Author: Bethany Pratt
Major Program: Community Gardens and Horticulture Therapy
The Jefferson Co. Extension Office manages ten community gardens across Jefferson Co. that have averaged 400 registered gardeners over the past four years. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic increased participation in the community garden program as folks looked for alternative ways to access healthy foods and/or seek time outdoors. In 2020, there was a 25% increase in the total number of registered gardeners for a total of 501 community gardeners growing food in 2020.In order to understand how the
Author: Lynn Blankenship
This FCS Agent created a comprehensive curriculum and evaluation, for the April 2021 Mammoth Cave Area Homemakers Leader training, with the theme of Gardening and Outdoor Activity for Physical and Mental Healthiness. This FCS Agent was the first to travel to all ten Counties post COVID, to deliver an approved, COVID safe monthly area Homemaker Leader Training in person, to 64 Homemaker Leaders. These leader volunteers then delivered the lesson to the members of their Homemaker Clubs,
Author: Kara Back-Campbell
The Taylor County Horticulture agent is collaborating with a team of extension specialists, agents, and assistants to create a toolbox kit for extension personnel to start a recovery garden for recovery centers.After working with our local recovery center, the horticulture agent sees the importance of this education and activity. (Within Taylor County this year 95 men have participated in the recovery garden program.) Packaging this gained knowledge in a useful form for others to utilize in star
Author: Alex Butler
Adopt a Crop Success StoryIn Anderson County, there are several, mostly small scale, fruit and vegetable growers except for one large producer. The local farmers market here is small but growing, and educational opportunities around fruit and vegetable production are limited to the schools which are closed during the summer when most vegetables are growing. Additionally, most education around fruit and vegetable production happens at higher grade levels. The Anderson County Ex
Author: Catherine Weaver
The Jessamine County Cooperative Extension Services offered a four-week online gardening program. The Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent, 4-H Youth Development, and Family & Consumer Sciences Agent partnered together to create a dynamic learning experience. Each week the agents worked together to create a spotlight video as the main lesson for the week. Topics included seeds, raised beds, transplants, and recipe demonstrations. In addition to the spotlight videos, the agents shared th
Author: Bethany Wilson
In Pulaski County's 2018 Community Assessment, substance abuse treatment ranked as important to very important to the 609 respondents. Sky Hope Rehabilitation Center is a 100-bed facility for women with drug addictions. Pulaski County has a large drug abuse problem. Gardening has been shown to have many positive effects on humans. There are physical, cognitive, social, and psychological benefits such as improvement in self-esteem, alleviation of depression, increased strength and stami
Author: Ruth Chowning
In the early spring of 2021, Bullitt County Cooperative Extension Service was invited to collaborate in a project with Nichols Elementary to create a school garden and educational program for the garden. As a community, Nichols is used to finding their own resources and support, but they contacted the Extension Service due to previous long term relationships and programs offered by Extension. The Bullitt County Extension Service, the local Public Library branch, Nichols Elementary school s
Author: Shad Baker
The confinement and stress associated with travel restrictions, familial isolation and lack of personal interactions has taken a heavy toll on Kentuckians. Gardening is widely known as a therapeutic activity and one in which your UK Extension Service excels. To help reach those in need, the Letcher Co. Office partnered with the Harlan Co. KY and Wise Co. Virginia ANR Agents to offer Zoom classes for interested clientele. Offerings included Basic Gardening, Unconventional Gardening, Growing Melon
Author: Sarah Imbus
Program Director, Amy Sammons, of Mentoring Plus located in Newport Kentucky, reached out to Campbell County Extension Horticulture agent for resources. After initial meetings and conversations, an organic partnership blossomed, and plans were drafted to implement a youth program for at risk youth in the urban sector of the county. Campbell County program areas of 4-H youth development, horticulture, family consumer science, and SNAP-Education, quickly tea
Author: Trent Adkins
It is no secret that gardening and other home horticulture activities can serve as a great outlet for individuals with disabilities, mental health difficulties and behavioral issues. The Sunrise Children’s Program Cumberland Adventure Program (CAP), is located in Bronston, KY. The Cumberland Adventure Program uses therapeutic outdoor adventures experiences and clinical intervention to assist boys who suffer from behavioral or emotional issues. Many of the boys come from backgro
Author: Lori Bowling
In the spring of 2021 the horticulture program in Boyd County started a Garden Club program at a local low income housing complex beside the Extension Office. Several residents signed up with 5 of those having mobility issues. The horticulture agent worked with those residents so that they could still be active when it came time to plant in the raised bed gardens at the Extension Community Garden. Within 3 weeks of programs one of the participants was able to get out of their w
Author: Annette Heisdorffer
Substance use disorder can affect anyone. Daviess County strives to reduce the substance abuse that plagues our communities. The Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service partnered with Owensboro Regional Recovery to conduct a garden therapy program as part of the treatment plan which serves men challenged with drug and alcohol addiction.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery center was closed to outside visitors, but the Extension Agent for Horticulture Education still provid
Author: Chadwick Conway
The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone's way of living and has tremendously limited their social interactions. It is causing significant concern for many when it comes to one's mental health. The Knott County Cooperative Extension Service started offering numerous grab and go projects to its community from the beginning of this global pandemic. These are being disbursed at different times to allow those individuals to stay safe and healthy at home, various opportunities to p
Author: Christine Jackson
Met with the PTO of a franklin county elementary school earlier this year. they were interesting in what it would take to start a school/ community garden behind their playground. so Dr. Whittinghill and I went and met with them multiple times before lockdown etc started happening, got an idea of what they were looking for and planned to do with the space. I then went back and drew out a few designs for garden layouts, returned and they picked their favorite. presented it to the PTO and they hav
I was contacted by a friend from the time I spent in memphis tennessee. she is a kindergarten teacher , she had noticed that i was working in extension now and reached out to ask what activities she could do to teach her young ones about plants. I suggested she do the styrofoam method. get soil and sand and have them plant their own seeds. she later updated me weeks later to say that they had bloomed, but was sad that the kids couldn't see them in person or take them home because c
After leading a recovery garden program in Jefferson County for four years, the Horticulture Agent reached out to Extension Specialists at UK Community and Leadership Development to help develop a plan to move the current recovery program into a self-sustaining model. The initial conversation lead to the idea of developing a Toolkit for Extension professionals and recovery centers to help them develop or transition a recovery garden program into one that is eventually managed primarily by the re
