Author: Bethany Pratt
Planning Unit: Family and Consumer Sciences
Major Program: Home & Consumer Horticulture
Plan of Work: Accessing healthy foods & improving local food systems
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
The Horticulture Agent for Jefferson County Extension has been leading a weekly gardening class at the Women's Healing Place campus in Louisville, Kentucky since 2015. The gardening classes teach women basic home gardening skills that are used to produce vegetables to supplement the three meals/day served at the center. In 2018, the Women's Healing Place wanted to expand their produce production potential by extending their growing season. The Hort. Agent involved the Natural Resource Conservation Service to help the Healing Place apply for an EQUIP funding for urban high tunnels.
The Healing Place was awarded the EQUIP funds in the fall of 2018 and a 40' w x 120'L High tunnel was constructed on the property of the Healing Place in October of 2018. The first plants were transplanted into the high tunnel in November of 2018. Thanks to a mild winter, the produce in the high tunnel continued to grow throughout the winter season. Women at the Healing Place with the guidance of the Hort. Agent harvested an estimated 40 lbs. of produce in the high tunnel between January and March of 2019. The women also learned how the passive solar technology of the high tunnel impacts the growing climate inside the tunnel and were able to develop and execute a spring planting plan to ensure the continuation of produce throughout the season before outdoor planting began.
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