Community Container Garden Kits

The Simpson Co. Extension Office saw an increase in requests for information from families wanting to grow their on vegetable garden during the pandemic.  Some families feared a food shortage while others wanted the assurance of a safe food supply.  As a result the Extension Agents for 4-HYD and ANR worked together to create a new program to meet this need, Community Container Garden Kits.  Agents recorded a video demonstrating how to grow a tomato container garden. The video was posted to the Simpson Co. Extension Facebook page and YouTube Channel, reaching 317 with 93 engagements.  

The 4-H Youth Development Agent contacted the Tractor Supply Distribution Center asking for containers & bags of potting soil, and contacted the WKU Agriculture Greehouse for tomato plants.  Both businesses donated, allowing Extension staff to distribute 55 Container Garden Kits on May 5.  The kits contained a tomato plant, 5 gallon bucket with pre-drilled drain holes by the ANR agent, potting soil, SNAP gardening gloves & a SNAP gardening bag, a UK tumbler, Extension tomato recipes & a canning publication, and the Gardening in Small Spaces publication. The response was overwhelming – the kits were loaded into the trunks of 55 Simpson Co. families in just 20 minutes.  

Because of the response a second giveaway was setup for the following week with TSC & WKU donating again, this time for 100 kits (one per family) were given away on May 12 in just 30 minutes.  WBKO television advertised the second giveaway on their Facebook page and did a feature story on their evening news that has 25,000 viewers. 

Two months after distribution families that received a kit are posting pictures on social media of their tomato gardens and including comments like, “Thank you for coordinating this activity to make it easy for my grandson and many others to do!” “Thank you to your sponsors for providing these items!” “Simpson County has a great Extension Service.” “Thank you to the folks who were loading these into our vehicles!”  The container gardening posts on social media have reached over 5,000 with over 1,000 engagements.

In addition to the Community Tomato Gardening Kits, Simpson Co. 4-H partnered with Simpson Co. Schools Community Education to offer a six week Summer Project Series where 25 youth pick up a weekly project kit to complete at home.  Week one was an Herb Container Garden consisting of potting soil, a container, a basil plant, SNAP gardening gloves & a gardening bag, and Extension recipes & publications on growing & cooking basil.  Week two was another partnership with TSC Distribution where they provided 25 containers and bags of potting soil for Zucchini Container Gardens.  Three demonstration videos on growing and cooking with basil & zucchini were recorded by the 4-H agent, Community Education director, and two Simpson Co. 4-H teens.  The vidoes accompanied the kits and have reached 800 & engaged 160.  Collectively, over 200 community gardening kits have been given to families of all ages in Simpson Co. by the Extension Service in May & June with positive feedback from recipients continuing to be received.