In January of 2023 Graves County Cooperative Extension welcomed new agent, Miranda Rudolph to their team as the Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Agent. This was an exciting staff addition as Graves County had been without an agent in this position for quite some time. Due to this lack of staffing and from attention being directed elsewhere following the aftermath of the December 10, 2021 tornado the agriculture and horticulture component of this office was basically non-existent besides testing services to community members. One of the first things she did was distribute a survey to see what sort of programs the people of Graves County wanted and needed. From all of the survey responses gathered the number one topic chosen was that they would like some sort of gardening education programming.

Once the survey closed, Miranda got started creating ideas for classes that she could offer that would meet these needs of the community and help create the framework for a continuous stream of classes like these throughout the upcoming year or even longer! Using extension resources she has put together classes that offer a hands-on component to go along with the science backed education that University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension has to offer. The first class offered was a Seed Swap combined with education on how to germinate saved seeds to check for viability and how to get garden seeds started for the upcoming season. From there the classes offered so far have covered Pollinators, Culinary Herb Gardens with participants making their own container pizza gardens, Succulents, and a Poultry 101 class to incorporate small farm diversification. Miranda has grown and propagated all of the plants that she has given out during these workshops under grow lights in her office!

The classes offered have been tailored to the home gardener in rural or urban areas with some homesteading elements, like chicken keeping, that can be implemented within urban areas as well. They have brought in men and women of all ages and even a few children who are aspiring gardeners. At the very first class, several women met and became really good friends who look forward to getting to see each other at each class. One participant shared that she really enjoys getting to come to these to learn more about gardening, but also because she gets to build relationships with like-minded women that she doesn't otherwise have the chance to spend time with. Another participant brought her mother with her who was visiting from the Netherlands. The participants at that class enjoyed chatting with her and learning about her culture while they created their pizza gardens.

These classes have endless topics that could be taught and are in the process of being planned out for upcoming months. From these a program area that once had nothing to offer and no participants now has a core group of 8 participants that come to every meeting and continue to invite and bring guests with them to grow the program. Many of these participants have also gotten further involved in Cooperative Extension with Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H programming. It is the hope of the county that out of these classes will come a vibrant Master Gardener program in the future.