Extension
It Starts With Us
Author: Annette Heisdorffer
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Native plants, growing in the home landscape, provide habitat and food for wildlife and pollinators. However, people ask, what will native plants look like in my landscape? To answer this question and to promote adding native plants to the landscape, the Extension Master Gardeners partnered with the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden in Owensboro, KY in developing a 2,800 square foot native plant garden. One of the Extension Master Gardeners presented the program “I Know Native
Author: Keith Hackworth
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
At the direction of our leadership, Extension has been collaborating with several community groups again this year. We have increased the collaboration project with the Floyd County Health Department, local daycare centers, local homeless shelter, and Extension Master Gardeners. Grant funding through the health department has allowed us to increase from six daycare centers to seven this year. The goal of the program is to provide education and nutritious fruits and vegetables to daycare age yout
Author: Emma Lee
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
In my county, I had talked to a few clients that had an interest in houseplants. This is a topic that I have studied extensively and I decided to offer a series of programs to the community. I held three programs in the series: Introduction to Houseplants, Propagation of Houseplants, and Making a Terrarium. There were 9 participants. Some attendees said that they love houseplants but do not know how to keep them alive; Others came to the programs simply to have fellowship with other plant hobbyi
Author: Amanda Sears
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Nearly 14% of Madison County residents are food insecure. That means they are uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food. (www.kaco.org and www.feedingamerica.org). With increasing food prices and supply chain issues, this problem has the potential to get worse.People are looking for ways to stretch their dollar and to become more self-sufficient.The Madison County Extension Office offered free seeds to the public this year. The staff created a “seed library” in the
Author: Gregory Drake
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Natural resource management is an important issue for any community. Cut flower production is a quickly emerging segment of Kentucky agriculture. A field day was planned to address these diverse topics and more. A growing percentage of Butler County’s 150,000 acres of farmland is used for grain production. Recent growth in row crop acres are coming from ground that has historically been used for forage production. New farms that get started are looking for alt
Author: Brandon Sears
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Nearly 14% of Madison County residents are food insecure. That means they are uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food. (www.kaco.org and www.feedingamerica.org). With increasing food prices and supply chain issues, this problem has the potential to get worse.People are looking for ways to stretch their dollar and to become more self-sufficient.The Madison County Extension Office offered free seeds to the public this year. The staff created a “seed library” in the
Author: Sarah Imbus
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Providing research based information in a way to meet Extensions clients’ needs can be particularly challenging in urban counties. The National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL), (https://nuel.extension.org ), shares some challenges that Urban Extension has when sharing information to their communities. NUEL shares that Extension needs to have presence and understand communities to have successful Extension programming. In addition, responding to the demographic trend(s) of urbanization
Author: Von Barnes
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Louisville Tool Library is a great place for community to gather, especially if they want to become backyard farmers and start yardens. There has been a monthly seed savers workshop with Jody Dahmer of Beargrass Thunder and Von Barnes of KYSU Cooperative Extension where they demonstrate techniques to saving seeds and preserving a variety of seeds from plants that have produced well around the county.This is so important Louisville is an urban heat island, and it is important to have the seeds th
Author: Brandon George
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
On October 7th, 2023, from 10 am- 4 pm, people from Kenton County were able to visit four unique sites within the county, showcasing gardens that are managed in a more sustainable way. Based on questions I am asked frequently as a horticulture agent; many people have a desire to understand how they can support wildlife while also looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact through their gardening and landscaping efforts. The garden sustainability tour intended to help bring to the peop
Author: Savannah Gilbert
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
It is important to provide essential agricultural education to the youth of the community. The McCracken County Cooperative Extension Service was able to host an Ag Day for over 400 students from five local elementary schools. The Horticulture Assistant helped by presenting at a booth about gardening. Specifically, Savannah explained what several garden tools were and demonstrated how to use them. She also played a seed identification game where students were shown various vegetable seeds and th
Author: Lorilee Kunze
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Develop this statement more later:The problem community members have lost essential skills, don't know where their food comes from, find satisfaction in growing and producing their own food.The educational program response The participants/target audienceOther partners (if applicable)Program impact or participant response. we had 36 in person participants, a lot of social media attention and shares and several reports of people having made hot suace following up to let us know how pleas
Author: Dee Heimgartner
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Crittenden County Gardeners enjoy gathering new ideas from other gardeners and locations. To assist these gardeners in expanding their knowledge the Crittenden County ANR agent Dee Heimgartner has been taking them on day trips to surrounding botanical gardens and ag tourism farms. That tradition continued this past summer and even expanded to an overnight trip.The first trip of the summer was an overnight trip to St. Louis to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden to se different plant species and
Author: Adam Leonberger
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Addressing the issue of food deserts is a pressing concern for many communities, and Frankfort is no exception. The city lacks grocery stores close to most residential neighborhoods. The public transit routes are limited and only run during the day. The transit system also restricts the riders to bringing only four grocery bags on the buses. Moreover, food prices are rising, making it difficult for the low-income residents to afford healthy food. This situation has led to a severe fo
Author: Kristen Fristoe
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
According to the Community Assessment in 2019, one of the top priority needs in Magoffin County is more training for food gardening skills. In addition, consumers have become more interested in where their food comes from and how it is grown.The Grow Appalachia Gardening Grant allowed us to have a gardening education series that began in March and ended in October. We met at least once a month to discuss several topics including the importance of soil testing, planning your garden, starting seed
Author: Chelsey Anderson
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Over the last few years, the Feed My Sheep Food Pantry has encouraged producers to grow a little extra in their gardens to bring to the pantry. In the spring of 2023, several producers in the gardening group planted extra just to take to the pantry. Produce being grown for that reason was tomatoes, squash, zucchini, peppers, green beans, potatoes, and cushaw. Overall, in 2023, these producers donated roughly 558lbs of produce. This is equivalent to 930 meals based from Feeding Americas average w
Author: Bethany Wilson
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Tree Week is the brainchild of UK’s Urban Forest Initiative and has been in Lexington and a few other satellite locations for 5 years. Not only is the week about planting trees and overall learning more about trees, but it’s also an impetus to get people outside in nature. Pulaski County has participated since 2021. The Pulaski County Horticulture Agent organized a committee in April 2023 to plan and organize events for Tree Week 2023 (October 8-16). Master Gardeners,
Author: Amanda Sears
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Tree Week 2023 As our urban areas grow more and more, it is important to not forget the importance of trees in our communities. Trees not only provide beauty, but they also reduce storm-water runoff, cool cities, filter air and water pollutants, store carbon dioxide and help improve mental health and well being. To help educate the public about the importance of trees, the University of Kentucky Department of Forestry began the first annual Tree Week in 2018.“Tree Week
Author: Brandon George
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Success Story 01/10/2024Brandon George, Kenton County Horticulture Extension Agent Addressing Plant Awareness Disparity On November 21, 2023, during the afternoon on a mild Autumn day, 24 students in grades 5th-8th participated in a lesson on seed dispersal and identification at St. Anthony Elementary in Taylor Mill, KY. In collaboration with 4-H Assistant Vanessa Sturgill who taught a lesson on seed dispersal mechanisms, I asked students if they could identify the species of plant acc
Author: Shelby Cleaver
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
On December 21st, I held a first time holiday tabletop centerpiece class. I had 20 people sign up for the program and had 12 attend the class because some couldn't show with work and sickness. During this class i provided all materials needed for them to make their pieces. I had fresh Cedar and Balsam Fir cut up into different sizes so it was easier to use and handle and that way no one needed to cut anything and have the possibility to cut their self, i also had a variety of fake
Author: Sarah Imbus
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Campbell County Extension District Board awarded Williams Creek Management to design and lead the garden renovation project at the Campbell County Extension Lakeside Commons Educational Gardens. Construction began in Fall 2023 with the installation of a retaining wall and raised beds. Extension’s focus is to create a welcoming and assessable spaces around the gardens and incorporate sustainable best management practices. Extension will be demonstrating small scale vegetable and
Author: Carrie Spry
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Many citizens in Clark County love adding fresh cut flowers to their home during the summer season. Often times these flowers can be found at the local farmers market, or even handed to them from a neighbor. Sometimes that come already arranged in a bouqet, other times they are individual and need to be arranged. Some people want the cut flowers, but can't make it to the market to purchase them or even can't afford them. A few citizens even expressed the desire to learn how to grow cut f
Author: Shad Baker
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Many people make soil preparations and invest in inputs for gardening, but only reap half the harvest because they only utilize half the growing season. This shortfall especially impacts those who rely upon gardening to stretch their food dollars.In order to help encourage full-season production, the Letcher County Extension Office partnered with Tractor Supply in a mid-summer seed donation program. The donation of seed amounted to over $14,000 worth of free seed being distributed to clientele,
Author: Lindsay Heyvaert
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The problemCommunity members most have forgotten about Kentucky's Pawpaw trees and I wish for people to experience the unique flavor of the pawpaw and learn how to grow their own. My goals is to help make this beloved tree common once more!The educational program responseSo far, I have done pawpaw programing throughout a few counties and have had a great response. Since the beginning of 2024, I have done pawpaw programming at the community farmers market twice and have a great turnout schedu
Author: Jamie Dockery
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Fayette County is one of Kentucky's most populus cities. The demand for accurate, reliable gardening information is great. The Fayette County Extension horticulture program is well known, and we strive to provide relevant information in a variety of ways. One of our most popular offerings is a series of informal gardening classes called Gardener's Toolbox. We discovered that teaching classes helped circumvent countless phone discussions. Horticulture staff often source new or improved va
Author: Emma Lee
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Many producers in Estill County produce apples and different kinds of fruit. Last year, I held my first grafting class and it was very successful. I held the same class again this year to teach/refresh producers on how to graft scion wood onto rootstock. A local orchard farmer of many years attended to assist me with the class. We discussed the background and importance of grafting, and then began the demonstration of different ways to graft. Producers watched and then attempted to graft their r
Author: Carrie Spry
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The ANR agent and Horticulture agent worked together for the 2024 Winter School series. Clark Extension hosted 3 full nights of education for the public. Topics included biting insects around the home, bats in the backyard, reading EPD's, fertilizer needs for pastures, the benefits of storing hay, pond construction, and farm planning and layout for water and feed areas. More than 80 people attended each night for a combined total attendance of over 260 people. the local farm bureau group, ca
Author: Christopher Schalk
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The problemNo doubt that one positive result of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown was an increase interest in gardening and home food production. Many home owners planted fruit trees in an attempt to produce some high quality fresh fruit at home. West 8 Agriculture Agents have been getting requests for more programming on fruit tree care and pruning. The educational program responseIn February 2024 a fruit tree pruning workshop was held on the farm of the Dennison family
Author: Lindie Huffman
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The Garden Extravaganza Seed Giveaway at the Pendleton County Extension Office was an extraordinary event that united community, education, and sustainable practices.Behind the scenes, volunteers from the RSVP program, including seniors, meticulously sorted and prepared the seeds. Their dedication and expertise ensured the seamless operation of the event.Participants were thrilled to explore the diverse selection of vegetable seeds, with many pleasantly surprised by unique varieties like purple
Author: Nicole Rhein
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Every spring when the forsythia bushes start to bloom, the local Extension Office's phone starts ringing. Clients with home horticulture questions start buzzing with anticipation for the upcoming garden season and as their preparations are made, they have many questions. The string of questions continues as the season progresses, making home horticulture questions a very demanding and time consuming responsibility for Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents, especially those who do not have
Author: Savannah Gilbert
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The McCracken County Cooperative Extension Service hosts a Toolbox Garden Series which takes place on the first Tuesday of every month. Each session covers a different topic to educate the public on a variety of horticulture subjects. For January, the Horticulture Assistant coordinated with Lindsay Tatum Bowles of Tatum Studios to plan a flower arranging Toolbox. It took place on January 2nd, and not only was this the first session of 2024, but it was also the first Toolbox that Savannah had tak
Author: Sharon Flynt
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The problem The University of Kentucky Extension recently hosted a Horticulture Webinar Wednesday, marking the fifth season of the webinar series. Initiated as an outreach method during the pandemic, the webinars offer valuable insights and information on various horticulture topics. Expert speakers cover plant care, gardening techniques, and industry trends, providing a platform for attendees to interact, ask questions, and glean practical tips to enhance their horticultural pract
Author: Benjamin Prewitt
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The problem: The Whitley County Cooperative Extension Service has been working with an influx of individuals and families that have decided to move into our community from numerous places around the United States. Many of these individuals and families are moving from a way of life centered around inner- city or suburban type of lifestyles and have never had the opportunity to try and grow their own food. On top of that, many of these individuals have never had the opportunity to participate in
Author: Stacy White
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Homegrown apples are culturally important in our region. Many heirloom varieties found here are not available commercially. Grafting is the most efficient way to maintain important apple varieties. The Whitley County ANR agent annually hosts apple grafting seminars for the general public and for high school agriculture students. Participants learn the science of tree grafting and get to graft their own tree during the seminars. Both whip grafting and bud grafting t
Author: Jessica Wells
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
It has been stated by specialists at the University of Kentucky that 85% of the diagnostic tree samples that are submitted to the lab and/or questioned by extension agents and homeowners are a result of a below ground issue. Since a large number of issues occur underground and are not visible by the eye, it stands to reason, that it is best to prevent tree issues as opposed to treating or fixing tree issues. With that idea in place, in September of 2023, the Harrison County Horticult
Author: Bethany Wilson
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
This home gardening series is in its second year, created by the Pulaski Co Horticulture Agent and one Extension Master Gardener. During summer 2023, the program had over 30 different participants over the 5 monthly programs. During 2024, xx people participated in 7 monthly programs.This Pulaski County Extension Horticulture program brought together gardening enthusiasts of all skill levels, empowering them with knowledge and skills to cultivate thriving gardens in limited spaces. Through
Author: Tyson Gregory
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
In light of the increase of severe weather events, evolving climate, and biodiversity crisis, homeowners are increasingly seeking methods to uphold aesthetically pleasing landscapes while minimizing their ecological footprint. To provide local citizens with pertinent information, the Woodford County Extension Office hosted it's 6th annual Spring Gardening Workshop.The workshop featured educational sessions led by Extension specialists and industry professionals. These sessions delved into lo
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
With Harrodsburg’s 250th anniversary right around the corner the Harrodsburg’s local Tree Board has been working tirelessly to beautify our community and help the environment. Trees are more than aesthetically pleasing. They combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen to provide crucial habitats for wildlife, trees offer a plethora of benefits. Their shade and canopy help mitigate the urban heat island effect, reducing energy consumption and improving air q
