The students at West Wareham Academy are doing their part to beautify their corner of Wareham — one perennial at a time.

The juniors and seniors at West Wareham Academy planted a garden and, in the process, learned about engineering, science, and marketing.

The school offers a therapeutic learning environment for students in grades 7 through 12. Due to the small number of students who attend, they get more one-on-one time with teachers.

"It started off being those kids [juniors and seniors] who did the planning, but then the whole school helped with the planting," said teacher Lucinda Keith.

The students started out by doing scale drawings on graph paper. Then, they headed outside to figure out how they were going to construct the garden.

Once they figured out how to build it, they had to work out the financing. After looking up the costs of materials, the students wrote proposals to a number of businesses requesting donations. The process was slow going at first, but they ended up getting more than they expected in the end.

Home Depot donated 80 plants, mulch, and edging posts to help get the garden going.

"It was a huge lesson for [the students] to see that good things happen when you don't give up," said Keith.

Junior Jarrett Speroni said that the project was a testament to how much pride the students at West Wareham Academy take in their school, and said he wants people to see something positive when they drive by.

"We wanted to better the school. Basically, take a rundown building and make it better," said Speroni. "We wanted to bring it back up and make people happy to see this school."

Speroni said that he was inspired by the history of the building, and wanted to beautify the place for those who remember the building as it was decades ago.

"From my past experience, I've seen old childhood things rundown, and it's a depressing feeling," he said.

But the bright flowers now outside the school are anything but, thanks to the school's driven students.