With schools transitioning to NTI days to finish out the 2019-2020 school year, many extension offices decided to create and offer educational kits for youth to complete at home.   The Harrison County 4-H and Horticulture Agents teamed up to offer a dish garden kit available to any 4-H aged individual in Harrison County.

The project kit included everything the child would need to complete a dish garden which would be eligible to enter into the county fair as an exhibit.  The kit included succulent plants which were purchased at a garden center in the county for a discounted bulk price, a container, growing medium, sand, rocks, charcoal, and decorative rocks.  A video was made and posted to YouTube showing step by step instructions.  Also, participants were given a “Making a Desert Dish Garden” 4-H publication.  The publication included instructions on how to complete the project, county and state fair entry information, and a dish garden record sheet.

A Facebook post was made advertising that 50 dish garden kits would be available for pick up on a Friday in May beginning at 9:00 a.m.  Within 45 minutes all dish garden kits were picked up, all while participants practiced social distancing and lined up outside the extension office, around the building.  Demographic information was collected, and 4-H enrollment forms were available for individuals who were interested in being in 4-H but had not yet enrolled.

After all 50 kits were picked up, there were still 17 individuals in line to receive a kit.  The 4-H and Horticulture agents decided that those individuals should not be turned away empty handed.  So, contact information was collected and the following week dish garden kits were made and distributed to those 17 individuals.

Participants were asked to take pictures while assembling their dish garden kits and post them to the Harrison County 4-H page.  There were many pictures posted of action shots as well as finished projects.   Parents and students alike were very thankful for the project and really enjoyed themselves assembling the kits.