The beginning of 2023 brought fresh ideas and horticulture programming. Funday Monday started off the programming series with garden craft ideas during the winters months. After the August series in 2022, with popular demand, Funday Monday was a new series lead by horticulture technician, Terri Turner to provide winter horticulture craft projects.

Mason Bee and Bonsai 101 was hosted at Extension and taught my two Northern Kentucky Master Gardeners. During both of these informative classes, participants gained knowledge and hands on activities were provided to be utilize in their home garden spaces. Learning the art of attracting mason bees in the garden and their benefits to our food supply was one fact that participants learned in class. Bonsai for some, is a challenging and intimidating horticulture art that some have been discoursed from practicing. With the knowledge provided and the fiscus plant given to each participate, students gained confidence and resources to begin practicing bonsai at home.

These other classes taught by horticulture agent and horticulture technicians: Small tool cleaning and sharpening, organic vegetable gardening, small fruit series, cut flower and perennials part 2. These classes concluded the home horticulture program series. Over all we felt that we planted the seed of curiosity about gardening and as a result participants have the tools and resources to make better sustainable gardening decisions for their landscape and community.

On average, each class on average had 15 participants with a total of 225 participants. Horticulture classes were offered during the day at various times and also in the evening. Our goal was to engage new Extension users. As a result, 5% of the registered participants were new to horticulture programming.  A few participants shared comments: “You always put so much effort into our classes and I for one, totally appreciate all you have done for us gardeners.  Thanks for making our hearts and minds lighter and happier” and another shared “This is our first class, and we are looking forward to putting the mason bee house in our garden and planting more flowers. Thanks for teaching us more about gardening”.