Barren County is home to a population of over 40,000 residents. This class was developed after several calls and visits with homeowners, meetings with the horticulture advisory council, and seeing how many people have an interest in growing their own vegetable garden. Knowing how to grow our own food is becoming more and more important as generations move farther away from farms. Many children do not know where their food comes from so it is great to offer these classes for interested community members.

Barren County Cooperative Extension Service hosted a presentation for beginner gardeners. The Barren County Horticulture Agent taught the class starting with the basics of site selection, garden planning and moving into insects and diseases to be aware of and treatment options. There were beginner garden tool kits handed out to all participants to encourage them to start their own garden after the class. Included in the kit were eight different seed packets, seed starting mix, soil-testing kits, and a pair of gardening gloves. Participants also received their own copy of ID-128, Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky. The class was so well received that a second session was requested in Hart County.

Participants included homeowners from Barren and Hart County. There was a good mix of returning Extension patrons and those that had never stepped foot in our doors before. The experience levels ranged from never having grow a single thing to those who grow a garden every year but were looking for ways  to improve their production. There were 35 participants at the Barren County session and 18 participants at the Hart County session with 54 participants total.

The participants were surveyed at the conclusion of the program. It was impressive that 54% were first-time extension event attendees. Eight of the participants surveyed had never gardened before. One participant stated that the class was, “Very informative, I’ll be.” Roughly, 65% indicated that they were likely to plant a garden this year. This statement by another participant, “Great class very helpful”, indicated that they could use the information provided to help in their future gardening. A wonderful 83% indicated that this class contributed to their plan to have a garden this year. One returning participant said, “Andrea Stith is very informative, she really know her topics. Enjoy her classes a lot.” In preparation for future gardening efforts, it was nice to see that 19 participants were willing to volunteer in a community garden in the future. Barren County is already working to collaborate with community gardeners to enhance the local community garden to provide food for those in need in our county.