Shelly's Garden: Annual plant sale Thursday through Saturday at Staunton's Shelburne Middle School

STAUNTON — Shelly's Garden is a student-organized and student-led business created at Shelburne Middle School. Students in the CTE class, Dig It!, maintain both a greenhouse and garden space at the school. Every spring, for three days, the students hold a plant sale as a fundraiser for the program.

Last year the goal was to raise $1,000 to get back what was spent. They ended up raising $2,600. Shelburne CTE teacher Aaron Childs said they would like to top that this year.

"The main focus of the class is gardening," Childs said. "But it's also learning work-readiness skills — organization, time management, operating off of task lists, adapting to whatever the day and the weather conditions give us. All really useful life skills."

The students also learn to interact with the public, provide customer service and operate a storefront during the annual plant sale, this weekend, just in time for Mother's Day on Sunday. It features 100% organic heirloom varieties of vegetable plants, cooking herbs, perennials, and beneficial flowers that are ready for your garden.

The sale starts Thursday and runs through Saturday, May 9-11 at the school. Thursday and Friday the sale will be happening from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday it will run 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

The greenhouse is located between Shelburne Middle and Ware Elementary schools, near the Hern Gym lobby. Shelburne Middle School is located at 300 Grubert Ave., Staunton. Follow the signs from the 5th Street entrance.

The plant sale will feature:

Herbs

• Lemon Basil
• Prospera Basil (Genovese)
• Tulsi (Holy) Basil
• Cardinal (Asian) Basil
• Everleaf Thai Tower Basil
• Hera Dill
• Greek Oregano
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Chives
• Cilantro

Tomatoes

• Cherokee Purple
• Terra Cotta
• Jolene
• Harvest Moon
• Moskvitch
• Sunrise Bumble Bee Cherry
• Indigo Cherry Drops
• Sun Gold Cherry
• San Marzano (Paste Variety)

Sweet and hot peppers

• Red Knight (Sweet)
• Sweet Sunrise (Sweet)
• Jedi Jalapeno Peppers (Hot)
• Shishito (Medium Heat)
• Padron (Mild Heat)
• Spitfire (Mild Heat)

Flowers

• Nasturtiums (Kaleidoscope)
• Marigold (Durango)
• Calendula (Ivory Princess)

Assorted vegetables

• Zucchini
• Brussel Sprouts
• Swiss Chard
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts

Limited stock of strawberry plants

• Sparkle
• Jewel
• Earliglow

Payment: Students accept cash and checks. Checks should be made out to Shelburne Middle School only.

If you can't make the sale, email your Order Form to achilds@staunton.k12.va.us or call the school at (540) 332-3930 to make other arrangements.

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— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite . Subscribe to us at newsleader.com .

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Shelly's Garden: Annual plant sale Thursday through Saturday at Staunton's Shelburne Middle School