Sustainability Hub
This is where our native plant nursery and composting operations take place. An expansion at our Green Central location on the Carson High School Property, which began in June 2022.
The Greenhouse Project begins 2022 with a continued focus on expanding educational opportunities for students and creating new funding streams, making the program more self-reliant. A plant nursery and compost project are being established on property adjacent to the existing teaching farm at Green Central, behind Carson High School.
Graciously, the School District has allowed The Greenhouse Project to develop nearly two acres adjacent to the existing site, half of which will be used to cultivate plants native to Northern Nevada and half to be used to create compost using the school district’s and local restaurants' pre-consumer food waste, mixed with green waste from local arborists.
The key to a successful end product is to ensure that everything we do, while not certified organic, follows all organic principles, which we have always done.
We owe a big thank you to Rotary Club of Carson City for their generous $4,670 grant donation, which was used to purchase a continuous flow-through vermicomposting system.
Cory King, our Green Central manager, has already begun growing some of these native species in the greenhouse with an eye toward moving them outdoors in the near future. These include a variety of native ornamentals, landscaping and locally appropriate plants. These will be available for purchase at our plant sales, and we hope to partner with area nurseries, as well.
“This will expand educational opportunities for our dedicated volunteers and upper level students,” King said. “The nursery plants still have to be sprouted in the greenhouse before being moved outside, but this definitely expands the purpose of the facility as a teaching farm, and opens up more avenues for our second-year plant science students, third-year greenhouse management students, and we do have one fourth-year advanced student.”
King explained students are first introduced to farming concepts and, over time, receive repeat exposure and more detailed information on a range of topics, such as using beneficial insects to control infestations. The compost program simply expands the learning and knowledge base.
“We started out gung-ho about the nursery and saw composting as a side project, but Mark Korinek (Director of Operations for Carson City School District), who is good at seeing the potential and knew what the (district’s) waste volume was, took over and expanded the project,” King said. “Hopefully, we can be a good resource for the school, the district and for the community.”