Horticulture students at West Chicago Community High School are designing a landscape plan for social studies teacher Candace Fikis’ yard, giving them hands-on experience working with a real client.
In the last few years, West Chicago’s horticulture class has worked on landscaping projects around the school. However, this new project builds on those experiences by involving a real client instead of a practice scenario.
The idea came together when Fikis, who graduated from the school with horticulture teacher Corrie Stieglitz, mentioned she needed help redesigning parts of her yard. The class decided to take on the challenge, giving students the opportunity to apply their skills in a real-life situation.
Stieglitz said students had previously worked with both practice clients and smaller real projects, but this class pushed for a more authentic experience with a client from start to finish.
“This class seems to want to have an actual client instead of my standard fake client project,” Stieglitz said.
Students in the class are working on designing two different areas of Fikis’ yard, including a large open space and a side yard that gets a lot of attention from people walking by. Each area has its own challenges, like different amounts of sunlight and plants that have not been doing well.
According to Fikis, one space receives full sun while the other only gets morning sunlight, requiring different plant choices and design approaches.
The students had about three weeks to come up with a detailed design, including what plants to use and how everything will be arranged.
“I want something that looks nice, you know, appealing, but it’s this big empty space with a lot of possibilities,” Fikis said.
The project will likely be done in different stages over time, depending on the budget and when plants can be planted during the year. Fikis said she plans to complete the project over multiple seasons, potentially taking up to two years depending on cost and timing.
After the designs are finished, students will present their ideas, but professionals will install everything. Stieglitz explained that students will “hand off” their plans to a nursery or professionals, focusing on the design process rather than installation. This gives the students a chance to think like real landscape designers and solve real-world problems, like plants getting damaged by animals and choosing plants that grow well in different environments. Fikis also noted concerns such as rabbits eating plants, which students are taking into account in their designs.
“The class was incredible: I went in and they really asked great questions,” Fikis said.
