by Samantha Schwartz ’16

The new courses involved in the Certified Professional Horticulturalist (CPH) programs have gained much interest from Sherwood students. This course officially started this past year at Sherwood, as well as at Clarksburg and Damascus.

Of the three current MCPS schools committed to the CPH program, Sherwood has the best facility for horticulture. The greenhouse is a commercial, industry-standard facility equipped with a classroom and a head-house, a structure attached to the one end of a greenhouse, used for lab work.

Clarksburg and Damascus are not as fortunate and have much smaller greenhouses attached to classrooms similar to the old greenhouse facility at Sherwood that dates back to a prior school program from 1965 to 1999.

Interested students may enroll in the first new course, Foundations of Horticulture. This program requires the students to solve a different problem each quarter resulting in an interesting culminating project. “During the first quarter they build living wall prototypes to address indoor air quality issues. In the second quarter they analyze soil samples and devise restoration plans. This past quarter students created Voice Threads to help a residential greenhouse owner use Integrated Pest Management methods to combat pest problems,” said Kristi Cameron of the MCPS Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs.

This year, Cameron and Sherwood science teacher Jill Coutts have been working to restore Sherwood’s old nursery, which was last used more than a decade ago. Beginning on March 5, this ongoing project utilizes donated services for the removal of existing trees and many invasive species.

The current program is much broader than those of the past, but it is just as likely to prepare students for horticulture, just as in the 1980s when numerous graduates of the program went on to own landscape businesses.