Nursery Landscape Career Development Event

My name is Brianna Buttry. I’m the student advisor for the Prairie Grove FFA chapter. This year I’m a senior at PGHS and I have been involved in FFA my whole high school career. I was first introduced to Career Development Events freshman year. These events are competitions where various kids from around the state and district get to show their skills in an area of their interest.

For my CDE, I chose nursery landscaping. In nursery landscaping there is a four-person team where all the members compete against other teams at the district, state and national level. There are four parts to the competitions; the knowledge test, plant and pest and disorder identification, landscape estimating and skills challenges. The general knowledge test is a 50-question test over landscaping and plants as well as other things to do with the competition. Plant and pest and disorder identification is where the members get to look at real plants to identify them. The landscape estimating portion of the competition is where each student gets to look at a picture drawn of a landscape to identify different dimensions and the best location for plants near a house. And lastly, at later competitions like district, teams have the skill challenge where we show how to operate lawn equipment.

My last three years of being on the Nursery Landscaping CDE team have been so amazing. I have been able to learn so many new skills that are useful in all aspects of life. I have been able to compete at the district and state level with my fellow team members. And I have made so many great memories with them. Without these CDE teams students wouldn’t be able to find the path in life that they want to go down. Students get the chance to pursue a job path even before they get a job in that field. There are endless scholarship opportunities in FFA and, through competing, students can receive these scholarships. Overall, my FFA experience has been so amazing. And if I could go back and do it all again the same way, I would.