Many of the calls and walk-in visits received by the horticulture agent are related to home vegetable gardens.  Many of the individuals who have the questions are new to gardening and others have been gardening for years, but have not always followed proper garden management techniques.  Given this information, it was decided to offer a beginning gardening series of classes catered toward the backyard gardener.  

Of the four classes in the series, one of the classes offered focused on Garden Management and Tips. This class focused on planning your garden, crop rotation, companion planting, and basic disease management.  A PowerPoint was made with information, pictures, and charts to assist the individuals in learning, and copies of the Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky, ID-128 were distributed to class participants.  Following the lesson, class participants were encouraged to plan out a garden on paper along with a rotation system based on the information they had just received.

At the end of the class a survey was given and resulted in the following information.

70% of attendees state that they definitely will use the information they received on crop rotation, companion planting, and integrated disease management, and 30% indicated they probably will use it.

When asked to rate their knowledge of the topics before the class was offered, only 21% indicated a high level of knowledge of the topics.  Following the class, when asked to rate their knowledge on the topics that were covered, 88% of participants indicated a high level of knowledge.

Each year gardening programs will be offered to clientele.  Plans are being made to offer classes and programs for all levels of gardeners.