Youth at the YWCA High Point began tending a tower garden this week as part of the Kiwanis Club’s effort to overcome food insecurity.
The club is making 12 aeroponic tower gardens available in the community through a Guilford County CARES grant, according to Latoya Bullock, Kiwanis president and United Way of Greater High Point vice president of community impact.
“They can be grown inside or outside and it’s a year-round process,” Bullock said. “Things can be grown in as little as two weeks versus the traditional garden. If they’re inside, we have lights to help them grow.”
The tower garden was assembled on Friday at YWCA High Point with the help of TV anchor Carol Andrews, whose Kiwanis Club presentation sparked Bullock’s idea for the project. Kathie Szitas, YWCA High Point youth development director, described putting together a 20-gallon water tub, a water pump and tubing similar to Legos, as well as rockwool material filled with minerals. After soaking the material for 30 minutes, Szitas had one student at a time plant seeds in about 30 different pods.
“It looks like some kind of weird octopus spaceship,” Szitas said. “They all got a chance to put some seeds into each pod and cover it. After that, we had to assemble the lighting, which comes out in these big tendrils that hang in front of the pods.”
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