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John Marshall High School Horticulture Students Help Protect Community Garden in Glen Dale

Photo by Scott McCloskey John Marshall High School students Catie Snyder and Tyler Humes, foreground, attach deer netting over top of the school’s community garden, located across the street from the high school on the Cockayne Farmstead property.

As the John Marshall High School horticulture class prepares to conclude its year of learning about plants and gardening, they are taking measures to protect the school’s community garden project from destruction by wildlife.

According to horticulture teacher Nicole Shipman, the garden — located across the street from the high school on the grounds of the historic Cockayne Farmstead — has become such a wonderful project that her students are being proactive to protect it with fencing and netting during the summer growing season. She said there has been a substantial increase in deer and rabbits in the neighborhood.

“The community garden is a unique project. We got a grant many years ago to start it and it morphed into the most wonderful learning lab possible,” Shipman said. “Once spring hits, we’re over there approximately three to four days a week.”

In addition to creating a garden map and planting are variety of garden produce, such as: tomatoes, corn, broccoli, green beans, potatoes and strawberries, the students weed the garden on a regular basis.

“It has become the best hands-on learning experience possible. And the students will actually work through the summer one day a week if they choose … to harvest the vegetables and see the project all the way through,” Shipman said.

Students in next year’s class will also gather produce during the fall, according to Shipman. She said since the increase in deer and rabbits over the past few years, the class has installed deer fencing and netting over the garden, which is supported by flexible metal tubing.

“Those species will just decimate that garden in the evening. They wiped out an entire green bean bead last summer on us,” Shipman said, adding that the animals already have eaten three tomato plants this year. “So they’re not selective, they just eat a lot.”

Shipman said the deer fencing/netting method has worked well for the class because it is light weight and can be easily removed from the garden. She said the class continues to be a successful program.

“They (students) love it. … They will find stuff to work on because a lot of my kids are very hands-on and they need that time outside everyday to just really thrive at school,” she added.

Ohio County West Virginia University Extension Agent Karen Cox said deer fence/netting is about the only solution to protecting a neighborhood garden that is out in an open space.

“It’s an easy solution, as long as it is done in a way the deer can’t push through it,” Cox explained. She said not only is deer fence/netting not only an inexpensive solution, it allows the pollinators to still get to the plants. For those who use it, Cox said to make sure it is supported well to keep wildlife from pushing through or trampling it down. She said while typical six foot privacy fence is a heavy deterrent to deer entering your property, it is not a full proof solution as deer have been known to jump over them.

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