Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture (Bernalillo County)

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.

This topic ranks first with regard to how often the agent must address some aspect of it on the job, with tree questions comprising at least 25 percent of every question that comes across her desk. In other words, tree topics rank number one with regard to how often the agent addresses some aspect of it on the job. Topics such as soil, lawn, weeds, vegetable gardening, the Master Gardener Program, general program planning, and other topics make up about 45 percent of the questions she is faced with.

Bernalillo County is the most densly populated County in NM. The county has approximately 30 percent of the state’s population. The county is mostly urban in nature, with some more rural areas such as the South Valley and the East Mountains. There is great demand for quality urban horticulture information.

This year the agent consulted with homeowners, school garden volunteers, and green industry professionals. She received approximately five to eighteen phone calls per day and I did eight to ten site visits per week during the high-traffic season of April through August. The agent includes site visits in her activities when the problem is too complex or there is not enough information to solve the problem over the phone. The agent believes that site visits are very valuable to the client because of the quality one-on-one attention for the client on site. Site visits are also very valuable to the agent as a learning tool. When the agent learns to identify issues in the field, she is better able to communicate with people over the phone having seen a common problem in the field several times.

the horticulture agent return every phone call and e-mail received. She makes it a point to follow through with promised requests. As a new agent, this is the only way to build trust with the community that she is a resource that can be relied upon.

The horticulture agent advises the Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardeners (AAEMG’s). Bernalillo County has a large and active Master Gardener program. There are approximately 200 active members and an additional 49 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 Los Poblanos Community Garden, give presentations for various groups, and volunteer for numerous other community activities.

The Master Gardeners and interns fielded 745 hotline phone calls from June through August. The interns alone this year accumulated 2,350 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 10,000 hours. This is equivalent to hiring 5 full time employees to address the urban horticultural needs of Bernalillo County. Even this is not enough to address everyone’s needs, but it helps the community a great deal.

The agent did a number of activities and presentations around the community which addressed urban horticulture needs. She did a short activity for four and five year olds on the basics of trees and plants. She helped the students plant beans. She presented “Soil!” to the Heights Wildflower Club. She presented the soil and irrigation information at the East Mt. Gardening Series. She addressed the Nob Hill Neighborhood Association to inform them about the Cooperative Extension Service and her programs. She facilitated two Master Gardener tree tours around Albuquerque. She spoke at the Greater Albuquerque association of Realtors about organic gardening, compost, and native plants. The agent was a presenter at the Master Composter Training. She presented, “Soil, the Matrix of Life”. She also presented at the Herb Festival on the basics of soil. She helped set up and man a booth at the Local Food Festival at the Hubbell House. She facilitated the purchase of corn, beans, and squash seeds that were given out to kids as prizes. The agent wrote an informational insert for the seed packages on the three sisters (corn, beans, and squash). She presented, “Limited Space Gardening; Where Do I Begin???” to the Greenbriar Coop. She held a field trip for La Petite Academy in which 20 kids ranging from first to fourth grade planted seeds and did a hands-on demo on the consequences injuring tree vascular tissue. The agent Reviewed a publication on composting [revision of Guide H110 (Composting)]. She helped a Life Skills class with the CNM Workforce Training Center with raised-bed gardening issues. This class had four homeless women enrolled, but the program is growing. These young women have been given a place to live, education, and they are learning other skills such as how to garden. The agent did two short presentations on soil at the Alcalde Field Day. 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 is currently assisting them in editing other portions of the book. She also presented, “Soil” at a school gardening workshop for Educators.

The results of these activities have been largely positive. In evaluations, the agent received 95 percent 3’s, 4’3, and 5’s (on a scale from 1 to 5) in “usefulness of information”, “Quality of Presentation”, and “Knowledge Gained”. She would like to improve this to where the evaluations are all 4’s and 5’s. The agent received comments such as, “Good presentation. Used visuals very well.”, “Great presentation! Very Informative! Good topic.”, and “Very energetic, good speaker.” The agent also received one or two useful critiques about slowing down with the laser pointer and topics that she should expand on.

Regarding the horticulture agent's day to day interaction with clients, here is an example of some feedback, “Cheryl Rosel was not only professional and knowledgeable, but very personable as well. I cannot express how pleased I was with her help." - Sincerely, Grant L. Marek

Throughout the day, it is hard to quantify how much people gain from phone conversations with the agent, but based on their reactions, she estimate that the majority of people gain knowledge they did not have before. She also has repeat callers that would not call me back if they were not benefiting from the agent's advice.

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 conference typically attracts approximately 350 paid attendees and the Expo may attract thousands. This year (2010) attendance was down due to the poor economy, but the Conference and Expo was an overall success. The agent organized more than 60 volunteers (mostly AAEMGs) that provided vital support at the Conference and the Expo.

Cheryl Kent has signed on to support Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture within Bernalillo County.

Medium-term successes

Eddy County
Living Desert State Park, Eddy County Cooperative Extension, and the NMSU Extension Horticulture Specialist offered a Water Wise Landscape workshop attended by 38 citizens. This is an annual event that has resulted in increasing knowledge of plants and techniques to conserve water in Southeastern New Mexico landscapes. Attendees report successful changes in their landscape and irrigation practices as a result of this annual workshop.

Santa Fe (on-going projects) -
Habitat for Humanity has been using Santa Fe County Master Gardeners to design and install water efficient landscapes at the homes they build. The Master Gardeners then teach the new homeowners how to garden appropriately and conserve water.
El Rancho de los Golondrinos has worked with Master Gardeners maintaining a heritage apple orchard to demonstrate historical gardening practices to visitors.
Master Gardeners have maintained demonstration gardens and collaboration with NMSU Extension faculty (George Dickerson’s herb garden and Curtis Smith’s olla garden). This provides hands-on experience for the Master Gardeners who then teach this to their fellow citizens and to visitors to the demonstration garden site adjacent to the County Extension Service office.

CNM (formerly TV-I) – as chairman of the advisory committee for the Landscape Horticulture training program at CNM the NMSU Extension Horticulture Specialist was in a position to encourage cooperation between NMSU and CNM. Dr. St. Hilaire on the NMSU end and Paul Zalesak at CNM have developed articulation agreements between NMSU and CNM. Distance learning venues were developed so that NMSU professors could teach some of the classes at CNM and some CNM teaching could be made available to NMSU students as desired by the faculty.

Short-term successes

As reported in County Agents’ impact statements, specialist support of county agents and county Master Gardeners has enabled them to meet the changing needs of the nursery industry and home gardeners in their counties, to develop educational programs in schools and among the public.
Specialist support of county Extension programs have enhanced agent respect within the counties to the point that they are often the primary source of information that cities, counties, and other organizations use for referrals.
With specialist assistance Master Gardener programs in the counties are growing and providing increased assistance to the Extension Service agents as stated in the Agents’ impact statements. Master Gardener programs have resulted in significant teaching opportunities for county residents:


Lea Co. – Waite House – the oldest residence in Lovington was donated to the Historical Society and Museum. The museum then gave access to this house to Lea County Master Gardeners to develop a demonstration garden and access to the house as a classroom. This is a long-term and continuing project that provides landscape design and management demonstrations to citizens of Lea County.
NM Jr. College in Hobbs has been impressed by the Lea County Master Gardener program and has offered to provide classroom space for teaching Master Gardeners, advertising for the Master Gardener classes, and willingness to offer Junior College continuing education credits to people who take the Master Gardener classes. This collaboration began in 2009 and is continuing and growing. The New Mexico Junior College experienced a 60% increase in enrollment as a result of collaboration with NMSU and Lea County Master Gardeners.
Otero - Otero County Master Gardeners provided 6 educational programs to educate local gardeners about techniques for landscaping and gardening in a water conserving manner. They were provided NMSU publications and information. Through the year 49 Otero County Master Gardener volunteers provided 2269 hours of horticultural educational service to their fellow citizens.
Sandoval - A demonstration garden in developed in cooperation with city of Rio Rancho, Sandoval Extension Service, and Master Gardener has been highly regarded locally and nationally. In 2009 Master Gardeners had donated by the time of the county report over 2000 pounds of vegetables from this garden to two charities that distribute vegetables to people in need. The provision of fresh vegetables was a much needed addition to the foods available and the nutrition of program participants.
Master Gardeners provided well-attended plant clinics to answer gardening questions from 200 citizens annually. They conduct numerous educational programs for 500 county residents utilizing Master Gardeners, County and State Extension professionals as instructors. These have resulted in ongoing changes in gardening practices in Sandoval County.
Over 100 active Master Gardeners have contributed more than 5,000 hours of educational service to Sandoval County.
Bernalillo- About 200 active Master Gardeners assist the Bernalillo County Extension Program in offering horticulture education programs to the public. Many contribute more than the required 40 volunteer hours due to their commitment to the success of the program and desire to teach their fellow citizens. Volunteer activities exceed 10,000 hours in providing gardening information at libraries, the Downtown Growers Market in Albuquerque, 4-H Seeds program, the Organic Demonstration Garden, Tomato Fiesta, and various joint activities with the Albuquerque Council of Garden Clubs.
Valencia- Twenty-one Master Gardeners contributed 1, 297 volunteer hours in support of the Valencia County Extension horticulture educational program. The Master Gardeners maintained a demonstration water harvesting/container garden at the Valencia County Extension office using information provided by the NMSU Extension Horticulture Specialist and the County Agent. Master Gardeners conducted 50 plant clinics to provide educational outreach to Valencia County residents.
Los Alamos- Forty-two Master Gardeners volunteered 688 hours of a variety of horticultural educational service to county residents.