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 that were included were: root knot and southern blight. The ticks included were the Lone Star tick and the American Dog tick. Regina presented the brochure reading over important facts from each category. She then answered questions about what could be or is happening in their garden. 

We worked with 15 people of the senior citizen community to participate in this program. They meet regularly to have different events and community time. Since COVID-19 they haven’t had any meetings with any of the extension services. The Tri County Community Action Agency has worked with the extension services for many years and were excited to be able to reach out and have the office out again. We are looking to make this a bi-monthly occasion. 

The participants took the brochures home with them with plans of effectively protecting their gardens against these pests and diseases.