start, and they could work their way up to growing more things.

That’s the same idea with opening the greenhouse to the public and giving away the nine-packs.

“If they have one tomato plant, if they have one pepper plant, we’re just hopefully providing some fresh produce to the community,” Myers said.

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“It’s cool because you’ve done all of it. You know you are the one that did this and your class. It’s pretty cool to watch it all grow knowing that you have a part in it.”

Crothersville High School senior Seth Anderson said of the horticulture class managing a greenhouse

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The Crothersville High School horticulture class will kick off its plant and flower sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the greenhouse at the school, 109 N. Preston St., Crothersville.

Fruit and vegetable plants available for purchase include tomato, cucumber, squash, zucchini, watermelon, basil, peppers, pumpkin and more.

Flowers include petunia, begonia, marigold, alyssum, zinnia, snapdragon, cosmos and more.

The first 50 paying customers will receive a free nine-pack garden starter kit.

Also that day, Crothersville FFA will be selling pork burgers for $4 near the greenhouse.

After Saturday, the greenhouse will be open during regular school hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday until May 24. Proceeds will go toward next year’s greenhouse supplies.

Information: Call 812-793-2051 or visit facebook.com/cvillegreenhouse

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