Author: Carol Hinton
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
The Community Garden program has been running with the assistance of Master Gardeners and the cooperation of the staff at each location. The program helps to put in and maintain raised and/or accessible gardens for community. We had request to increase the program at each site and to set up a couple new places where people gather. The residents even requested their own kind of tomatoes and peppers to raise. Buy in has been fantastic for the community. They are now
Author: Regina Utz
In May of 2022, Tri County Community Action Agency reached out to the Trimble County Cooperative Extension Services to help senior citizens with their gardening questions. When the new Agriculture and Natural Resources agent started on June 1st, we set a date for the program to take place. Regina Utz put together a brochure of the common pests, diseases and ticks seen in the Trimble County area. The pests included: aphids, Japanese beetles, corn earworm, and cucumber beetles. The diseases t
Author: Adam Leonberger
Gardening provides a number of health benefits including, mental health management and anxiety reduction. As a result, many individuals are interested in expanding their knowledge and skills related to home gardening. As a way to provide a variety of educational opportunities on the various aspects of gardening, Extension partnered with Extension Master Gardener volunteers to create a series of hands-on and classroom programs. Master Gardner volunteers have a diverse set of skills and experience
Author: Jessica Hopkins
In the spring of 2022, the Horticulture Agent and Harrison County Extension offered a “Free Gardening Giveaway” program for the community. On the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Fridays of February, March and April, people could stop by the extension office to pick up that week’s packet of free giveaways. Each week focused on a different plant category. Each week’s giveaway included free seeds as well as growing information. Fifty packets were made for ea
Author: Amy Aldenderfer
The Gardener's Toolbox Series is a part of the Hardin County Cooperative Extension Service’s horticulture classes to address a gardener's need for more information. The classes vary in their length and subject matter. This year topics included: Beginning Vegetable Gardening, Growing Culinary Herbs, Attracting Bird to the Backyard, Growing Flower Bouquets, How to Grow: Tomatoes, Knowing Your Veggie Pests, New Plants for a New Year, Propagating and Repotting Houseplants,
What began as a short-term stopgap for in person programming during the 2020 Pandemic, has become a much-attended weekly horticulture program. Due to the continuing popularity of the Horticulture Webinar Wednesdays program a team of Kentucky Horticulture agents have continued to present weekly Wednesday webinars at 12:30 ET (11:30 CT) as a “lunch and learn” horticultural program. This team also includes agents, specialists, and other experts who present a 30–45-minute horticult
Author: Philip Konopka
In the fall of 2021, the Lewis County ANR Agent and Program Assistant was approached by the Tollesboro Elementary School to do a hands-on gardening project. The goal of the project was to have the have the 4th grade students to grow a garden at the school so they could learn the following objectives: the importance of soil, growing vegetable to eat, where their food comes from, and an appreciation of growing their own food. Lessons were taught to the students by the ANR Agent and Program A
Author: Adam Huber
Gardening and farmers markets are a staple in small rural counties in Kentucky and it’s no different in Allen County. One thing that we can all agree on is that knowing how to grow your own food can be very important, especially in times when and inflation and the price of goods at the grocery store are going are going up. That’s why it is important to start young and learn how to be an entrepreneur! The Seed to Sell program is designed to teach youth gardening and entrepreneurs
Author: Sheri Crabtree
Empowering clientele to propagate and produce their own fruit treesWith supply chain issues causing shortages in the nursery and food industries, and inflation and transportation costs rising dramatically, driving many products' prices higher including plant material and fresh produce; purchasing trees from nurseries may be an economic hardship for many limited resource clientele. Food deserts and increasing food prices also are an impediment to purchasing fresh produce for many individuals.
Author: Kimberly Leonberger
Kentucky agriculture and natural resources and horticulture county Extension agents reported 74% of time was spent assisting homeowners. A majority of questions are related to the area of ornamental plants, which includes thousands of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals. Due to the large number of plants including in this area, agents frequently spend several hours trying to diagnose issues and provide management recommendations. As a way to educate agents on common disease and insect issues
Author: Brian Jeffiers
Proper care of the soil after harvest is essential for the long-term health and productivity of gardens. In the final monthly session of the summer-long Grow Appalachia program, its 26 participants listened to a presentation by the ANR about the options for winter, including cover crops and the use of heavy vinyl covers. The $13,000 grant that supported the program included funding for purchase of, among other supplies, cover crop seed mixes. After the presentation, gardeners received a bag of m
Author: Bethany Wilson
COVID was an opportunity for Extension to find new ways to reach people. Webinars and grab bag kits, although not face-to-face, attracted non-traditional clients to their local Extension offices. Horticulture Webinar Wednesdays, a weekly webinar on horticulture topics, presented by Horticulture Agents and UK Specialists, continued into 2021-22. The Pulaski County Horticulture Agent presented 4 webinars. These webinars are live but are also posted to the YouTube channel. Metrics
Blueberries can be a hard fruit to grow since it has very exact soil requirements that must be met. Many Pulaski County gardeners have tried and failed to grow blueberries successfully, evident from the many phone calls and plant samples received over the years at the Pulaski County Extension Service office. More often than not, no soil test was completed before planting, setting many people up for failure. Small fruits in general (blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc) are popular crops
Author: Willie Bowling
Clay County is a very rural area, with many residents living a substantial distance from grocery stores. Additionally, many people in the county have relatively low incomes, with a substantial portion of county residents living below the poverty line. The combination of these two factors increases the risk of food insecurity.To help address this need, the Clay County Cooperative Extension Service (Clay CES) partnered with Grow Appalachia to initiate a Grow Appalachia Garden Grant site in the Bul
Author: Annette Heisdorffer
Horticulture Webinar Wednesday virtual programming was developed by Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Agents for Horticulture Education in March of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic to reach citizens of the Commonwealth. The Daviess County Horticulture Agent serves as one of those team members. Webinars were presented live through the virtual format of Zoom on Wednesdays and recorded. The format includes a question-and-answer period after the live presentati
Author: Anthony Tackett
The Bourbon County Extension Service serves local communities through a wide variety of outreach activities. We continued to face challenges during the past year due to the ongoing COVID-19 related ussies. Despite these hurdles the Bourbon Extension Office has never been closed and we have continued our work in new and innovative ways to help keep everyone safe. Outreach efforts continued but, in some cases, looked different this year. Direct educational field outreach c
Author: Erika Wood
In the past several years, the Pennyroyal Master Gardener Association has held a spring and fall plant swap at the Hopkins County Farmers Market. The purpose of the spring plant swap was to give the community an opportunity to come swap plants with one another. Participants brought plants they were willing to give away and then could pick from plants donated by other participants to take home. A wide range of plants were brought to the swap and included the following: herbaceou
Due to the pandemic, a different way to reach people with local science-based gardening information was needed. Therefore, a partnership between the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service and the Daviess County Public Library was developed. Gardening programs were presented by the horticulture agent through PowerPoint during Facebook Live and recorded by the library. During the second year of the partnership, eight presentations were delivered on topics such as Dividing Perennials;
