SEQUIM — Flower baskets — staples alongside Sequim’s streets in the spring and summer — once again are up on light posts.
City maintenance crews worked in tandem on May 22 to place and hang 124 baskets made by Sequim High School students.
“It’s beautiful to see,” said city maintenance worker Luke Bugge, who is in his third season hanging baskets on light posts. “I love doing it.”
Co-organizer Emily Westcott said this is the 27th year of the joint program that seeks $100 sponsorships for a plaque below each basket, with funds supporting next year’s baskets, flowers around town and Christmas lights in downtown Sequim.
“It’s been a really good project,” Westcott said.
High schoolers in agriculture or science courses with instructors Bill McFarlen, Lynette Jenne and Candy Seelye started on the baskets a few months ago in the high school’s newer greenhouse, Westcott said.
“They’re babies now, but they’ll get big like they always do,” she said. “They hopefully should be out until mid-October.”
The project is a joint effort between Westcott, the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce, Sequim High School and the city of Sequim.
City staff water the baskets three days a week and fertilize them twice a week, Westcott said.
Basket sponsorships are available by calling Westcott at 360-670-6294.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
