Lexington, KY - For me, a garden of my own was by far one of the most exciting prospects of being a new homeowner. In October, I planted my first tulip and gladiola bulbs, skeptical that anything would come of them. In March, my home and garden accomplice and I eagerly got started on our (rather shanty) makeshift kitchen greenhouse: lots of tomatoes (like, an entire packet of seeds), uber-hot peppers (his pets), delphiniums (mine). We spent those temperately unpredictable early spring weeks consulting garden books, drawing maps and grids of our yard, getting militant about composting, and hovering over our baby seedlings like nervous parents. When Derby Day hit, we were ready to dig - shovel in one hand, mint julep in the other (this is how other people garden, right?).
Watching the green sprouts in my flowerbed erupt from dirt that had been dormant for months was unexpectedly titillating. Tilling the plot for the vegetable garden was a bit more physically demanding than I had imagined (especially after that second mint julep), but a rewarding experience nonetheless. We got our fragile seedlings in the ground, along with some squash and lettuce plants, and planted a barrier of marigolds to protect them from the bugs.
Before you get too comfortable with the image of me as the Home & Garden poster girl (which I was maybe starting to feel like), I should go ahead and mention that we eventually had to replace every single tomato plant started from seed with stronger, more established plants (grown from stronger, more established gardeners). My delphiniums didn't take off. We didn't allow nearly enough room for our squash and zucchini, and some grew as large as baseball bats right under our noses. Neighborhood squirrels mutilated my sunflowers; my eggplants tasted kind of funny.
But my first garden yielded months of delicious tomatoes, peppers, squash and herbs. My flowers were gorgeous and attracted equally gorgeous butterflies. I must say that it was a success, even though the yard was a complete mess by the end of August. One of my favorite experiences was witnessing as stray squash plants of different varieties popped up all over the yard, in corners where we never tread - apparently born from a magical conception of composted squash seeds and bird crap. But perhaps the most valuable bit that I ultimately took from the experience was the knowledge that I really didn't know what I was doing. As it turns out, gardening is an art and a skill that can be honed by education and experience - - and that first year, I had very little of either.
Fortunately, and unbeknownst to me at the time, our local extension service offers an exhaustive list of services, workshops and resources for aspiring green thumbs like me. Over the next few pages you will find more about what they do, including some March gardening tips and a rundown of upcoming classes - consider it a starting guide for the new gardener, or a checkpoint for the gardener who's gotten comfortable in their habits.
The cooperative extension service
Typically funded in part by a state's land-grant universities, cooperative extension service draws from a wealth of university research in areas that include agriculture, horticulture, health, family science, environmental science and other fields. Extension service started at the turn of the 20th century with the mission of making university research available to the general public, and applicable to everyday life.
Some people know the extension office as being behind the state's 4-H operations; others know it for its Gardener's Toolbox classes or the Master Gardener certification it offers. In reality, the service offers an exhaustive list of services for just about everybody.
"Think about any aspect of your life," said Jamie Dockery, Fayette County extension agent for horticulture. "Chances are, the extension service has something to offer for it." From gardening to leadership development, money management to cultural arts, nutrition to the environment, the extension service specializes in a wide variety of fields, basing all of its education outreach efforts on intensive university research.
According to Dockery, Kentucky has one of the strongest cooperative extension services in the country, with each of the 120 counties operating its own extension office. The Fayette County Cooperative Extension Service offers classes and workshops, informative newsletters, volunteer opportunities and other services in Ag & Natural Resources, Family & Consumer Sciences, Horticulture, 4-H, and Community and Economic Development.
MARCH GARDENING TIPS
These days, advice on practically everything, including gardening, is just a double click away. The Internet can be a great source for information, Dockery said, but it is important to make sure you are dealing with a credible source, preferably one that is grounded in professional research (universities are a great place to start; he also cited eXtension.org, which features an online question board for gardening questions).
Your local extension office is another great place to start. Here are some timely spring gardening tips from the Fayette County Cooperative Extension Office (most are taken from their March newsletter, available for free to the general public via mail or e-mail.)
First things first: One of the first steps in your gardening process should be to test the soil of your garden bed; spring and fall are the best times to do this. Testing the level of nutrients will determine what nutrients and how much, if any, you need to add for ideal growing conditions. Most fertilizers you get off the shelf contain nutrients your ground doesn't need, Dockery said, which can become a huge watershed problem. He recommends that homeowners test their soil at least every few years.
To test soil: Push a spade 7 inches into the soil and throw the soil aside. Take another 1-inch slice of soil from the back of the hole. Remove all the soil but the center 1- to 2-inch-wide core. Place this core of soil in a clean bucket. Repeat the procedure in several different spots to get a representative sample of the whole garden, and to get about 1 pint of soil. Mix the composite sample well and dry it on paper for about two days at room temperature. Bring the sample to the extension office for analysis (the service costs $5). Allow up to two weeks for results to return.