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Impact Report

For plan Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture (Bernalillo County)
Date October 26, 2011, 7:12 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report The horticulture agent advises the Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardeners (AAEMG’s). Bernalillo County has a large and active Master Gardener program. There are more than 300 active members and an additional 52 graduated this year. The Master Gardeners are a critical resource for disseminating urban horticulture information. The AAEMG members field phone calls on two separate hotlines from February through October. Members also volunteer in educational activities including the 4-H Seeds Program, the ARCA Homes project gardens, the organic demonstration garden at Rio Grande Community Farm and at the Extension Office, give presentations for various groups, and volunteer for numerous other community activities. The Master Gardeners fielded an average of 300 phone calls per month from February through August of 2011 (September and October data is not available yet). This increased the horticulture agent’s ability to answer phone questions by at least 230 percent. The interns alone this year accumulated 2475 hours of volunteer time, which is equivalent to hiring a full time employee willing to put in some extra hours. All of the Master Gardeners (interns and veterans) volunteer hours will likely exceed 13,000 hours. This is equivalent to hiring 6 full time employees to address the urban horticultural needs of Bernalillo County. The 2010 to 2011 year volunteer hours increased by 1.3 percent compared to the previous year. This is evidence that the program is growing and going strong. The agent did a number of activities and presentations around the community which addressed urban horticulture needs. Formal educational seminars include: Kent, Cheryl. “Backyard Organic Gardening; Where Do I Begin???” Bernalillo County: New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. May, 2011 (Original work revised from earlier work, 53 slides). Presented at an organic gardening workshop at Calvary church in May. Kent, Cheryl. “Soil Health, the Basics.” Bernalillo County: New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. May, 2011 (Original work revised from earlier work, 38 slides). Presented at an organic gardening workshop at Calvary church in May and again at the Pueblo Community Agriculture Conference in April. Kent, Cheryl. “Botany.” Bernalillo County: New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. April, 2011(Original work for use in Bernalillo County, 60 slides). Presented to the Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardeners as part of the core curriculum. Kent, Cheryl. “Chemistry! Master Composter Training.” Bernalillo County: New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. March, 2011. (Original work developed for county and statewide use, 39 slides). Presented to the Master Composters as part of the core curriculum. Kent, Cheryl. “Soils, the Basics.” Bernalillo County: New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. February, 2011. (Original work revised from earlier work, for use in Santa Fe County, 43 slides). Presented to the Santa Fe County Master Gardeners as part of the core curriculum. Kent, Cheryl. “Climate.” Bernalillo County: New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. January, 2011 (Original work for use in Bernalillo County, 44 slides). Presented to the Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardeners as part of the core curriculum. Kent, Cheryl. “Soils, the Basics.” Bernalillo County: New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. January, 2011(Original work revised from earlier work, 39 slides). Presented to the Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardeners as part of the core curriculum. In addition to formal seminars, the agent was involved in a number of other activities. The agent organized volunteers to construct a hoop house at East Mountain Organics in Escabosa, NM as part of a WSARE grant. The agent facilitated a hands-on sprinkler irrigation workshop for Master Gardeners and Extension faculty in which they learned how to audit a sprinkler system and irrigate to the evapotranspirational needs of the plant. The agent edited and contributed to the chemistry chapter of the new Master Composter manual. The agent did two root ball trainings at local nursery’s (Rehm’s and Plants of the Southwest) in which she and Brian Suhr (UNM Arborist) taught the nursery managers and workers what to look for in a healthy root ball and how to remedy a flawed one. They were encouraged to teach their clients the proper way to plant a tree to increase survival and reduce issues later in the tree’s life. She gave two tree tours for the Master Gardeners. The agent coordinated a Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training to help local farm managers take the first step to becoming GAP certified. The agent handled a delicate situation in which she had to remove a Master Gardener intern from the class for policy reasons. The situation was handled such that the intern was removed with dignity and bore no ill-will toward NMSU or Cooperative Extension. The agent represented Cooperative Extension at a New Mexico Landscaping and Maintenance Professional trade show. While attendance and participation at the show was low, she estimates 90 percent of the people she interacted with were unaware of Cooperative Extension therefore making new client contacts and potential supporters of Cooperative Extension. The agent continued her support for the Organic Farming Conference by moderating sessions. The Horticulture and the Agriculture agents facilitated a hands-on fruit tree pruning session for the Master Gardeners at the Albuquerque BioPark. The BioPark, in turn, received assistance in pruning at least 50 apple trees. She helped a Life Skills class with the CNM Workforce Training Center with raised-bed gardening issues. This class had 7 formerly homeless adults enrolled in program (up from 4 last year). These students have been given a place to live, education, and they are learning other skills such as how to garden. The agent taught them about soil, gardening, diseases, and pests. She helped Judge at the NM State Fair Flower show. She wrote part of the soils section in the Master Gardeners new edition of Down to Earth and she assisted in editing other portions of the book. The agent assisted 4-H and coordinated a Master Gardener booth at the Home and Garden show. She attended the grand opening of a garden center at Kirtland Air force base. She had a booth for answering questions for customers. The agent was instrumental in finding someone to fill the Zoo Educator position for the BioPark. The agent attended the Urban Extension Conference from May 3rd – 5th. She also improved her media relationship by doing a radio spot on 107.1 FM to advertise a gardening series she did at Calvery Church. She also did a 15 minute spot on KASA Fox about proper irrigation of plants. The agent did a presentation for a preparedness group wanting to know how to start a garden in their own backyard with the hope of reducing dependence on stores in the event of a natural disaster. She did at least 6 informal presentations about gardening/soil/Cooperative Extension for homeowner’s Associations and garden clubs. Master Gardeners assisted by attending at least 3 other meetings in which the agent could not. The agent assisted in the statewide effort of the River Exchange field trip at Alcalde Science Center on April 26th for 5th graders from Pojaque Elementary. She and Ursula Smedly did a demonstration called “Soil as a Filter” with the objective of teaching the kids how important soil is in filtering out contamination and keeping our waterways clean. The agent was invited to teach the soils portion of the Master Naturalist training. The agent held a tree planting workshop at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in which she did a hands-on demonstration of the planting of 5 containerized fruit trees. The participants corrected root ball flaws, dug the planting hole, planted, and watered the trees. Extension Office Demo Garden: The agent devoted most Friday mornings to working in the Extension Office Demonstration Garden with Master Gardener volunteers and the AmeriCorps volunteers. We planted, raised, and harvested a variety of edible crops in which we donated a good portion to the Roadrunner Food Bank. Other times the produce was used by the Home Economist for teaching purposes or simply handed out to office staff. Since this was the first year the garden was in place, record-keeping was not what it should have been. The agent has documentation of at least 60 pounds of food donated to the food bank, but in reality, more was donated. The garden exceeded expectations for opportunities for learning and collaborating. This project should only improve as time passes. Think Trees NM: The agent was voted to the position of secretary for Think Trees NM. For the 2011 Think Trees Conference held on February 3rd – 4th, the agent organized a small number of volunteers to work at the conference. She also facilitated the collection and dissemination of hundreds of Think Trees conference brochures to certified arborists in NM and surrounding states. The agent conducted a survey of Master Gardeners in Santa Fe, Bernalillo, and Valencia Counties regarding their thoughts on shopping at Garden Centers that employ Certified Nursery Professionals. The agent presented the results in a panel discussion at the 2011 Conference. The purpose was to give the people trying to start up a certification process for nursery and greenhouse professionals some feedback from consumers. Southwest Turfgrass Association: After attending the 2010 Southwest Turfgrass Association Conference from Oct 20th – 21st, the agent was voted onto the board of the association. She has served as treasurer since early 2011. Xeriscape Council: The horticulture agent is a member of the Xeriscape Council. The Council plans the Xeriscape Conference and Expo that is held in Albuquerque on an annual basis. The agent organized 40 volunteers (mostly Master Gardeners) that provided vital support at the 2011 Conference and the Expo. Master Gardener classes: Pre and post training evaluations revealed a 20 percent increase in knowledge (on average) after attending the 2011 Master Gardener training. However, the bulk of knowledge gained by Master Gardeners comes during volunteer activities such as manning the hotline. After a year of volunteering, a Master Gardener is likely to report a much higher percentage of knowledge gained. Based on the survey results, the participants had a good educational foundation to start their volunteer activities. Survey results for the agent’s presentations are as follows; for the soil presentation, 87 percent responded with 8, 9, or 10 on scope, usefulness, and content respectively (on a scale of 1 to 10). For the botany presentation, 72 percent responded with 8, 9, or 10. For the climate presentation, more than 90 percent responded with 8, 9, or 10. Irrigation workshop: The twelve participants of the irrigation workshop were surveyed using Survey Monkey. Only seven responded, but those seven reported a 0.8 point increase in knowledge on a 1 to 4 point scale (20 percent knowledge gain). As a direct result of the workshop, the agent facilitated the purchase of an irrigation audit kit for the office (and for use around the state) using Rio Grande Basin Initiative (RGBI) funds. She has performed 11 irrigation audits for homeowners. 100 percent of these audits showed below acceptable sprinkler uniformity. The homeowners now have the knowledge to fix the issues and decrease water waste due to sprinkler irrigation on their property. Root ball training: Don Childs (manager of Rehm’s Nursery) said they enjoyed the presentation. They always need to continue learning, perhaps get into the “nuts and bolts” of the presentation a bit faster. He would have been willing to tear apart a root ball of their own nursery stock for teaching purposes. Plants of SW participants said they loved it. They would like us to come back for a pruning workshop. River Exchange: The survey results for the River Exchange Field trip at Alcalde were very good. The “Soil as a Filter” demonstration received positive comments because it was very interactive with the kids. All of the demonstrations were rated 4 and 5 on a scale of 1 to 5. Regarding the horticulture agent's day to day interaction with clients, here is an example of some feedback, “Cheryl, Thanks you so much for your VERY informative presentation! The feedback was great and I think we all have another level of confidence in establishing our gardens. I went thru our handouts too-wow, what great info! Again, THANK YOU!!!” - Diane Camillo Wed 7/27/2011 “Cheryl, thank you SO MUCH for your quick response to my chitalpa problem, and for all the excellent information you sent me. I will consult with one of the certified arborists on your list and see what can be done, both now and in the future, for my little patio planting area. I am very impressed with the service provided by the County Extension Office, which I had never even heard of before this. You are truly a Homeowner’s Best Friend!” - Donia Steele Thu 6/16/2011 “Perfect, Cheryl. Thank you for taking such a close look at my plants. I'll keep a close eye on things this coming spring and summer and contact you as soon as I notice any damage. I really appreciate your taking the time to help me.” - Sam Mon 10/25/2010 Throughout the day, it is hard to quantify how much people gain from phone conversations with the agent, but based on their reactions, she estimates that the majority of people gain knowledge they did not have before. She also has repeat callers that would not call her back if they were not benefiting from the agent's advice.