Slide 1 Extension Demonstration Gardens: Planning, Design, & Implementation IMPORTANT ROLES OF VOLUNTEERS 1 EXPECTATION OF A NEW VOLUNTEER
Slide 2 Introduction Lisa Hickey, Urban Horticulture Extension Agent at Manatee County Extension Office lisa.hickey@ufl.edu Research from Master s Project in Horticulture Science Stemmed from Dr. Sydney Park Brown s UF Publication on UF Extension Demonstration Gardens Creation of the demonstration gardens at Manatee County Extension Office 2
Slide 3 The Issues Master Gardener and Florida- Friendly Program Coordinators pressure to create or maintain demonstration gardens in addition to Agent s academia duties. Lack of comprehensive guidelines. The order of completing a demonstration garden can impact the length of installation and maintenance. 3
Slide 4 Gaps in Knowledge for Agents What is the planning process? Where will the resources (monetary & structural) come from? How will construction be accomplished? What is the maintenance schedule? How do you market the garden? Will impacts be measureable? 4 When we began our demonstration garden, I could not find a comprehensive guide and I had no idea where to start. I talked with other extension offices to get guidance and many said the same thing. They just started by planning out what they wanted in the garden. Planning what they wanted versus what the public wanted. There wasn t any information on resources except start writing grants (grants have specific needs and I did not write grants before) Construction - greenhouse and many of the other structure how would we accomplish this? I had an idea on the maintenance of plants but no idea how to develop a schedule with the quantity of plant material that was being suggested. I did not know how to market other than send out flyers to the community. Which is our marketing now. I hope to learn through this process a better & more efficient way.
Slide 5 Objectives To determine the steps in creating an Extension demonstration garden To gain an understanding of Extension Agents successful tips and problematic issues in creating, designing, and maintaining an Extension Demonstration Garden To determine where volunteer roles are important 5
Slide 6 Methodology Qualitative - Narrative Inquiry Screening survey to 51 faculty on the process of creating the gardens The creation steps, successes and failures Personal Interviews 26 EA on the process of creating the gardens fine tuning screening answers Suggestions for new agents creating gardens 6 Quatrics summary of data
Slide 7 Sample Interview Questions When planning the garden, what were the planning steps or phases of development and who helped accomplish the steps? How did you choose the specialty gardens represented in your final garden design? Did the planning phase address all the budgetary items? How did you decide what were the visitor s needs? What steps did you take to market the gardens? How are the gardens being maintained & by whom? 7 Here are some questions that I have started to compile to ask the different gardens. The interview process is going to take some time, there are 45 Extension Gardens and 51 Extension Agents responsible Specialty gardens are there any of these gardens that have similarities in their planning and development stages? Budgetary what was not addresses? Visitor s needs what method did they use to find out what visitor s expected did they survey their county residents for input?
Slide 8 Are there specific steps in creating the gardens? YES planning, designing, resource gathering, construction, maintenance. Excluded - Marketing and Measuring impacts 80% of the respondents said the agent and volunteers initiated the idea to create a demonstration garden 12% asked the community for input before the creation 100% - driven by a theme they wanted like wildlife, fruit trees, edibles, children s, sensory, etc. 70% are one acre or less 8 #1 theme pollinator gardens #2 theme FFL principles 80% = 14 MG initiated garden idea and 21 Agent driven
Slide 9 Planning Comments The more planning up front the higher the success rate (up to one year ahead). 46% formed a planning committee to start the planning process 31% said planning took up to six months 32% of the agents said they wish they would have spent more time in the planning phase to iron out problems that occurred later (specifically design & maintenance issues) Advice plan big then install on your budget 61% felt planning was the most successful step 9
Slide 10 Design Comments Design by theme gardens small accomplishments help with buy-in of the gardens and visitation can start earlier Try not to think of the budget when coming up with ideas. Creativity is important for design work. Partner with the county landscape designer, public works, and property management departments as FREE design or land acquistion Are there volunteers with design background Start to think about marketing 10
Slide 11 Design Comments 21 Agents designed and planned the gardens as 1 step versus 2 separate steps. Some indicated this was difficult to stay focus on the tasks at hand because the project seem immense. Two counties just planted plants no design or planning. Both failed. Several agents indicated that this was the phase that little time was spent or no time was spent on thoroughly designing. 11
Slide 12 Resource Gathering Comments Master Gardeners 65% plant sales Book sales nurseries Foundation membership Mulch from arborist Inmate labor Local corporations PRIDE signage Soil testing fees Soil & gravel from Utilities & Public Works 12 Consider nurseries, large local corporations, community based business, realty companies
Slide 13 Resource gathering can be considered at any step Those that preferred resource gathering as the first step felt they reduced their creativity in the planning. # 1 resource - In-kind services from Master Gardeners 50% said you will always be looking for resources to sustain the gardens Look at grant options early to know what is out there they usually have timeframes for submittal Resources are the limiting factor to creating and maintaining a demonstration garden 13 Look for Community improvement grants
Slide 14 Construct by themes same as design comment you need buy-in and visitation to show success! Go over budget several times for unforeseen circumstances a $$ buffer is good for the unforeseen. when coming up with ideas. Partner with the county - public works, and property management departments earth moving equipment, fencing, welding, large tree installations (parks dept) Are there any General Contractor Master Gardeners that can help facilitate progress on this phase Construction Comments 14
Slide 15 Maintenance Comments Hire a position just for garden maintenance! (PLAN IT) Master Gardeners that can help facilitate progress on this phase 100% of Extension Demo Gardens have volunteer support 91% of the gardens are in the maintenance step 23% said the maintenance step was the most successful. Establish consistent & scheduled workdays Plan for long term maintenance like bench replacement, shelled paths, mulch replenishment 15 Pruning and mowing from property management USE BY-LAWS to set expectations
Slide 16 Marketing comments You can never market enough and frequent enough! 77% market the garden Time and skill to market is a huge constraint for Extension Agents Skilled volunteers can help especially word of mouth Use workshops and outreach in the gardens as part of the marketing approach Bring everyone s ideas together and think outside the box real estate offices, Chamber of Commerce 16
Slide 17 Measuring Impacts Comments 32% do not count visitors open garden design can bean issue 69% do not measure the impact of their gardens Those that measure impacts only measure impacts of workshop visitors when hands-on activities are done Agents lack time orskill to measure impacts New survey method that Manatee is doing 17
Slide 18 Most important advice that was repeated! Create gardens based on annual reporting objectives or you will not be able to justify your time later! The more planning up front the higher the success rate (up to one year ahead). Plan the dream garden, install the pauper s version. This helps with resource gathering or lack of resources. Have a salary position for garden oversight. Volunteerism is super and required. + and (seasonal, reliability, skill development, maintenance, marketing word-of-mouth) 18