Charles City VoAg students build raised planters for Cedar Terrace residents

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Thirty-two raised garden planters are as much about growing community as growing flowers and vegetables, said Katie Nolte.

Nolte, the Charles City executive director of housing and development, was talking about a project where Charles City High School vocational agriculture students built raised wooden planters that were installed around the apartments at North Cedar Terrace and South Cedar Terrace last week.

Students were finishing up the work on the planters and placing them at South Cedar on Friday afternoon, carrying them to the apartments of people who had signed up for them, then filling them with dirt.

Nolte said at a ribbon cutting Friday afternoon that the project started last year when a discussion at a residents meeting showed that a lot of people would be interested in gardening.

“We started with the idea of a community garden, but that’s an accessibility issue,” she said, with some residents having limited mobility.

She went to the high school and talked to the horticulture class and to Bret Spurgin, VoAg instructor and FFA advisor, about the possibility of the students helping out on a project to build raised planters.

She said the goal is to “promote a community within the community.”

“A lot of our tenants are isolated all winter,” she said. “It’s to get people out, they’re active, moving around, gardening. It’s hard to garden in apartments. I just think this makes it feel more like home, in a community.”

Spurgin, at the ribbon-cutting with his students, said it’s a great project for the class.

“It’s really helping the community out. That’s what the FFA’s all about,” he said. “Jim Lundberg’s done that for 40 years, and so we want to continue doing that as he is riding off into the sunset,” with Lundberg retiring at the end of this school year.

Nolte said the city housing department provided the materials for the raised beds and the kids did the work building them.

Charles City Housing also provided a plastic watering can to go along with each bed. Inside the can was $10 in Charles City Bucks from the Chamber of Commerce.

“You’ll be able to pick your own flowers, starter plants,” Nolte told the residents at the ribbon-cutting. “It doesn’t have to be fruits and vegetables. It can be flowers.”

There was also information in each can from Floyd County ISU Extension Service with information about gardening, and Nolte said the Extension Service said residents can reach out any time they have questions or need some help with their garden beds.

Spurgin said the horticulture class built most of the beds during the first semester last fall, and they are also in charge of the greenhouse at the high school.

“We do have vegetables at the greenhouse that we will bring over for people to plant,” he said. “We have planted way too many tomato plants. We have plenty of tomatoes. … And we have peppers and other things, too.”

Plaques are being made that will be mounted on the beds, saying “Built by Charles City Horticulture Class of 2022-23,” Spurgin said.

Nolte said she is encouraging the residents to share what they grow if they’d like to.

“What I’ve told tenants is, this is to promote community and being a good neighbor. I don’t want calls, you know, that we’re stealing each other’s tomatoes. It’s their choice if they share their vegetables, but I encourage them to do so,” she said.

Each complex has a volunteer who will help oversee the project, helping with the gardening itself and also helping iron out any issues that come up.

“They have knowledge of gardening and they’re going to coordinate it unless there’s a large problem. That also kind of helps with the community part of it,” Nolte said. “We’re just trying to come up with ways to engage residents more and so they feel like this is home.”