Today here at East High we’re proud to have a wide variety of clubs, however for as many that are publicly advertised through posters or announcements there’s even more clubs going on that aren’t nearly as equally paid attention to, or even known about at all. One such club is the Horticulture Club, an enthusiastic, plant-centered club focused on plant life and activities relating to aiding and supporting nature. Despite not being well known the group seems to have amazing ideas and goals, as well as projects both finished and striving to complete.
“We focus a lot on plants,” Sophia Holz said, a junior and the vice-president of horticulture club, “Last year we built a pollinator garden just for awareness of the bees, and we built them in hexagon(s), the shape to reference a honeycomb.”
The club has shown their enthusiasm for hands-on activities, when interviewed describing everything from garden work in East’s greenhouse to outdoor construction projects, from cutting lettuce to building a garden.
Despite the work and goals done and made by the club, very few people seem to know about them. “Last year there were about five people, five to eight people, this year it’s around twelve.” Dax Petersen, senior and president of horticulture club said, about how many people usually show up at the club meetings. When asked about if they would be interested in spreading awareness of the club and raising numbers, Petersen replied,
“Absolutely! You don’t even have to be good at gardening, I’ve killed so many plants, and I’m the president. I can’t keep things alive at home for anything, and here I am teaching people how to propagate succulents and trim lettuce that will grow back in full.”
Petersen had previously mentioned wanting to get in contact with people who have signed up this year at the school’s freshman day, as well as “hopefully get(ting) a PA announcement out to gain the interest of other people who didn’t see us on freshman day.”
The members enthusiasm about their goals was obvious, as was the positive reaction to the idea of increasing recruitment. The club meets in room 203 after school and their current project is creating a “compost hole” near their school garden to compost weeds and improve soil quality.