Permian High School art teacher Luis Trejo Fuentes is seeking cactus donations for the campus’ outdoor garden. Contributions have started coming in, but the garden is large, so the more the merrier.
“Since the winter months are coming, we wanted to put something out there that can survive the winter and cactus are perfect. They can survive the upcoming bad weather. They don’t require a lot of water, a lot of maintenance and there’s this one rocky area in the garden that they’re perfect for,” Fuentes said. “Any other kind of plant would struggle … but in the rocky patch that we found, it’s perfect to have a cactus garden.”
As of Oct. 19, they had 12 cacti donated.
“They have been pretty small, but it’s kind of a big area so the more donations we can get the better. One of the cool things that we want to do is, because we’re getting so many different kinds of cactus, the garden is an educational space so what we want to do is … have information about the different species of cactus that are out there. That way the kids can go out there and learn about the cactus,” Fuentes said.
“We want to incorporate AR into the garden, augmented reality. So there are going to be different plaques with QR codes. That way when the students scan the QR code, it’ll give them the the name of the cactus, the information about it, the genealogy and the variety, where this kind of cactus would typically grow and all that stuff. It’s not just a pretty thing, but it’s also an educational space,” he added.
Fuentes added that the thing about cactus is that they are native to this area so there are a bunch of them everywhere.
Some of the cacti come from people who grow their own. Others were found on the side of the road. They have mostly gotten donations from teachers, parents and a few students who are in the Garden Club. There are 12 to 16 kids in the garden club.
Fuentes said people can drop off cactuses at the PHS Welcome Center.
Right now, they are just working on the cactus garden, but there is much more to do. They have to fix the greenhouse and the irrigation system, for example. The Garden Club is limited to working for about an hour after school, but they have made decent headway.
“In a few months, we’re going to start asking for donations for Christmas lights. The garden is a space that continuously evolves and changes. We’re going to start putting artwork out there. … The artwork is going to rotate and we’re going to continuously add more and more features to it. It’s going to be changing from year to year, the way it looks but right now the most important thing is getting the garden back to its original function … It’s a botanical garden, showcasing different varieties and species of plants,” Fuentes said.
Freshman Gatlin Lowery and sophomore Jimmy Denton are two of the Garden Club members.
Lowery said the club has made him happy.
“Seeing the outdoors and the wildlife in it” is what Lowery said makes him glad.
Denton said he joined the Garden Club because it gave him something different to do.
“It is exciting and it can also be tiring,” Denton said.
