Kids plant trees for the future
A tree planting in celebration of Arbor Day was held at Hazelwood Elementary School in Waynesville, using rooted cuttings of corkscrew willows the students had propagated in their classrooms.
The Arbor Day planting was an extension of the school garden, an outdoor education component led by volunteers with the Haywood County Master Gardeners Association.
“These are the four trees you all propagated,” said Joe Smiley, a master gardener volunteer known to the kids as Farmer Joe. “We’ll put a sign on it that says Arbor Day 2017. Remember from now on that on the fourth Friday of April every year is Arbor Day and you can go out and plant a tree.”
The school garden is planted and tended by first graders every spring and summer and harvested when they return to school as second graders in the fall.
“They take it all the way from planting to eating,” said Mike Robertson, the master gardener who oversees the school garden.
The propagation of tree cuttings was a way to bring the garden into the classroom, and see the formation of roots in action.
“They watch those cuttings root in Coke bottles, and then come out here and plant them,” Robertson said.
