First Lady Haslam Visits Fairview High

Published September 26, 2014

First Lady Crissy Haslam was on hand Thursday, September 25, for the ribbon cutting ceremony, officially opening the Community Garden at Fairview High School.

“I’m so impressed with what these students have accomplished,” said Haslam. “From the garden and the raised beds to being handicapped accessible and the plants they’ve planted, I anticipate great things from this garden and I know a lot of fun will be had here.”

The idea for a community garden has been in the works for a couple of years with different community members, including Mayor Beverly Totty and others, who wanted to continue the tradition of, “One Dream, One Community.”

“The idea for this grew out of several citizens saying, ‘We want a community garden,’ and the high school saying, ‘We want to be more involved in our community,” said Fairview Principal Juli Oyer. “So it all kind of came together and the seeds were planted to have what we have today and grow what I think will grow into the future.”

The landscape management students and carpentry students helped prepare the garden by creating a design for the garden and structures to be placed throughout the garden.

“We have peppers, tomatoes and kale in the garden,” said Fairview High Teacher David Harper. “We’re trying to get some more plants in for this fall so we’ve got some broccoli and some cabbage as well.”

County commissioners, school board members, students and First Lady Haslam all ‘broke ground’ to plant a new pepper plant, to continue the growth of the garden.

Phase two of the garden includes fruit trees planted along King Road.