Pictured is Shannon Hale on the left and Kalyn Strahley on the right.
Paulding, OH: This week at Kiwanis Paulding FFA members Shannon Hale and Kalyn Strahley presented their new technique for planting fruits and vegetables. The Tower Garden is a vertical tower that uses no soil and essentially grows plants in the air using a process called aeroponics.
“The school shuts off the heat to the greenhouse in the winter, so we needed a place to plant,” says Strahley. The Tower Garden comes equipped with lights that come on every 15 minutes and water that is dispersed every 45 minutes. This new way of growing fruits and vegetables is not only interesting and educational but doesn’t require a lot of space and is becoming widely popular in urban agriculture. The average harvest happens about three weeks after planting the seed which is about a week sooner than if it were to be planted in soil outside. FFA students have grown kale, lettuce, and gourmet lettuce that is then donated to the school cafeteria and used for the salad bar.
The Tower Garden was funded by the Paulding County Area Foundation, and both Strahley and Hale expressed their sincere gratitude to the Foundation for their donation. Kiwanis members enjoyed the information and were intrigued and impressed with the FFA students’ presentation and want to thank them and their advisor for their passion, drive, and leadership.
