Service Project Part 3

Service Project Part 3 – Tucker High School

Our work is getting noticed by elected officials and other critical decision makers!

Henrico County Public Schools recently contacted us. They want us to partner with them on pollinator garden projects they are establishing at schools throughout the county! They made the call because Eric Snelsire of Landscape Supply praised the VTC Environmental Institute during the March pesticide recertification and graduate student contest webinar.

Last year, the school system worked with Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and others to design and establish a garden at Tucker High School that will be the model for future projects.

Heather Veneziano, Horticulture Instructor with Henrico County Public Schools, and her students are already heavily involved with the Tucker project and the idea is to include other disciplines, such as ecology, environmental sciences, and biology.

Henrico County Public Schools objectives for the existing and future pollinator gardens will draw heavily on lessons learned at Richmond’s Bellmeade Park, the endeavor Harris Wheeler, VTC Vice President, helped develop about 15 years ago. That 70-acre project was intentionally sited adjacent to an elementary and a middle school in an economically challenged side of Richmond. Instructors at those two schools regularly bring classes to the park.

Jeffrey Grow, Maintenance Control Supervisor, describes the project: I received approval to convert the parcel at Tucker into a Pollinator Habitat in the fall of 2023. We planted our first seeds in April of 2024 followed by over 2,000 plugs. The area is tough at best considering hard compacted soil in major areas, post construction quality soil in other and wet areas that are difficult to plant much less mow or maintain properly.

The project quickly bloomed into ideas of student participation. We have had students from our Workforce & Career Development / Career and Technical Education programs create the digital images for the signs. Our students have also printed the signs in their print shop; the carpentry students built and installed the billboards for the signs. Our horticultural students installed stormwater and erosion control measures as well as planting the seeds that are growing today.

We are currently creating curriculum for our science, biology, and other related classes to use the space for educational enhancement. Our maintenance staff will be using the site for training purposes to become registered technicians.