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Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture (Bernalillo County)

Plan Goal

To improve public's satisfaction with landscape plant issues by teaching proper plant selection and management, including pest, disease and weed control, soil conditioning and fertilization, and appropriate, efficient irrigation.

Situation Statement

Bernalillo County is the largest urban county in the state (estimated 2010 population is 662,564), though one of the smallest in geographical terms (1,166 square miles). Population growth continues apace, with many newcomers moving in every year (19% increase from 2000 to 2010). 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 large urban center, there is a very strong demand for all types of horticultural information, from basic plant selection, to pruning, to home gardening, to xeriscape, and more.
The Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardeners, whose membership numbers just over 200, is one part of the solution, through their interaction with the gardening public. We try to 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 a given.
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 Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Service. These commercial consultations are about problems they are not able to solve on their own, or to their client's, satisfaction.
The Horticulture Agent is a strongly involved member of three organizations which exist to put on conferences aimed at different segments of the greens industry. These are Think Trees New Mexico (which is responsible for the Think Trees conference, aimed at the regional arboriculture segment) and the Xeriscape Council of New Mexico (which is responsible for the Xeriscape conference, aimed at landscape designers/architects as well as landscape installation and maintenance firms, and which includes free seminars open to and aimed at the homeowner audience), and the Southwest Turfgrass Association (intended for anyone in the lawn care industry from golf course maintenance to home lawn care). These three conferences are great venues for mass education.

Target Audience and Actions

Includes homeowners, home gardeners, Master Gardeners, landscape installation and maintenance operations, local civic organizations (Home Owners Associations, Neighborhood Associations, Albuquerque BioPark, schools, churches, etc.).
Agent will respond to contacts from organizations, and will seek out additional opportunities, by providing training to the members of organizations with presentations/trainings on horticultural topics of their choice. These will be either given at a public location, such as our office or the Albuquerque Garden Center, or will be taken to the regular meeting site of the 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.
Agent will organize, or participate in the organizing of, conferences and workshops in various topic fields. Examples include the Xeriscape Conference and Think Tree conference, but also smaller workshops such as Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) trainings and hoop-house construction.

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 the 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 (To be determined) 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 about tree root package defects and how to correct them. These are 1-2 hour, interactive trainings. 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. The Agent will gather qualitative information from one-on-one interactions.