Describe the Issue or Situation.

What began as a short-term stopgap for in person programming during the 2020 Pandemic, has become a much-attended weekly horticulture program. 

Describe the Outreach or Educational Program Response (and Partners, if applicable).

Due to the continuing popularity of the Horticulture Webinar Wednesdays program a team of Kentucky Horticulture agents have continued to present weekly Wednesday webinars at 12:30 ET (11:30 CT) as a “lunch and learn” horticultural program. This team also includes agents, specialists, and other experts who present a 20-30-minute horticultural class to the public, with a live question and answer session between the participants and presenter at class end.  All the presentations are recorded and posted to the Kentucky Hort News website (www.kentuckyhortnews.com/horticulture-webinar-wednesdays/) along with the slides, notes, a survey, and any other resource materials that the viewer may need.  The live program, advertised via social media and traditional media outlets by agents and specialists, as well as the recordings, draw viewers in from across Kentucky, and the U.S. Viewers are Master Gardeners achieving Continuing Education Credits, farmers fulfilling CAIP grant requirements, and others who enjoy learning trusted horticultural principles from a researched based land grant university.

Provide the Number and Description(s) of Participants/Target Audience.

From July 2024, through June 30, 2025, a total of *** attendees have participated in the ** weekly webinars.  This agent has taught several webinars including: “How to Grow: Squash”, “Chaos Gardening”, and “New Perennials for 2025”, “Focus on Foliage”, and “New Plants: Perennial Edition”.

Provide a Statement of Outcomes or Program Impact. Please note that the outcomes statement must use evaluation data to describe the change(s) that occurred in individuals, groups, families, businesses, or in the community because of the program/outreach.

The Horticulture Webinar Wednesdays YouTube channel has received over 120,000 views (since it first launched April 2, 2020. The channel has 1.6K subscribers. The most viewed videos on the channel include: “Growing Pawpaws” – 12K views, “Common Blueberry Planting Problems” – 10K views; “How to Start a Community Garden” – 8K views; “Backyard Black Raspberries” – 4.4K views; “The Incredible Edible Landscape” – 2.9K views; and “Top Ten Trees for Kentucky” – 2.9K views. The audience tends to be 67.9% female and 32.1% male. Age of viewers include 27.5% ages 25-34; 25.7% ages 45-54 and 23.9% ages 65+.