Greenhouse

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Solar electric and solar hot water panels are being installed this week to provide the Berkeley Springs High School greenhouse with an extended growing season. Mountain View Solar & Wind installed eight photovoltaic (PV) solar panels Tuesday on the roof of the school's vocational building next to the greenhouse, and the solar hot water panels will also be installed on the roof this week, Mountain View president Mike McKechnie said. It is the first school building in Morgan County equipped with solar energy and is the first public school building in the Eastern Panhandle that is generating its own solar electricity by using the sun's energy, Mountain View's director of operations Colin Williams said.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- It's a sure sign of spring when the smell of fresh potting soil hangs in the air at the Washington County Technical High School greenhouse as students tend to tables filled with annuals, perennials, vegetables and hanging baskets. It's also a sign that the school's greenhouse is back in business. The grand opening was Thursday, marking the start of the sixth season for the student enterprise. A day earlier, students completed final tasks in preparation for opening day. They watered seedlings, transplanted plants, planted seeds, cleared out space for the new touchscreen cash register, tagged plants, labeled plant prices, counted the hanging baskets, and posted fliers in schools and businesses.

Washington County Technical High School will have a grand opening for its greenhouse Monday, April 10. The greenhouse will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. WCTHS's entrepreneurship classes will sell annuals and perennials in the school greenhouse at 50 W. Oak Ridge Drive. For information, call 301-766-8050.

Horticulture and business students at Washington County Technical High School will get a real-world lesson on how to keep profits growing after their greenhouse flowers bloom. "We run it as a business," said Steve Frame, who is environmental-horticulture and landscape-design teacher at Tech High. The refurbished greenhouse has operated as a nursery for seven years on school grounds. The students use the money they make to fund greenhouse operations. Entrepreneurship students sell what is grown.

By KERRY LYNN FRALEY Staff Writer He was forewarned that the greenhouse would need a little work before he took the job as agriculture teacher at South Hagerstown High School. But first-year teacher Matt Hurley was not prepared for what he saw when he opened the door of the two-room metal and fiberglass structure. "I looked in and just couldn't believe it," said Hurley, 24, who saw plant tables piled higher than his head with old books, boxes and other trash put there over the summer.

HAGERSTOWN -- Blake Wolfe wants to own and operate a bakery one day. Barbie Peace hopes to create her own line of sneakers. Before those dreams can come true, both Washington County Technical High School seniors say they are getting their first start in business by working in their school's greenhouse. It opened about two weeks ago, but Blake and Barbie have been preparing for the annual plant sale since the beginning of the school year. About 40 Technical High School students participate, said Steve Frame, who teaches entrepreneurship courses and manages the greenhouse.

Steve Frame, a teacher at Washington County Technical High School, tends to a table of Portulaca Sundial mix Monday afternoon in the school's greenhouse. Students in Frame's entrepreneurship classes have planned and opened the greenhouse business which is now selling geraniums, marigolds, impatiens and petunias, along with pepper and tomato plants.

As part of Steve Frame's entrepreneurship classes at Washington County Technical High School, students have planned and opened a business at the school's greenhouse. Start-up costs, promotion and advertising, and operations were all part of the business plan. Students began in February to select the types of plants to grow and sell. The Tech High Greenhouse officially opened April 25. A schedule of business hours has been set for select days in May. The schedule can be obtained from the Technical High School at 301-766-8050.

karenh@herald-mail.com WASHINGTON COUNTY - For Washington County Technical High School students studying carpentry, cosmetology and culinary arts, the idea of operating a business is on fertile ground. Steve Frame's entrepreneurship classes have nurtured that idea - in a greenhouse long left dormant. "An entrepreneurship class in the true sense is, 'Do you want to run your own business? How do you go about doing that?'" Frame said Thursday morning while working in the greenhouse where his students are starting a budding plant business.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Barb and Dick Frame don't mind pulling up roots each spring, knowing it will help high school students in Hagerstown develop roots of their own. The Frames, who live in Thornton, W.Va., about 30 miles south of Morgantown, are retired teachers. Their son, Steve Frame, teaches the entrepreneurship courses and manages the greenhouse at Washington County Technical High School. The greenhouse sat unused for more than 20 years, said Barb Frame, 69. She said Jeff Stouffer, principal at WCTHS, feared losing the building if it wasn't put to use. He asked Steve Frame to come up with a school-based business that could use the space.

Hagerstown resident Nile Daley said he usually shops for Valentine's Day gifts at the last minute. “I don't have to hide the gifts if I buy them on the day,” he said. “I planned on shopping on Valentine's Day.” Daley was among area residents shopping for last-minute Valentine's Day gifts on Tuesday. He bought flowers at Chas. A. Gibney Florist and Greenhouse and said that he has no trouble shopping for them on Feb. 14. “I think the flowers are a little fresher on Valentine's Day,” he said.

Horticulture and business students at Washington County Technical High School will get a real-world lesson on how to keep profits growing after their greenhouse flowers bloom. "We run it as a business," said Steve Frame, who is environmental-horticulture and landscape-design teacher at Tech High. The refurbished greenhouse has operated as a nursery for seven years on school grounds. The students use the money they make to fund greenhouse operations. Entrepreneurship students sell what is grown.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Solar electric and solar hot water panels are being installed this week to provide the Berkeley Springs High School greenhouse with an extended growing season. Mountain View Solar & Wind installed eight photovoltaic (PV) solar panels Tuesday on the roof of the school's vocational building next to the greenhouse, and the solar hot water panels will also be installed on the roof this week, Mountain View president Mike McKechnie said. It is the first school building in Morgan County equipped with solar energy and is the first public school building in the Eastern Panhandle that is generating its own solar electricity by using the sun's energy, Mountain View's director of operations Colin Williams said.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- It's a sure sign of spring when the smell of fresh potting soil hangs in the air at the Washington County Technical High School greenhouse as students tend to tables filled with annuals, perennials, vegetables and hanging baskets. It's also a sign that the school's greenhouse is back in business. The grand opening was Thursday, marking the start of the sixth season for the student enterprise. A day earlier, students completed final tasks in preparation for opening day. They watered seedlings, transplanted plants, planted seeds, cleared out space for the new touchscreen cash register, tagged plants, labeled plant prices, counted the hanging baskets, and posted fliers in schools and businesses.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Barb and Dick Frame don't mind pulling up roots each spring, knowing it will help high school students in Hagerstown develop roots of their own. The Frames, who live in Thornton, W.Va., about 30 miles south of Morgantown, are retired teachers. Their son, Steve Frame, teaches the entrepreneurship courses and manages the greenhouse at Washington County Technical High School. The greenhouse sat unused for more than 20 years, said Barb Frame, 69. She said Jeff Stouffer, principal at WCTHS, feared losing the building if it wasn't put to use. He asked Steve Frame to come up with a school-based business that could use the space.

MERCERSBURG, Pa. -- It could be described as the ultimate recycling project, taking a product that usually harms the environment and using it instead for nature's benefit. A James Buchanan High School class is collecting 2,000 plastic bottles to do just that. The students hope to build a greenhouse out of 2-liter bottles; construction is expected to begin this spring. Seth Gilbert, a senior, summed up his classmates' sentiments when he talked about what they're most looking forward to after months of collecting bottles.

Owner Cindy Chirdon and her staff grow many varieties of poinsettias, including the novelties Da Vinci, Monet, Burgundy and Winter Rose, as well as the traditional red, white and pink. T&C Greenhouses is at 20810 Leitersburg Pike north of Hagerstown. Business hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Although news out of State College, Pa., this week was that recent cooler-than-normal temperatures could slow the maturation of the state's sweet corn, Brent Barnhart has been pulling 16-hour workdays for two weeks as he harvests some of his crops. Barnhart, of Country Creek Produce, offered the first of his sweet corn for sale June 16. He hopes to still be selling ears through Oct. 15. "I figured I'd get it early for local people," Barnhart said. "I wanted to have the first sweet corn locally for Franklin County or at least try to. " For this, his second year of growing sweet corn, Barnhart started the plants in trays on March 20 and kept them in his greenhouse.

The following events are happening this week in Washington County Public Schools: Today Teacher Appreciation Week AP Exams through Friday Boonsboro Elementary - Staff Appreciation Week. Clear Spring High - Future Educators of America meeting, 3:30 p.m.; Athletic Boosters meeting, 7 p.m. Clear Spring Middle - Family Life for seventh-graders, through Friday; PTSA meeting. Conococheague Elementary - Spelling bee for first-graders.

HAGERSTOWN -- Blake Wolfe wants to own and operate a bakery one day. Barbie Peace hopes to create her own line of sneakers. Before those dreams can come true, both Washington County Technical High School seniors say they are getting their first start in business by working in their school's greenhouse. It opened about two weeks ago, but Blake and Barbie have been preparing for the annual plant sale since the beginning of the school year. About 40 Technical High School students participate, said Steve Frame, who teaches entrepreneurship courses and manages the greenhouse.