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Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture (Doña Ana County)

Plan Goal

To educate the public in the selection and use of plant materials suitable for Dona Ana County. To improve the public's satisfaction with landscape plant issues by teaching proper plant management in watering, selection and pest control.

Situation Statement

Doña Ana County with a land mass of 3807 sq. miles, is the second most populated county in the state of New Mexico, 198,791 (July 2007). Among this figure 80% of people living in the county reside in an urban setting, while 20% are considered rural. Doña Ana County has become one of the fastest growing counties within the state, in particular the city of Las Cruces and the Rio Grande Valley to the south. Urban Horticulture has become the main focus within the county due to this rise in population. Many people move to DAC from areas of the country that are very dissimilar to those encountered here. Doña Ana County sits in the Chihuahuan Desert and offers a wide range of growing conditions not familiar to those moving here. A significant proportion of these people are not aware of the range of horticultural issues in which our conditions don’t match those found elsewhere, and in which our recommendations may not be what they knew “back home”. In this growing urban environment, there is a very strong demand for all types of horticultural information, from basic plant selection, to pruning, to home gardening, to xeriscapeing , and much more.
The Doña Ana County Master Gardeners form one part of the solution through their interaction with the gardening public. Our programs train the members to be able to respond to most home-owner questions. At the same time, there are limits to the breadth of knowledge that part-time, non-professionals can be expected to master, so continued reliance on the Horticulture Agent is required.
The County is also home to many landscape professionals and plant nurseries. A good number of these businesses take advantage of the services provided by the Doña Ana County Cooperative Extension Service, not least among these consultations on problems they are not able to solve on their own, or to their clients, satisfaction.
To the extent that agriculture continues to exist in the County, apart from the landscape/ornamental industry, it is to be found in the form of very small farms. These may be just in alfalfa, or they may be fruit orchards, vineyards and market gardens. Demand for assistance and information in these latter categories is strongly increasing, as many local organizations coalesce around the greater goal of retaining the agricultural nature of Doña Ana County. There is tremendous market potential for continued expansion of these types of operations in the region. There is also interest in meeting that potential, as indicated by the strong response to a recent hoop house construction workshop hosted through our office, and put on by Del Jimenez. However, much remains to be done to re-introduce good small-scale farming practices and foster the beneficial use of the remaining available farm land.

Target Audience and Actions

Agent will respond to contacts from organizations, and will seek out additional opportunities, by providing training to the members of said organizations with presentations/trainings on horticultural topics of their choice. These will be either given at a public location, such as our office, or will be taken to the regular meeting site of said organizations. Typical formats will include PowerPoint presentations, casual lectures, and hands-on workshops.
Agent will respond to inquiries made to the office on matters horticultural, either by phone, in person, or using the internet. Agent will provide accurate and up-to-date information. Agent will request follow-up responses from clientele to determine their satisfaction with the information (ideally, this will be set up on the county website).
Agent will organize, or participate in the organizing of, conferences and workshops in various topic fields. Examples include, the Organic Small Farms Conference, Pecan Field Day, Pecan Conference, Chile Field Day, but also smaller workshops aimed at market gardeners, rose growing, hoop-house construction and tree planting.
Agent will seek input from plant nursery management to design short half-day trainings to be done on-site at the nurseries, with the intent of providing nursery workers an opportunity to increase their knowledge and thus be better information resources for their customers.

Short-Term Objectives

Over the next twelve months, the Agent will respond to contacts, providing satisfactory information to 80% of the clients, and leading them to an increase in knowledge of not less than 20%.
Over the next twelve months, the Agent will respond to presentation requests from groups and organizations at the rate of 1 per month, on average. Clientele attending said presentations will self-report an increase in knowledge of not less than 20%, on average.

Medium-Term Objectives

In the next three years, Agent will devise, plan and host workshops and trainings on various topics. Some of the topics that will be visited include: organic fruit production; small-scale market gardening; growing citrus and other uncommon fruits; building and using hoop houses. Agent will do an average of four of these workshops per year. Clientele attending the workshops will report an average increase in knowledge of at least 20% in the subject area.

Long-Term Objectives

In the next five years, Agent will devise, plan and present special in-house training sessions to local plant nurseries. These are imagined as 2-3 hour, interactive trainings focusing on plant care in the nursery, planting instructions for the customers, plant selection and recommendations, and pest identification. Starting by year 2, agent will begin presenting these trainings, and will average 3 per year. Attendees will report an average increase in knowledge of not less than 20%.

Evaluation Plan

Agent will develop short evaluation forms to be handed out at presentations and workshops; Agent will set up system for one-on-one clients to report outcome of interaction with Agent.