In the News: Green and Growing

Ask Pete Siderius about the Newberg High School hort program's achievements and he’ll deflect any compliments. According to Pete, the credit should go to strong community support from area businesses and groups. They’ve helped NHS build two heated structures and sev- eral cold frames. A greenhouse plaque lists all the contributors.

But Siderius deserves credit, too.

He’s a big part of why the elective hort program at NHS went from 34 students four years ago to 220 this past year. That’s a sizable chunk of Newberg’s student body (around 1,400).

More remarkably, the program has survived in an era of school budget cuts by raising its own funding. The program does contract growing, holds a May plant sale, and provides 300 hanging baskets for a Rotary Club of Newberg fund raiser.

Students benefit too. Some 26 students are employed part-time during the summer. Their job is to care for woody plant and perennial crops.

“The students not only are getting hands on experience in horticulture, they are getting hands-on experience in business as well,” Siderius said. “Every Monday in May the kids come into the classroom and the first thing they want to know is: ‘How were sales for the past weekend?’”

Under his guidance, the horticulture program revenues have grown over the last four years, reaching over $30,000 a year. All of those funds went directly back into infrastructure, operating sup- plies, labor and educational materials for the program.

A local construction company did the grade work for one of the new greenhouses. The Chehalem Parks and Rec district furnished a licensed electrician to do the wiring. Community donations paid for most of the infrastructure. Local retailers and nurseries have donated seed, pots and plants. According to Siderius, the dollar value in grants, plus labor and materials donations from the community approaches $200,000 over the last four years.

Master Gardeners have donated hundreds of hours to the school by serving as teacher aides in class lab. Some have shared their industry experiences.

Having access to a year-round physical plant offers Master Gardeners the opportunity to conduct outreach education programs for Master Gardeners in propagation techniques and the program grows on propagated material for the annual Yamhill Co. Master Gardeners plant sale. Master Recyclers have set up a Yamhill County compost demonstration site for different compost and vermiculture demonstration plots.

“When people in the community know there are positive things happening, they support it,” Siderius said.

The relationship between the school and city of Newberg is a cooperative effort to beautify the city, with the Horticulture program donating thou- sands of plants for cityscapes. In return, the city has provided materials, and city groundskeeper Bryan Stewart has donated hours of his own time.

These efforts have changed the face of the city and resulted in an award- winning Water Wise garden. Most of the shrubs and perennials planted along Highway 99W and in the city parks were grown by the program. The downtown Newberg business district is now adorned with hanging baskets and wine barrel planters the students created.

Students have installed and now maintain the landscape plantings at Newberg High School. Recently, an herb garden was planted for a culinary class. This year, a student group is planning and implementing a vegetable gardens to supply the school cafeteria. If all this isn’t enough, the program also has a partnership with the Bureau of Land Management. BLM supplies native plant materials. Students grow the plant starts on, then install them in federally-funded stream projects, including wetlands mitigation and riparian restoration.

Siderius maintains a website detailing many of the student projects at http://sites.google.com/site/ newberghighschoolgreenhouse/.
How many Newberg hort students have gone on to pursue green industry careers? “Unfortunately, not too many,” Siderius said. A number of college prep students, however, have majored in environmental studies, he added.

At the very least, hundreds of young people graduate from Newberg High School each year with a better understanding and appreciation of the plant world around them. The challenge or opportunity falls upon us the green industry: Can we influence them to choose horticulture as a career?

By Mike Lee for Digger Magazine