The landscape surrounding Onalaska High School’s greenhouse looks bare now, but because of the work done by the school’s natural resources class this year, the campus will one day be full of fruit-producing trees and bushes.
“It’ll be pretty cool in five to six years,” Onalaska High School Natural Resources Teacher Kevin Hoffman said.
The goal of the Edible Landscape Project started by this year’s natural resources students was to renovate the landscape around the school’s greenhouse to directly serve students by producing fresh food that they can eat on campus.
With materials donated by Walker Development and Landscape Supply, Hoffman’s natural resources students turned the bare landscape around the greenhouse they use for their spring plant sale into a series of garden beds with irrigation systems to support a wide variety of fruit trees and edible plants.
Onalaska High School natural resources students grafted a variety of fruit trees earlier this year, with students given the option to take their plants home at the end of the year or donate them to the school to either sell or incorporate into the Edible Landscape Project.
Each plant in the edible landscape has a plaque with the name of the student who planted it, the plant’s variety and the year it was planted.
In total, 10 apple trees, eight European pear trees, eight Asian pear trees, and a variety of fig trees that were grafted by students or Hoffman himself were planted around the school’s greenhouse this year.
Elderberries and other plants that produce edible fruits have also been added to the landscape.
Blueberries, while popular, haven’t been planted because they don’t mature during the school year, Hoffman said.
In the coming years, Hoffman is considering adding raised beds for asparagus and other vegetables that ripen between September and June.
“I’m trying to find things that we can eat that are good during school,” Hoffman said.
