East Central FFA Awarded Living To Serve Grant

Visitors to ECHS will notice some brand new landscaping outside the Performing Arts Center.

Photo provided. 

(St. Leon, Ind.) - If you visit ECHS from now on, and you enter the building at the Performing Arts Center entrance you will notice some brand new landscaping that was completed by East Central High School Horticultural Science and Landscape Management students as a part of a $3000 National FFA Organization Living to Serve Grant that the chapter received this fall. This portion was phase one of an ongoing project, and was done without any costs to the school. Phase 2 will focus on the east entrance of the high school.  

The Landscape Management students began the project by removing old juniper shrubs from the existing planting beds with help from the Sunman-Dearborn maintenance staff.  An initial design was drawn up, and plants were ordered from Natorp’s in Mason, Ohio. Plants were delivered on Monday September 21 and planting began the following day.  Students also mulched the areas and will provide continual care and maintenance to the plantings throughout the year. 

The plants consisted of 55 native, deciduous shrubs, and 66 native perennials. The shrubs were planted by the Landscape Management students, and the perennials were planted by the Horticultural Science students. All of the plants will provide both food and habitat for bird species, pollen and nectar for pollinators, and will give visitors to the high school a chance to see how native plants can be used in the landscape. 

This area will also have signage to identify the plants, and will have barriers to keep guests from walking through the beds. 

This planting is a welcome addition to the high school, and provided students in the ECHS agriculture program another practical, real world experience.

Questions about the project can be directed to: Roy Johnson- Agriculture Instructor & FFA Advisor Email- rjohnson@sunmandearborn.k12.in.us.

Awesome job! @EastCentralHS Horticulture and Landscape students have been hard at work planting native shrubs and perennials and mulching around the school campus pic.twitter.com/ulRXfs11CL

— Eagle Country 99.3 (@eagle993) October 16, 2020