Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture

Urban Horticulture remains one of the most utilized areas of interest by clientele in quay County. The years busiest times include spring, summer and fall. At these times the majority of phone calls to this reporting agent pertain to a variety of gardening and home landscape issues. Such questions include but are not limited to pest and disease management, watering techniques and scheduling, variety selections, fertilizer requirements, pruning, and variety selection.
Contacts are handled in a variety of methods. Phone calls are the most prevalent. Some situations require on site evaluation and consultation as well as handout information, demonstration and assistance. Most importantly contacts result in adoption of practice and behavioral change. Marie Thomas of Tucumcari stated “I feel the Extension service makes my gardening questions a priority.”
Quay County Extension Education covers four towns over a 2800 square mile area with a population just under 10,000 residents. Regular radio and print media are used to reach clientele and inform of timely and seasonal practices.
As a result of such a popular program area, educational instruction was as varied as the topics. Late fall of 2010 consisted of a Hoop House construction workshop held at the Tucumcari Community Garden. The day’s events included 12 volunteers sponsored by grant monies from USDA, Llano Estacado RC&D and City of Tucumcari. Since this workshop two producers have utilized the plans to construct their own hoop house. Five other volunteers are planning to build hoop houses within the next 3-4 years and implement this practice on their own farms.
Pecan programming for 2010 consisted of another years pecan show. Producers bring in a sample of each variety, they are then weighed, processed and graded for marketing. This program was held in conjunction with the pecan food show exhibiting recipes for pecan producers to use in their respective marketing program. Twelve entries were recorded for the pecan show with two advancing to the Western Region Pecan show in Las Cruces.
With the onset of spring, Quay County Extension produced a series of gardening programs for local and area producers. Every Thursday in April highlighted a topic of interest to gardening enthusiast. This programming was in response from clientele that requested information to grow vegetables for both home and Farmer’s Market. Additionally, gardeners interest were increasing in the areas of holistic and organic gardening, pesticide alternatives, variety compatibility, and drip irrigation technology.
One program was held each week. Four programs lasting 1.5 hours each attracted an average of 27 participants at each session. Subjects included “Better gardening soil”,” Organic Pest Control”, “How to purchase plant material”, and “Growing Award Winning Tomatoes”.
Retrospective post evaluations were submitted at the end of the series. Participants were asked to score themselves on the knowledge they had on the topics before the program and then score themselves on knowledge gained after the program. All of the participants stated to have gained some knowledge from the programs. 97% overall stated they would adopt skills taught at the series. Adoption of practice and behavioral change was rated at 96 % overall. “ Everyone who grows anything would benefit from these programs. Despite our dry weather, I can at least supply good vegetables for my family.” Stated local resident Pable Lopez.
Other activities under this plan include IPM Organic Gardening Walks held in September 2011.

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.

Lea County Master Gardeners program has been operation for the last 13 years. The group is a valuable asset for the LES office and Ag agent. Their involvement is extremely evident within each community through landscaping projects. Five certified master gardeners are members of committees that assist city councils in beautification projects. Members serve as officials each year during the annual county fair for the farm and garden show. Membership has increased by 59% since 2008 and participation in the short courses has increased by 65% since classes have been moved to a more central location in the county. Classes are held annually at New Mexico Junior College in conjunction with the continuing education department at NMJC. Credits are received by students that are interested in obtaining a degree in Horticulture. All classes are held in January through April with three weekends dedicated to beautification projects.

Tree care issues continue to be the most requested area of expertise and assistance that the Agent receives. Having established a reputation as a very good diagnostic arborist, Agent is now approached by many commercial operations, local public bodies, as well as homeowners for problem solving and advice. Agent has developed a few versions of presentations related to basic tree care in urban settings, which have been used for Master Gardener training as well as invited presentations to area homeowners’ associations and other venues.

Agent continues to be very involved with Think Trees New Mexico, a local non-profit which puts on an annual arboriculture conference with national caliber speakers; in 2011, Agent changed his role with this organization from Secretary to Vice President, the latter role being in charge of program development for the conference. Agent is also the Chairman of the Tree Planting Advisory Committee, a board which assists the State Forestry Division’s Urban Forester with a small grant program aimed at assisting with tree planting on public lands throughout New Mexico. Agent has also been a presenter at a one-day training program for award recipients, hosted at the BCCES office. Agent continues to maintain his Certified Arborist status through the International Society of Arboriculture.

While Agent is no longer the Horticulture Agent in this county, he continues to provide much programming and information in this area. Formal evaluation of programs and presentations is very limited, being basically two Master Gardener presentations for the Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardeners. The results of those evaluations are herein provided, as a reasonable snapshot of clientele reaction to this Agent as an educator. For a presentation titled Trees for the Albuquerque Area, 38 persons responded to the survey. Scoring was on a 1-10 basis, with 10 being highly favorable, and scores were requested in the areas of Scope, Usefulness, Organization, Content, Met Expectations and Would Recommend to Others (two other areas were scored, Handouts and Visual Aids, but the Agent did not provide handouts and many did not respond on Visual Aids, so those numbers are not reported here). In the order presented above, Agent’s scores were: 9.47, 9.63, 9.58, 9.55, 9.47 and 9.55. Typical comments ran along the line of: “Well informed, great slides, good sense of humor”, “Extremely informative! One of the best lectures yet!”, and “Information matched with practical examples – very good”. Not everyone was pleased, however. One responder gave relatively low rankings and commented, “BORING – and something I could look up on my own”. For the presentation on Diagnostic Process, 29 people responded, and gave rankings (in the order above) of 9.41, 9.41, 9.28, 9.28, 9.34 and 9.38. Again, most comments were quite favorable, but the same disappointed audience member returned scores from 0 to 5, with the comment that “didn’t enjoy – BORING. Not a lot of useful information”. Can’t win them all, apparently. Agent taught classes for Sandoval, San Juan, Santa Fe and Valencia County Master Gardeners, as well, on Botany, Plant ID, Arboriculture, and Diagnostic Process.

Other programming not fitting into the main areas listed below included talks/presentations on edible weeds; basic xeriscape principles; aquatic plants; compost, organic matter and soils; and garden weeds.

Agent also provided Pesticide Applicator CEU workshop for the Bernalillo County Open Space Land Management workers, and hosted monthly meetings of an informal beekeepers group here in Albuquerque.