The Fayette County horticulture program offers homeowner gardening classes to address all the interest in food production and landscape management. We call this program Gardener's Toolbox. Last year we delivered information to over 4000 contacts. Here is a testimonial from one of those attendees:

"I have been coming to your classes for two years now and appreciate your expertise and sharing of knowledge!  We have had 2 small gardens (8' square) for about a decade.  We  found that we crammed in as much as we could  out of shear excitement of having a garden.   You taught me that we really need to plan the space and we have more than tripled our space.  Because of that our yield has quadrupled and we don't loose plants due to over crowding.  I plan our our garden on graph paper.  This gives us a record of the quantity of plants as well as their placement.  We rotate our placement because of your teachings.

I put our food up by canning, dehydrating, and freezing.  Our diet has improved significantly and our grocery bills are much less because of our gardening success!  Thank you!  Our son and his family are now gardening and following your teachings.  If we have a question, we look up your handouts or the UK website.  They are now feeding a family of 4 and teaching their children about the gardening life cycle!

Last year I attended 13 of your classes and enjoyed bringing home the selected plants/seeds!  We now have increased our blueberry bushes from 2 to 9!  Our blackberry bushes are coming along nicely and I would never have had the nerve to trim them so low had it not been for your encouragement!  The fig plant found a home on the east side of the brick garage and is quite happy!  Knowing where to plant something is a big part of the success!

Another financial impact that we have appreciated because of your classes is that we have stopped paying a lawn spray service!  We are managing our acre lawn on our own.  We are making progress and enjoy seeing the grass increase and weeds decrease!.   

I look forward to the time when we can all gather at the Extension office and continue learning together!

Thank you for your efforts and care with what you do!"

Blessings,

Carol R.