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Impact Report
| For plan | Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture (Santa Fe County) |
| Date | October 15, 2007, 6:18 pm |
| For Objective | Medium-term Show medium-term objectives |
| Impact Report | Community Presentations The County Agent arranged for the Urban Horticulture Specialist to present a slide talk on the “Use of Native Plants for Landscaping.” The presentation was done due to a request by a member of St. John’s Methodist Church. Although the presentation was intended for church members, the church was receptive to opening the participation to other members of the community. This presentation was attended by 24 members of the community with the Santa Fe area. A slide talk on “Proper Tree Care” was presented by the County Agent to the members of Las Jardineras Garden Club in November of 2006. The 28 female members of the club felt that they had all gained some knowledge on proper installation and maintenance of trees. All of them indicated that they had at some point or another done at least one thing wrong in the planting or maintenance of their own trees in their landscapes. The “Principles of Xeriscape” were presented to each of the two Homemaker Clubs in Santa Fe County for a total 26 club members. Based on the 18 evaluations collected, 84% of the participants rated the information as excellent in terms of its usefulness while 3 shared the comment that they needed to convert their landscapes to one that was more xeric in nature. The County Agent presented two workshops to 7 members of a home for mentally disabled with each presentation being no more than one and one-half hours long. The first presentation was on the selection of xeric plants for confined spaces and the second presentation was on the proper methods of planting a vegetable gardens. The second presentation was done using a hands-on approach which also included the installation of a irrigation system. All but one member of this home participated in one form or another through the whole process. Nine girls from Girls Inc. were provided two instructional demonstration sessions. The first was on the “Proper Care and Maintenance of Garden Tools” and the second one on “Soils” and “Insects”. The County Agent was asked to present these demonstrations due to the fact that the girls attending the summer program were also actively gardening using the space at one of the local Santa Fe schools. Based on personally observations, it seemed that all of the girls understood and had learned the processes taught to them through the demonstrations. The Olla Demonstration Garden was developed in 2005 by the master gardeners to demonstrate an antiquated method of irrigation utilizing unglazed clay pots filled with water and buried into the ground. However, at the end of 2006 growing season they felt like they were ready to abandon the project thus leaving the irrigation system in place. During the 2007 4-H Day Camp the County Agent taught a day’s worth of horticulture and irrigation methods to the 29 youth participating in the camp. As part of the lesson, the youth learned about the olla irrigation method and transplanted chile and tomato plants next to the pots. The tomatoes and the chile harvested from the garden will be donated to local soup kitchens and homeless shelters. |