Narrative/Scope of Work

For this landscape design project we want to transform the center-piece of our student parking lot, into a hangout area that reflects the unity and friendship we have here at our school. We want to add color and show our true spirit in our landscape design. We not only want to do this for current students,but for generations to come.

We want to level out the area and lay down gravel as a base. Before we place the gravel, we will be taking out all of the fence surrounding the perimeter. We will then be planting shrubs along the sidewalk. Once we establish a gravel base, we will be placing 3 picnic tables in the area. We are also going to be building a raised bed and planting flowers, specifically red, white, and blue Phlox, in front of the rock. This will be everything that we will be adding and altering in our landscape area.

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Purpose

Recently the agriculture education curriculums in North Carolina have switched from a state mandated end of semester test to a Project Based Measurement to measure student proficiency in the courses. One of these courses is Horticulture II Landscape Constructions Honors. This class is currently offered at Western Harnett High School. The Project Based Measurement for this course requires students to create a landscape design project and install the project. This class was broken down into seven groups and challenged with finding an area on campus that needed beautifying. One group chose the area around our school spirit rock which is also the area that all student drivers pass to enter the building. Their landscape design plan had to include existing features, changes to the original landscape, proper scale, names and number of plants to be added, any hardscape items to be added, and they needed to pick items that were relevant to the soil, light, and water available in that area. The landscape design should represent the student’s understanding of site evaluation, landscape design, marketing, plant and turfgrass selection, landscape maintenance, and calculating costs of landscaping projects.

 

This group chose to add some picnic tables to this area so that it can be an area for classes to work outside. They decided to cover the area with gravel since it is known that grass will not grow in this area. They added a raised bed since the current soil was not suitable for plant growth.

Through this project many classes will be impacted including Fall 2024 Horticulture II Landscape Construction, Spring 2025 Horticulture I and Spring Horticulture II Plant Production. Future classes will also be impacted as they will be in charge of maintaining the landscape for semesters to come. Additionally other classes from the school will be able to use this area as an outdoor classroom environment. This project will also impact any visitors to our school since it is between the main parking lot and school entrance that people use for sporting events, plays and other school activities.

 

The following course standards and key learning outcomes will include:

2.00: Apply work-based and experiential learning in horticulture.
2.01: Apply records and calculations in work-based and experiential learning in the landscape industry.

3.00: Apply site evaluation and plant identification skills necessary for landscape design
4.00: Apply the process to create a landscape design.
6.00: Apply turfgrass installation and management skills.

7.00: Apply landscape maintenance skills.