Author: James Morgeson
Major Program: Community Gardens and Horticulture Therapy
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gardening is a great source of physical activity and gardeners have lower body mass indexes than non-gardeners. With the cost of fruits and vegetables up 7.8% in the last year gardeners also save money by growing their own fruits and vegetables. Perhaps the largest benefit of gardening is according to the American Horticulture Therapy Association, gardening helps improve memory, cognitive abilities, task initiation, language skil
Author: Annette Heisdorffer
In 2021, 17,466 Kentuckians age 12 and older were admitted to drug and alcohol substance use centers, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This substance-use epidemic touches all areas of the Commonwealth, and treatment programs use creative, research-based approaches to assist those impacted.The Daviess County Extension Agent for Horticulture partnered on a therapeutic garden with Owensboro Regional Recovery, a Recovery Kentucky men’s
Author: Lorilee Kunze
This year the Bullitt County Horticulture Program was gifted an expansive seed donation. It was such a large donation that we struggled with how to sort it, store and how it could best serve our community. Many of the seeds were distributed in the last couple of classes in the Vegetable Gardening Series. Then we decided that if any school in Bullitt County should want to start a school garden, that we would provide them the seeds for one. We made one box for each school t
Horticultural therapy is a proven method for relieving stress, improving wellbeing, building confidence, learning steam subjects and building relationships. This program partners Extension with the Sunrise Home for boys. The Extension service offers hands on demonstration and cooperation planning, planting and maintaining a therapeutic garden space for 18 young boys in the Sunrise home. Working together the boys formed bonds that help them develop better communication skills, they le
Author: Jennifer Palmer
The problem – The day residents lacked access to fresh vegetables and the facility was not activity using the raised bed gardens on site. They also wanted to expand the gardens to reach a more of their residents. The educational program response was to create gardens in the raised beds and to create access to fresh produce on site for their cooking programs and for the program participants to take home. The programming was to encourage residents to participate in the garde
Author: Bethany Wilson
In Pulaski County's 2018 Community Assessment, substance abuse treatment ranked as important to very important to the 609 respondents. In a survey (2016-2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health) of individuals over the age of 12, 8 to 9% of those respondents had used illicit drugs in the past month in the Pulaski County area. In addition, Kentucky’s 2021 Overdose Fatality Report indicated Pulaski County’s death rate due to drug overdoses was 59.8 deaths per 100,000
The problem - Farmers wanting to grow and sell at farmers market and eventually sell enough to have this as a full-time job. Creating markets to sell produce to for produce farmers that grow on a small scale. The educational program response was engaging over the weekly sessions as they are learning the varying materials that covered business and marketing courses to crop and pest management. We had a range of guest speakers from KCARD and area restaurants so the fa
Author: Tracie Goodman
In our most recent Kentucky Extension Community Assessment for McCreary County, issues of high importance were identified as: 1.) availability of substance use prevention programs, 2.) availability of substance use treatment, 3.) better skills for selecting and preparing healthier foods, 4.) more training for food gardening skills, and 4.) more community gardens. Approximately 8% of the population 12 and older has a substance use disorder in any given year. Substance use disorders are more than
Author: Brandon George
Over several weeks in early Spring, Jake Daly, a Life scout from Troop 31 of Boy Scouts of America in Fort Wright, KY, diligently worked to improve the Kenton County extension site at 10990 Marshall Road in Covington, KY. Jake has been in collaboration with us over several months planning on what projects could be accomplished at the office to work towards fulfilling the requirements of his Eagle Scout rank. To the benefit of both, great work was achieved. The first task began with the takedown
Author: Mary Dossett
Troop 7 Horticulture Merit Badge Class On Friday March 10th, the horticulture agent instructed Troop 7 boy scouts on how to obtain their Horticulture merit badge. The class consisted of 10 boy scouts and six adults present. The horticulture agent started the class with a presentation on gardening basics such as how to start a garden, gardening glossary, how to maintain your garden, gardening risks, and how to start a compost bin. The merit badge requires the boy s
Author: Phillip Long
Since we use these stories as a resource for multiple requests, don’t restrict Success Stories only to traditional Extension appointments and activities. Any accomplishments and efforts that are noteworthy may be included.There have been several community gardens established in Louisville/Jefferson County over the past 10 years with only a few that are still in operation. The reasons for a lack of sustainability usually fall into three categories; 1. Lack of sustained funding due to b
The Kenton County Cooperative Extension main office location has been transforming over the past year. Plans are underway for the 3.5-acre office location to become an Arbnet-certified level II arboretum. Arbnet is an internationally recognized arboretum certification body that certifies industry standards for maintaining woody plant collections. The goal of creating this arboretum on the extension site is to allow for a “living classroom” to teach and demonstrate horticulture concep
Author: Sarah Imbus
On a weekly basis Campbell County horticulture department provides horticulture therapy activities at the Fort Thomas VA medical facility for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and recently began working with veterans in the domiciliary care program. Men and women in these programs are in this program for rehabilitation, recovery, health maintenance, improved quality of life, and community integration in addition to specific treatment of medical condition, mental illnesses, addi
Author: Sharon Flynt
In June 2022, the director of a local rehabilitative transitional house for women with substance abuse, reached out to the extension office to provide classes and activities in gardening and nutrtion. Research indicates, according to Rutgers University, that the use of horticulture therapy is beneficial for people with physical, mental, emotional, and social disabilities. Horticultural activity and working with plants – which are non-discriminating and non-thr
Author: Benjamin Prewitt
The Whitley County Cooperative Extension Horticulture Hiking Club is an active group of individuals who love to enjoy the beautiful aspects of Horticulture in the outdoors. We welcome anyone and everyone to join us on our monthly adventure. The Horticulture Hiking Club began in May, 2022 as a way for the Horticulture and Fine Arts programs to interact with each other. The goal was to introduce folks of our community to popular hiking destinations in o
