Specialty Crop

The school garden consists of six 8ʹ × 3ʹ raised beds, a 10ʹ × 25ʹ pumpkin patch, a trellis system with peas, beans, and snow peas, and an orchard of 12 trees including plums, pears, peaches, and three varieties of apples. The Worland High School shop class built a greenhouse for West Side using a kit. Overall, the school’s program has grown more than 30 types of vegetables and fruits with great involvement by students, teachers, kitchen staff, and parents.

Students plant, water, and weed the gardens during the school year, and on Wednesdays for one hour during summer. Produce goes home with the students to be shared with their families, which can help supplement meals for the area’s low-income residents. Other recipients of the produce are the school cafeteria for use in the salad bar and for school snacks and Blessings in a Backpack, a national non-profit organization that helps to feed school children who may otherwise go hungry on weekends.

School cafeteria staff members have been involved by assisting in writing a grant that has allowed the placement of picnic tables and in funding a composting program that students maintain. Volunteers from the Washakie County Conservation District and University of Wyoming Washakie County Extension offer students lessons on soils and composting. The school received grant funds to purchase two FarmBots, which were placed in an outdoor classroom and in the greenhouse to compare results. Teachers also use the garden as instructional space for students to learn about plant structures.

The “Kindergardening” program involves local kindergarten students who pot flowers in the greenhouse for Mother’s Day.

The school horticulture program receives assistance from a local business, Wind River Seed in Manderson, which provides packeted Wyoming wildflower seeds and grants and donations from the Washakie Conservation District and UW Washakie County Extension.