ECHS Landscape Students/FFA Members Complete National FFA Living to Serve Grant

When you enter ECHS, you will notice beautiful new landscaping completed by students.

Photo provided.

(St. Leon, Ind.) - When you enter East Central High School from Schuman Road or Trojan Road, you will notice beautiful new landscaping completed by East Central High School Landscape and Turf Management students. 

The project to help beautify campus is part of a $3,000 National FFA Organization Living to Serve Grant that the FFA chapter received in the fall semester of 2022. The grant was used for an ongoing project called EC Re-Leaf, which promotes the use of native plants in the landscape. 

According to Roy Johnson, Agriculture Instructor & FFA Advisor, students began the project by removing old juniper shrubs from the existing planting beds along the main drive on the north side of the high school with the help of Rick Singer and Tom Beck, who are employed in the school district as maintenance personnel. 

Fifty-nine plants were delivered from Mason, Ohio in May to complete the landscape beds along the driveway, and nearly 100 native perennials produced from seed in the ECHS greenhouse were planted in various beds on campus to provide more greenery. Aside from planting shrubs, trees and perennials, students also mulched the areas.  

All of the plants will provide not only an attractive landscape, but also 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.

The area will soon have signage to identify the plants. 

The planting project was completed without any costs to the school. 

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