Covenant Christian School students grow plants for fundraiser

MOSES LAKE — Many gardeners in the Basin have already started nursing their seedlings in preparation for the day they can put them in the ground. Others can place their orders this month for ready-to-go plants from Covenant Christian School’s first plant sale. Orders will open in mid-March, and be delivered in April and May.

“We have herbs, we have vegetables, we have flowers,” CCS seventh- and eighth-grade teacher Valerie Parrott said Wednesday. “We’re growing mainly heirloom, non-GMO plants.”

The horticulture class is the beginning of the ag program Covenant Christian School started this year, using a greenhouse donated by school volunteer Ed Macdonald, known around the school as Papa Ed. The greenhouse was still very much a work in progress Wednesday; the frame was mostly put together but the plastic sheeting hadn’t been installed to cover it.

In the meantime, the plants for the sale are being grown in half of a classroom, set up with glass cases and grow lights. Most of the plants are still pretty small, although there’s a sizable tomato plant in a pot on a windowsill. The students are taking a large part in the growing, learning to propagate plants from cuttings and watering with child-sized watering cans. The basil is especially popular with them; they take the occasional leaf leaves off the plant to nibble on as they grow.

“It tastes like gum,” said fifth-grader Micah Sept.

Many of the edible plants were being started this week, Parrott said.

“We’re a little late getting our peppers in, because we just got started on the program,” she said. “Normally we’d have had peppers going a month ago. We’re going to start more tomatoes, basil, rosemary, a lot of herbs.”

One tray in the grow room had 500 tomato plants in it, Parrott said. She expects to have several thousand tomato plants by the time the sale is finished, and is confident the school can sell them.

Besides the tomatoes were pea plants, as well as calendula, hollyhocks, dahlias and celosia, also called coxcomb.

The plants will be sold in full flats, or in mixed flats for those who don’t want a huge number of one thing, Parrott said.

“So if you don’t want to buy 45 petunia plants all the same color,” she said. “We’ll have a variation of 12 different colors that they can buy.”

There will also be salsa baskets available, she said.

“You’ll have your onions, you’ll have your cilantro, you’ll have your peppers and your tomatoes,” she said. “All you have to do is take that basket and go plant it, and you have your salsa garden ready to go.”

There will also be a basket with herbs and flowers to encourage pollinators, she said, and one for container gardening.

All the plants are being grown organically, Parrott said.

“We’re using lacewings, praying mantis and ladybugs (to keep pests down),” she said. “We don’t use any pesticides whatsoever, and only natural fertilizers.”

The students will also sell firestarters made from soy wax for use with fireplaces and outdoor fire pits, as well as handmade flowerpot decorations.

The funds raised will go to Covenant Christian School, including to the ag program, although it hadn’t yet been decided how they would be divvied up.

The students aren’t just working with the plants; they’re also helping Papa Ed put up the greenhouse. Ninth-grader Jon Macdonald is serving as construction foreman, he said, mostly because he reads the instructions.

“We’ve gotten the frame up, and like half the cover,” Jon said.

Many of the materials for the program are donated by community members, Parrott said. Scotty’s Auto Repair donated a big stack of pots, and Lowe’s gave them a 25% discount on potting soil.

The plants at the CCS plant sale are a bargain compared to buying them at a home improvement or garden store, Parrott said.

“The price is unbeatable when you buy it by the flat,” she said. “It’s about $35-$40 a flat, so that’s about 50 cents a plant.”

Besides the plants the students are growing, Macdonald donated some from his own garden, and some other local gardeners have done the same, Parrot said. The school has also partnered with a nursery in Walla Walla, she added.

“The flat sale is going to be just awesome for gardeners who haven’t had time to start their own seeds this year but still want to have a really good gardening selection,” she said.

Want to order?

Gardeners interested in ordering plants from the flat sale should check back occasionally with Covenant Christian School’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ccsmoseslake.

    Covenant Christian School fifth-grader Micah Sept takes a bite of a basil leaf from a plant held by his teacher, Valerie Parrott. Basil is one of many herbs, flowers and veggies students are growing for the school’s flat sale this spring.
  

    Some of the plant starts being cultivated for the Covenant Christian School flat sale this spring. The plants are grown in a dim room with grow lights set up to turn on and off with timers.
  

    Covenant Christian School students Tim Macdonald, left, and Jon Macdonald work on the school’s greenhouse Wednesday morning. The greenhouse was donated by their grandfather, Ed Macdonald, and the students have been assembling it.