Success StoryRenewed Gardening Interest Sparks New Opportunity for Master Gardeners



Renewed Gardening Interest Sparks New Opportunity for Master Gardeners

Author: Kelly Jackson

Planning Unit: Christian County CES

Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home

Plan of Work: Endorsing Environmental Stewardship and Promoting Green Living

Outcome: Initial Outcome

Since the Pandemic of 2020, a national trend of increased interest in home vegetable gardening has been taking place. This has been noticed in Christian County and the local Master Gardener Association and Christian County Extension Office have taken the opportunity to reach and educate the community through social media, in-person training, and the “Hello Garden” newsletter.  Beginning with social media postings in 2021, the Master Gardener Association FaceBook page began growing almost daily due to more activity with educational messages, meeting announcements, and videos. The page now has 980 followers.  The Master Gardeners also began offering more classes for the community at sites such as the public library, a local brewery, a local hardware store, and the extension office. A recent program was a round-table discussion on lessons learned about growing vegetables with three of our members on the panel. Over 70 people attended the meeting. The “Hello Garden” newsletter, started in the spring of 2022 and has grown to 130 subscribers. The newsletter answers basic gardening questions, highlights videos from the Horticulture Webinar Wednesday series, and promotes upcoming Master Gardener events. At least for Christian County, the renewed interest in gardening has created many new opportunities to reach the public.






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