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Growing Second Chances: A Master Gardener Program Inside Prison Walls
87 Plays23 days ago
In this special seasonal episode of the Hort Culture podcast, join Ray as he sits down with Boyd County Horticulture Extension Agent Lori Bowling to explore a truly impactful and unique horticulture program: the Federal Correctional Institution Master Gardener Program in Ashland, Kentucky. Lori shares the origin story of the program, which began more than two decades ago with a simple orchard planting and evolved into a full Kentucky Master Gardener certification offered inside a federal prison. Listeners learn how incarcerated participants complete the same rigorous coursework and volunteer requirements as any Master Gardener, while gaining valuable job skills, purpose, and confidence. The conversation highlights the program’s far-reaching benefits, including the production of tens of thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables each year that are donated to River Cities Harvest and distributed to food-insecure families across Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. This episode powerfully illustrates how horticulture education, community partnerships, and Extension programming can change lives—both inside and outside prison walls—by growing food, skills, and hope.
Boyd County Extension Horticulture Program
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to the Holiday Series
00:00:01
Plant People
Thank you.
00:00:18
Plant People
Welcome ah listeners to this last and final of what we've been calling the host and I, what we've been calling kind of our special holiday series episodes. And these are episodes where we either do episodes by ourselves with the guest or Or maybe a couple of us you've heard from Jessica and Alexis, and I think Brett did his own solo episode. So if you've been listening to those episodes in December, ah you'll know that these are the special holiday episodes. They tend to be a little shorter in nature, and we do kind of different things to make it through the holiday season and still stay on schedule and track and get all
Weather and Introductions
00:00:54
Plant People
that behind us. Well, now we are in January.
00:00:57
Plant People
ah My goodness. And it is ah now here in central Kentucky, 65 degrees in January, and the sun is shining. It just as easily could have been zero degrees with a foot of snow on the ground. Kentucky will absolutely always keep you guessing. But a really exciting discussion that I've looked forward to today with Lori Bowling. She's the board the Boyd County Horticulture Extension agent.
00:01:28
Plant People
And when I was in the eastern part of the state, I had the pleasure of working with Lori for, gosh, Lori, I guess 10 years. It was a long time and we did a lot of programming with other agents.
00:01:36
Lori Bowling
Yeah.
00:01:39
Plant People
We did a lot of group programming back during that time period. in in the eastern part of the state and worked a lot together and I really enjoyed that work.
Plant Successes and Failures
00:01:48
Plant People
But before we get into the main topic today that I've been looking forward to talking to Lori about, really exciting Master Gardener project. Before we get into all that, Lori, you normally start with a general discussion topic. Well, I'm going to ask you, since this is wrapping up the year, we're in January now, but we're wrapping up our special holiday season episodes, and If you can think back personally or through work, even since we're horticulture extension agents, what has been your biggest plant success or failure in 2025? You can tell on yourself this is ah this is the place to do it. that This is the time. So thinking back.
00:02:27
Plant People
Oh, man, it must be good.
00:02:27
Lori Bowling
As far as, yeah, as far as plants, and
00:02:31
Plant People
Plants. Yes, plants are program related. I'm thinking about plants, I guess, because I'm always doing goofy things with plants myself.
00:02:38
Lori Bowling
well, program related, I don't know that I've had any big, big flops that in 2020.
00:02:43
Plant People
Well, that's good. That's a good thing. No professional flops. Yeah.
00:02:46
Lori Bowling
However, if you saw my windowsill in my office, All I got to say is do as I say, not as I do.
00:02:55
Plant People
So you, I'm assuming that you have some dead plants in your window.
00:02:57
Lori Bowling
i do because...
00:02:59
Plant People
And I bet as a horticulture extension agent, people will let you know about that, right?
00:03:04
Lori Bowling
I know, I know, and it's pitiful.
00:03:05
Plant People
And people that come into your office are going to see that and say, I thought you were the horticulture agent.
00:03:07
Lori Bowling
But...
00:03:10
Lori Bowling
Well, you know, i am the horticulture agent, but here's the thing.
00:03:13
Plant People
hey
00:03:13
Lori Bowling
The horticulture agent doesn't just sit in this office and take care of plants.
00:03:18
Plant People
Ooh.
00:03:18
Lori Bowling
She is out teaching and doing programming and is not here to take care of those plants.
00:03:21
Plant People
Nice spin on it Or you can tell people maybe it's a sick bay. Hey, these are the, or an experiment.
00:03:25
Lori Bowling
Well, no, honey, it's a mortuary.
00:03:26
Plant People
How about that? Oh, okay. Okay.
00:03:29
Lori Bowling
It's mortuary.
00:03:29
Plant People
Not a sick bay. I've never heard of a plant mortuary. That's new one on me. I have out back what I call a plant sick bay where all the stuff that's not doing well, usually I'll dig it up and throw it in a next to the like a compost pile something.
00:03:34
Lori Bowling
I've got it. Okay.
00:03:42
Plant People
Then it does great when I quit bothering it. But I've never heard of a...
00:03:44
Lori Bowling
Yeah. Yeah. Well. Mm-hmm.
00:03:45
Plant People
A plant mortuary. Yeah, that's a new one on me.
00:03:48
Lori Bowling
now
00:03:49
Plant People
I guess I sort of had a plant mortuary. One of my biggest plant failures or or kind of a silly plant failure in 2025 of my own was I was cleaning out some of the, it's a stacked flower bed it's what or stacked plant.
00:04:01
Plant People
planters There's like ah six that's kind of offset in a row, almost like a ladder, some really nice planters. And they had some weeds in them from the previous year. What I thought were weeds. Well, me not paying attention, doing what I do, was excited about pulling up and getting rid of all the weeds.
00:04:18
Plant People
And out of the six containers, I left one of the containers. I didn't have time to weed them all. So I left some of the weeds to pull later. Well, the plants grew in that container.
00:04:29
Plant People
They grew up and I noticed they were these beautiful calibrachoras, hundreds of them. And I was like, oh my gosh, the caliber coas I had in there the year before had self-seeded, which callies are not supposed to do that.
00:04:34
Lori Bowling
Oh wow.
00:04:41
Lori Bowling
Yeah.
00:04:41
Plant People
Caliber coas generally don't self-seed.
00:04:41
Lori Bowling
Yeah.
00:04:43
Plant People
Petunias a lot of times will, but the caliber coas had self-seeded and came back true to type. And I probably, I transplanted those things everywhere. And I thought, my gosh, if I would have left, Those, you know, the five that I pulled up, all of those Cali's and destroyed them.
00:04:57
Lori Bowling
<unk>
00:04:59
Plant People
And here's me pulling up plants that I should have known what they were, but I pulled up probably $500 worth of plants that had self-seeded beautifully. Mother Nature did not need
Master Gardener Program at Federal Correctional Institute
00:05:10
Plant People
my help.
00:05:10
Plant People
It just did it on its own.
00:05:10
Lori Bowling
Wow.
00:05:12
Plant People
But yeah, that's my plant failure. But yours is right out there for mine, at least Lori, were hidden in the back.
00:05:14
Lori Bowling
Look.
00:05:18
Plant People
You just, you just wear yours loud and proud.
00:05:18
Lori Bowling
Yeah, I'm ride here for everybody to see.
00:05:21
Plant People
Yeah, just for everybody to look at. Well, I admire that. I do have some scraggly looking plants. I have some Barbados lilies, which are amaryllis, in my office. I have some very sick peace lilies or spathorilliums.
00:05:33
Plant People
I have, a yeah, i have a my office kind of looks like a jungle in the corner. But I tell people, I'm like, listen, I pull these plants from other people or other places in the office where they got sick, and I'm trying to nurse them back to health.
00:05:44
Plant People
So no matter what, I'm trying to spin the storyline. So yeah, just tell people,
00:05:48
Lori Bowling
Yeah, when you have the plant ER. You have the plant ER.
00:05:50
Plant People
Yeah.
00:05:50
Lori Bowling
I have the mortuary. So, you know.
00:05:52
Plant People
Okay. Okay. Well, least italy' at least where we're being honest. and You're not telling people with an experiment. You're just straight up telling them hey, they're dead.
00:06:00
Lori Bowling
Yeah, they are.
00:06:00
Plant People
Yeah. Dead no more.
00:06:01
Lori Bowling
They're dead.
00:06:02
Plant People
Well, we did not have Lori on the show today on this episode of Horticulture to talk about dead plants.
00:06:02
Lori Bowling
Yeah.
00:06:08
Plant People
We as horticulture agents um much more enjoy talking about living plants and programs.
00:06:08
Lori Bowling
Yeah.
00:06:14
Plant People
Well, the program that I wanted Lori to tell us about today, us some more detail is one I learned about many years ago. when I worked in the eastern part of the state, a really, really cool program with what I consider just huge impact in a whole entire region of the state and other states from what understand, Lori. And that is the Federal Correctional Institute Master Gardener Program that takes place. I guess it's ah the inside the the institutes there, the correctional facilities in Boyd County. Is that correct, Lori?
00:06:44
Lori Bowling
Yes, it is.
00:06:44
Plant People
Well, if if we could just start out talking about
00:06:44
Lori Bowling
Sure.
00:06:48
Plant People
this program and how it came about, how you got together with the leadership there at the correctional facility and came up with a Master Gardener program that's a little bit out of the ordinary and that was held in a prison setting.
00:07:03
Plant People
So if you tell us a little bit about that at first, I would love to hear the origin story of this awesome program.
00:07:07
Lori Bowling
man sure so um When I started working for Extension, I started back in 1997, and I actually started as a program assistant for horticulture under our agriculture agent.
00:07:20
Plant People
Okay.
00:07:23
Lori Bowling
And he basically just let me run with anything horticulture because, you know, I had the background and and he knew that I was capable of doing it. Well, He got a call from the a food service director at the camp.
00:07:39
Lori Bowling
that The facility here in Boyd County, it has a it's a minimum security, and it has a camp as well as a main facility, behind-the-fence facility.
00:07:46
Plant People
okay
00:07:50
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:07:50
Lori Bowling
So he got a call from the food service director of the camp. And at that time, they were having a lot. Back then, I think it was in 2000 was when this happened, 99 or 2000.
00:08:03
Lori Bowling
and they were having a lot of budget cuts, a lot of things like that. And he wanted to ah he wanted to talk to our agent about putting in an orchard out there at the camp so that they could get more fresh fruit, at least apples, um for the inmates because, you know, they are required to give them a you know, feed them by the food pyramid. So many fruits and vegetables and all that every day.
00:08:30
Lori Bowling
So um the ag agent got me involved and we got apples and pears planted out there. We got a specialist up here to help us and we got an orchard planted.
00:08:42
Lori Bowling
And that went over so well that they wanted us to start doing maybe some education with the inmates to to help them along to be able to do the take care of the fruit trees in the orchard and we decided hey what about let's do this master gardener program you know this education we do it here in the public setting we could do it in in the camp setting there at the institution and so they were all for it and we started our first class I believe it was in 2000 was when we did our first class And every year that we would, I would work with the education person there at the camp, but every year they would let inmates sign up for the class and they would keep a waiting list.
Inmate Certification and Community Impact
00:09:29
Plant People
A waiting list.
00:09:29
Lori Bowling
We always, yes, we always, we only took a max of 25 students per class and we always had a waiting list.
00:09:30
Plant People
Wow.
00:09:37
Plant People
And that's considered 25 for a master gardener class on average in state of Kentucky. That's a big class, Laurie. Yeah. Wow.
00:09:43
Lori Bowling
That is a very big class. And and every year, every, ah we all, always had it in January.
00:09:45
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:09:50
Lori Bowling
We would start in January. And every year, i always had a full class. Now, I would lose some to a the shoe, which is the, you
00:10:03
Lori Bowling
I can't remember what that shoe stands for, but it's the solitary confinement. You know, they would get in trouble and they would be put in solitary and I would lose them.
00:10:07
Plant People
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:10:10
Lori Bowling
Some of them that would go there, they would come back and have to get caught up. Some of them ended up going back inside, inside the fence and, you know, they didn't come back to the class. But on average, I would graduate.
00:10:25
Lori Bowling
18 inmates every year out of that program. So the big question that I always get is, i can understand you going in there and doing the teaching and teaching the curriculum, but to be a certified Kentucky Master Gardener, which these in mys inmates were certified Kentucky Master Gardeners when they got done with the program,
00:10:34
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:10:44
Plant People
I was just going to ask you the Kentucky master gardener program, like all programs around the U S it's a big program. It's almost like a semester of vocational or a freshman year college class, 10 to 12, very intensive, you know, minimum program.
00:10:57
Lori Bowling
right
00:10:58
Plant People
So you offered the full program inside the prison, like the full experience, like the full master gardener curriculum, which gosh, Lori, the manual itself is what, almost 400 pages.
00:11:02
Lori Bowling
yes yes yes we did yes yeah so i did the full program and i've done it that way every year um and i would always tell them to me basically the information and the knowledge that they gained from that class to me was almost equivalent to a two-year horticulture college degree um
00:11:09
Plant People
So you did the full program.
00:11:26
Lori Bowling
And they would they would do volunteer time. And a lot of people say well, how do they do volunteer time? They're incarcerated.
00:11:32
Plant People
Yeah, that's my next question, yeah.
00:11:34
Lori Bowling
So, you know, that began with them wanting an orchard and somebody had to take care of the orchard. Well, the inmates that took care of the orchard, they would go do it after their job that they had in the facility.
00:11:49
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:11:49
Lori Bowling
So they would volunteer. Well,
00:11:51
Plant People
They would volunteer. So man, that must've been like a perk or something to get to go outside. And I'm assuming when you say like a camp area, it's a few acres or whatever, this garden. So they get to go outside. So it must've been, if they're volunteering, must've been like a perk.
00:12:05
Lori Bowling
Well, it it was kind of a perk because they had their jobs and they could, a lot of them, you know, you had some that worked for landscape crew that were going outside and mowing and stuff, but
00:12:15
Plant People
Oh, okay. Yeah.
00:12:16
Lori Bowling
But not not everybody got to do that. They had to request to be on those jobs, or even if they were going to volunteer, they had to be in the class to begin with.
00:12:19
Plant People
Yeah.
00:12:26
Lori Bowling
And um then they had to get approval from the guard that was overseeing the garden or that the...
00:12:26
Plant People
Yeah.
00:12:36
Lori Bowling
the orchard. So what happened was the orchard did so well that then they had the idea because they had some land just sitting there that they owned that could be used for a vegetable garden.
00:12:37
Plant People
Yeah.
00:12:49
Lori Bowling
And so it just snowballed from that point. um We started a vegetable garden and the inmates would go over and they would till the land, they would plant, we would teach them how to plant. a lot of a lot of the students that went through this program were inner city people that had no idea how to grow anything.
00:13:09
Lori Bowling
Well, some of them knew how to grow a few things, but mostly...
00:13:11
Plant People
Yeah. And what were the responses to this? I mean, them learning all of these, well, based on what you just said, learning these completely new skills and doing new the hands-on things. What was the response to that?
00:13:22
Lori Bowling
it Well, it was a really good response, actually. um i You know, you always have a few that you get in the class that are just there to get out of doing something else. um But the education department out there was really good about weeding out the inmates that they knew would not fit in this class.
00:13:40
Plant People
yeah I was just going to ask, was there um a selection process or prerequisites for them to be in the Master Gardener program?
00:13:48
Lori Bowling
Yes.
00:13:48
Plant People
Okay.
00:13:48
Lori Bowling
So the education department would take care of all of that for me.
00:13:52
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:13:52
Lori Bowling
And one big prerequisite was that they had to have their high school diploma or their GED.
00:13:59
Plant People
Okay.
00:14:00
Lori Bowling
um So they had to have that before they could ever be in this class because it was pretty much a college level course.
00:14:05
Plant People
Yeah, the information is pretty heavy, yeah.
00:14:07
Lori Bowling
Right. So the education department also would look at um the inmate as a whole, as far as their inmate record and, you know, their attitude and things like that.
00:14:19
Lori Bowling
And they would look at that to screen those possible students for me. And by far, I got some really good, really good students throughout the years in that class.
00:14:30
Plant People
I was always impressed, and I was very fortunate that you invited me a couple times to come and do individual like an individual session there when I worked in the eastern part of the state. and i was always you know At first, I didn't know what to expect.
00:14:42
Plant People
I thought, well, I'm going to come into a class big class of ah folks that aren't going to be taking it serious, but I found that very quickly not to be the case. I went in And the couple of classes that I was fortunate enough to work with for a couple of ah educational sessions, they took it very serious.
00:14:57
Plant People
They asked some of the most intense, kind of asked great questions.
00:14:58
Lori Bowling
Yes.
00:15:03
Plant People
They were taking the class very serious. And I asked a couple of them after, you know, the teaching portion was done of the class. I said, yeah, you guys seem like you're really into this.
00:15:13
Plant People
And they said, well, yeah, it's really important to us because they felt like, that if they did well at this, that it would help them after they got out of the the correctional facility to find jobs.
00:15:25
Plant People
So they were taking the program, Lori, really serious. And I saw that, I quickly saw that with ah the participants and it was really cool.
00:15:33
Lori Bowling
Yes. And that was, you know, every class, when I would go in the first class, the first class meeting, and when I would go in and introduce myself and just give them a little bit of background about the class and what to expect and what what I was going to do and what they were expected to do and what they would earn. Yeah.
00:15:55
Lori Bowling
They were very, that really got them interested and and they were really interested. I would, you know, I would explain to them that if they fulfilled all of these requirements that they would get certified as a Kentucky Master Gardener and that they would get that ah certification or that certificate and they could use that when they got out on job applications um and and in, you know, attached with resumes because it was recognized across the whole U.S. The Master Gardener program is a national program and of course the University of Kentucky is, you know, pretty highly regarded as a
00:16:33
Lori Bowling
at least as an ag school, you know, they are regarded for more things than basketball. um I tell people that. but um But, and I tell them, you know, this is, it's kind of impressive if you have this certification and it could go a long way.
00:16:50
Lori Bowling
and i would
00:16:50
Plant People
A national certification, yeah.
00:16:52
Lori Bowling
Right. And I would always encourage them if they did get out and seek employment in the horticulture field and they were going to use that certification, that if anyone needed to verify their certification, that they could give them my contact information because it was on the, you know, on the website or whatever.
00:17:12
Lori Bowling
Because there's a lot of guidelines and and training I had to go through to even be able to go into that facility to begin.
00:17:17
Plant People
was going to say, I imagine there's some requirements of you, even though the program was the same, you probably delivered it.
00:17:19
Lori Bowling
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
00:17:24
Plant People
There's there's some special considerations I was assuming you had to make when you set this up. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:30
Lori Bowling
Yes. m But, you know, they ah they are always really, really interested in the fact that it was something that they could could use when they are released from prison. And the whole goal, and the longer I did this program throughout my career, um the more I started to see the the benefit from it.
Success Stories and Community Benefits
00:17:52
Lori Bowling
I mean, you know, you expect benefits and you you hope you get, you know, make successes. But The more you see it actually happening, it is it's to me to see have an inmate to contact me and let me know. I just wanted to let you know that while I didn't go into a horticulture field job, I was able to use that certification on a home loan because they asked for any sort of certificates or anything that I had in personal stuff, and that helped me get my home loan.
00:18:24
Plant People
was going to say, hard skills is one thing, like horticulural horticultural skills.
00:18:24
Lori Bowling
Right.
00:18:29
Plant People
That's what the program's good at doing. But it sounds like they kind of were able to prove those soft skills because they had to show up someplace, both in their volunteer work, I'm assuming. They had to watch schedules and do things.
00:18:40
Plant People
So ah hard skills, and that's probably those soft skills that helped them, I guess. Some of them that may need to develop some of those too, participating in a big program.
00:18:47
Lori Bowling
Yeah, because when they're incarcerated, you know, they have a set schedule, you know, that they have to go by, that the facility makes them go by.
00:18:53
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:18:55
Lori Bowling
And when you add things like this in that aren't in that set schedule and they show up, they still show up and they still do.
00:18:56
Plant People
Yeah.
00:19:04
Lori Bowling
that's That's really good for them.
00:19:06
Plant People
Yeah.
00:19:06
Lori Bowling
met m But I've had a lot of inmates over the years to contact me. I even had an inmate, always encouraged them to, when they got back to their home county, to seek out their extension office and see if they had a Master Gardener program. And if they did, to see if they were, you know, wanted to join, to see if they could join. I said, now I'm going to tell you right up front, they're going to do a background check on you and you're not going to pass the background check.
00:19:33
Lori Bowling
And I said, but It's up to each individual agent and how the school, you know, or the the extension service operates and as to, you know, if you want to join that program and be a part of that program.
00:19:50
Lori Bowling
they can find a spot for you. And I said, if if they need to contact me to verify your certification, they can. And I have had, here recently, about two, three years ago, I had Pennsylvania um contact me wanting me to send them ah proof of a gentleman's certification.
00:20:04
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:20:09
Lori Bowling
Now, I don't keep a copy of all their certificates. I have every test that I have ever given at the Federal Correctional Institution in my in my files.
00:20:20
Lori Bowling
So that's for 20, it's been 21 years, almost 22 years I've been doing this. And I have every test for that many years in case they need verification.
00:20:33
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:20:34
Lori Bowling
So, but I have sent that and I have answered those requests. um I always told them if you came to my office and you wanted to be a part of the Master Gardeners, and I would find a place for you to work.
00:20:46
Lori Bowling
I would find a place for you to be a part of the organization where you could fit in without damaging or, you know, interfering with our policies and procedures as far as that background check and things like that.
00:20:59
Lori Bowling
But, but yeah, and ah here recently, ah year and a half ago, we had a gentleman go through the program and he is actually from, not right here in Boyd County, but in this area.
00:21:14
Lori Bowling
And that he has gone back to his home county, and he is now teaching irrigation classes and some other classes for the extension service in the county.
00:21:24
Plant People
Oh, wow.
00:21:26
Lori Bowling
um You know it's phenomenal. It's phenomenal that he...
00:21:29
Plant People
And I'm sure he recognized the extension service being a part of that program with you. He probably maybe learned of extension through you, maybe.
00:21:36
Lori Bowling
where
00:21:36
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:37
Lori Bowling
Well, I think he was very familiar with the extension, but... I think he came from a farming background more so than the horticulture background, the agriculture background.
00:21:46
Plant People
Gotcha. Yeah. He kind already knew.
00:21:48
Lori Bowling
and Yeah. So he knew about Extension, but he didn't know everything that we had to offer.
00:21:53
Plant People
no
00:21:54
Lori Bowling
and And now he's being able to give back to the program that he was able to take advantage of while he was incarcerated.
00:22:01
Plant People
Well, it's just it's not surprising with as many years as this program has been going on, considering, let's say, an average of 20 to 25. You know, do you and you do it every year, Lori? Pretty much you've done it.
00:22:11
Lori Bowling
Yes.
00:22:12
Plant People
So you the number of um you're almost like the school teacher that retires and then so she keeps running into her students and hearing from her students.
00:22:12
Lori Bowling
yes
00:22:21
Plant People
ah You're kind of like that teacher been have been doing this. for so many years and ah there, you know, when folks graduate through the program and get out of the institution and they go different places, different states, and you're hearing back from all them, it's not surprising to me that you would hear all these positive testimonies because once again, I acknowledge and, you know, having been involved Master Gardener's a long time, it's a big program.
00:22:45
Plant People
It's a premium program, gives you lots of knowledge um and and lots of skills. And I think a lot of the skills are kind of honed and developed through the, which we've not even talked about, the volunteer portion and what what they've done.
00:22:59
Plant People
We've not even started getting into all of that. And you alluded to the fact that there was a garden that started with fruit trees, but did that expand beyond that in all of these years?
00:23:09
Plant People
I mean, how did that progress? Because a big part of the Master Gardener Program is what? It's vol it's actually a volunteer training program.
00:23:16
Lori Bowling
Right, it is.
00:23:16
Plant People
To go and give back a certain amount of hours, right?
00:23:19
Lori Bowling
Right, right. So it started out with that orchard and about two years in, if that long, they decided that, hey, if we can raise fruit trees, we've got this land over here.
00:23:33
Lori Bowling
If the institutional lettuce, you know, there was a guard willing to oversee it.
00:23:33
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:23:37
Lori Bowling
He he took it. He took the idea, he brought it and and talked to us about it. And then he took it to the institution to get approval to do it. So they had about six acres that was just, yeah, it was just being mowed.
00:23:48
Plant People
Six acres. Wow. In horticulture terms, six acres, knowing the intensity of what you're talking about, that's a lot of that's a lot of space. That's awesome.
00:23:58
Lori Bowling
Yes. And so um they agreed to put a vegetable garden in there. So now you have the fresh fruits and now you've got fresh vegetables that are going into the facility.
00:24:09
Plant People
Into the facility. Gotcha.
00:24:10
Lori Bowling
Yes, into the facility. However, i think it was in 2005 that changed. um The facility went to what they said was a nationalized um menu and that every inmate in this facility over here in Nevada would have the same lunch on the third Tuesday in the month of January as the inmate over here in Ashland.
00:24:39
Lori Bowling
um basically that's how it was it was kind of presented to me but anyway they went they no longer wanted to take the produce inside um so in order to keep a ah place for these inmates to do their volunteer time ah i was approached and asked if we keep the garden going do you have someplace that could use all of this produce?
00:24:39
Plant People
Oh.
00:25:07
Lori Bowling
And I said, i think I do. and I made a few phone calls. We have here in Boyd County, we have a entity called River Cities Harvest. And River Cities Harvest is a program that distributes ah food to those less fortunate in um our tri-state area.
00:25:17
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:25:28
Lori Bowling
We're right here on the border of Ohio and West Virginia. So they distribute food to all three states, ah to different, you know, other organizations like the food pantries, the soup kitchens. ah A lot of churches have food pantries.
00:25:43
Lori Bowling
So um I contacted them and I asked them if they would be interested in supporting this program by buying the seed and and the things that would be needed for the garden. And in return, they would get all these pounds of produce.
00:25:59
Lori Bowling
And so they took it to their board. the The person I talked to took it to the board and they were like, well, how much money are we talking about? And I said, well, last year we spent $2,500 on supplies for the garden, but the poundage out of the garden was 75,000.
00:26:15
Lori Bowling
And they just looked at me and they were like, really?
00:26:15
Plant People
Goodness gracious.
00:26:17
Lori Bowling
And I said, yes.
00:26:18
Plant People
Wow.
00:26:19
Lori Bowling
So we kind of pulled it all together. We came up with a plan. And since 2005, the everything in that garden has gone to River City's Harvest. And River City's Harvest, within 24 hours of the produce being picked, River City's Harvest already has it distributed. So you're getting it as fresh as you can. you know the The people that they serve are getting it as fresh as they can, lot fresher than the grocery store.
00:26:46
Lori Bowling
um And I think they told me the last time, I want to say when I asked, it was 28 agencies or 32 that they distribute to. so
00:26:55
Plant People
That's pretty incredible, Lori, yeah.
00:26:57
Lori Bowling
Yeah, and I don't know how many people each agency actually serves, but um but it's been a really, really good program because you've got, it's twofold.
00:27:08
Lori Bowling
You've got the inmates on one side that are getting the education and the knowledge, and they're also getting um to work in the garden. And a lot of inmates will tell you that they would rather stay busy and keep their hands busy until they have to go to bed at night to keep out of trouble.
00:27:26
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:27:27
Lori Bowling
m And then you've got on the other side, you've got the community over here that the people in our community that are less fortunate that really just need a just need a little bit of help, you know? And And instead of getting a lot of canned or frozen, you know, fruits and vegetables or things that have a lot of preservatives in them, they have access to a very good selection of extremely fresh produce that they can serve their families to try to have a healthier diet over here on this side.
00:28:02
Lori Bowling
So, and and a lot of people, you know, you realize that people that are, you know, maybe are on food assistance, they A lot of times, and especially in our society today, we buy those quick meals.
00:28:14
Lori Bowling
Anything quick to fix that kids can fix themselves.
00:28:17
Plant People
Oh, I know. I'm guilty.
00:28:18
Lori Bowling
Well, I'm guilty of it too. But when we have an option, you know, and I go to the grocery store, you know, and I know a lot of people have done this. You say, okay, I'm going to go on a diet. I'm going to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and I'm going to eat healthy.
00:28:31
Lori Bowling
And then you go to the grocery store and you price how much that stuff is and you can't afford it.
00:28:35
Plant People
I was just going, i was, I was running numbers in my head, Lori, when you said 60, 70,000 pounds and considering what the average cost of a pound of whatever fresh, I mean, we're talking about premium food products that just the prices are only increasing.
00:28:36
Lori Bowling
So if...
00:28:39
Lori Bowling
yeah
00:28:48
Lori Bowling
Yes.
00:28:50
Plant People
I was running numbers in my head, Lori, that's an incredible number. that my brain was trying to calculate. I was multiplying out like how much that much would equal in bell peppers or, you know, whatever you're growing in fruits and apples or whatever that that's yeah a tremendous amount of money.
00:28:56
Lori Bowling
Yes. Yes.
00:29:03
Lori Bowling
yes
00:29:06
Lori Bowling
Yeah, it's just, you know, so these people that are on food assistance, you know, they have to decide, do I want to buy these fresh fruits and vegetables or do I buy milk or do I buy cheese?
00:29:17
Lori Bowling
You know, what am I going to buy? So this kind of helps take some of that pressure off of them if they can get this type of product from their, um you know, their food bank or whatever.
00:29:28
Lori Bowling
And then they can use their food assistance dollars to buy the proteins, you know, things, other things that that they need.
00:29:33
Plant People
Yeah.
00:29:36
Lori Bowling
So it to me, it's a win-win situation. um you've But you've got two almost separate things that you're dealing with. On this side, you've got education.
00:29:44
Plant People
yeah
00:29:46
Lori Bowling
and and on this side, you're worried about you know health and and diet. But it all works together. So um I think I want to say ah had the last numbers.
00:30:00
Lori Bowling
sent to me the other day well it's been before christmas and i can't really remember because i'm you know i'm getting old and you know things slip my mind but i want to say that the the final poundage for this year's garden was around uh 87 or 92 000.
00:30:06
Plant People
I we all are, Laurie.
00:30:18
Lori Bowling
you know it a lot of it depends on the weather
00:30:19
Plant People
Just amazing.
00:30:21
Lori Bowling
And a lot of it depends on if something happens at the facility where the inmates aren't allowed to go out on the weekend to take care of the garden because the guard isn't there. You know his job, he Monday through Friday. There's a lot of different variables. But even with all of the problems and the years that we've had droughts or had really rainy season and things just got killed with a lot of disease, um I think the least amount of produce that we've ever pulled out of that garden has been 65,000.
00:30:51
Plant People
I mean, yeah, you're really producing.
00:30:51
Lori Bowling
So, you know.
00:30:53
Plant People
I mean, that's a pretty good scale of production on those six acres. And it's been maintained over years, that high level of production.
00:31:00
Lori Bowling
Yes.
00:31:01
Plant People
And know I'd like to say, I'd like to say just simply that the stars aligned and it's a, it's an amazing project, but I know a lot of planning and hard work went into this.
00:31:02
Lori Bowling
Yes.
00:31:10
Plant People
And I've heard you say that you were using the produce one way inside of the facility. Well, when that, when that agreement or that plan fell through. Then you kind of dug down and you found another place for all that produce to go through river cities, but it really did.
00:31:26
Plant People
It sounds like the stars ah did align with a lot of hard work and you've got that incredible production. You know, you first of all had the educational program. You took care of that. And then you provided a way for the inmates to get the volunteer hours within the facility. That's amazing in itself, but even more so than all of that, you also were able to take advantage and put all of those those food products into the community through, and you just happen to have, it's amazing to me, Lori, hearing this, that you just happen to have this local organization nation that distributed these fresh products over three different states, which is crazy because it's a very specialized thing when you work with a food pantry or, or, or similar organizations to even have the capacity to work with fresh fruits and vegetables. It's a, it's amazing that how everything just came together. And I know you guys worked really hard at it.
00:32:20
Lori Bowling
Yes, it is. it You know, like I said, for them to get it distributed within 24 hours of it being harvested is phenomenal.
00:32:26
Plant People
Yeah.
00:32:27
Lori Bowling
And they have a lot of great volunteers at River Cities Harvest.
00:32:30
Plant People
I have to guess that you guys are the biggest contributors to river cities harvest.
00:32:31
Lori Bowling
Yeah.
00:32:35
Lori Bowling
As far as fresh fruits and vegetables, we are, yes.
00:32:37
Plant People
Fresh. Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:39
Lori Bowling
m But, you know, and on the other side of that too, when that started happening, when we went to the partnership with River Cities Harvest, now when I go into the first class or the first meeting with the classes, I explain to them too about, even though you are sitting here in an in incarcerated in this facility and not able to go out and do anything in the community,
00:32:49
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:33:04
Lori Bowling
You can do something in the community. You you can, even from sitting here. You are in this program, and you are going to help feed those in need in in our tri-state area. And we totally, you know, we we completely appreciate everything that you're going to be doing this year to help feed those in our community. And you know what the biggest thing almost all the inmates say?
00:33:27
Lori Bowling
That could be my family that needs that help.
00:33:29
Plant People
yeah I was kind of curious when if they ever had a response when they learned that, yeah, they're taking a class and they're doing volunteer payback, but what was their response? I was curious, what was their response when you told them, no, this is a very real thing.
00:33:43
Plant People
The food goes to people in need.
00:33:44
Lori Bowling
Yeah, that, yeah, that, they definitely respond to that.
00:33:44
Plant People
So did they respond to to that then?
00:33:49
Lori Bowling
And, and that, that kind of, if they're on the fence about whether they really want to be in that class, sometimes that'll, that pushes them over the fence. Because like I said, a lot of them come up to me after the class and thank me for what I'm doing and, and tell me, you know, that it can be their family that needed that food.
00:34:06
Lori Bowling
And they're glad that this is going, going to the community. And that they're glad that they're able to be a part of something like that. So it gives them more of a purpose, you know, because they're sitting there doing their time and they're doing their job inside, but they don't actually have a purpose.
00:34:14
Plant People
Yeah.
00:34:22
Lori Bowling
You know what I mean? They're just doing their time. So now they can do more with their time and make a difference with their time.
00:34:25
Plant People
yeah
00:34:30
Lori Bowling
and And hopefully it changes them enough that when they are out of the facility, when they are released from the facility, that you know I hope that it will help them to look for ways to give to the community that they go back to or that they settle in. um And like I said, a lot of them have contacted me over the years to give me success reports and to tell me how they're doing or to tell me what they did with that certification.
00:34:58
Lori Bowling
So to me, that's ah you know that's a huge win. If I don't do anything else in my career, i have made the difference in in it ah few inmates' lives.
00:35:07
Plant People
Yeah, it sounds like ah more than just a few, Lori, over the course you said, what year? Over all of those years, this has been going on for for many, many years. Yeah, you've touched a lot of lives over time, it sounds like.
00:35:19
Plant People
And, you know, we tell people when they take the Master Gardener program, we're pretty deliberate as agents. We're like, listen, our motivation is number one, yeah, sure, we want to to transfer horticulture knowledge to you, program participants, you know, ones like we're talking about today or just the general public.
00:35:35
Plant People
We want to give them, but, you know, really we're about community betterment and putting that knowledge to work through volunteer work in communities. That's at the heart of the program. And it's been really neat, this program, that you
00:35:45
Lori Bowling
Yes.
Program Advice and Recidivism
00:35:48
Plant People
did just that.
00:35:48
Plant People
And you reach beyond the facility, even though they are in the facility, they're not going outside of the facility. They are reaching with their efforts in this program beyond the facility. So it's just really cool kind of hearing all the different parts, you know, you know, with the support that you have through, yes, the the College of Food, Ag, and Environment of the UK, but the cooperation that you have with the the food bank and the cooperation that you have with the correctional institute ah management there, it's just all, it's just all came together.
00:36:19
Plant People
I, and once again, I know you guys worked hard at that, but like what kind of advice I know that you've been approached a lot, Lori, for other people that, because I mean, this, this program's gathered kind of national attention.
00:36:30
Plant People
i know I've seen it on the news and I'm like, Oh, I know this person, Lori Bowling.
00:36:34
Lori Bowling
nothing
00:36:34
Plant People
and ah the folks there, but what advice would you give for someone that would be interested in maybe trying to start a program similar to this?
00:36:44
Plant People
I mean, is there kind of things that you would tell them straight off or?
00:36:49
Lori Bowling
Well, I know a lot of different agents in different states even have started ah garden programs in correctional institutions, whether it be federal, state, or local.
00:37:02
Lori Bowling
What makes this one so unique, as far as I know, and there is no other Master Gardener program with a garden program.
00:37:12
Plant People
Yeah.
00:37:12
Lori Bowling
in any other facility that I'm aware of across the U.S. s There may be, but I'm not aware of it.
00:37:18
Plant People
that That actually have like the garden area within the facility, you mean, or?
00:37:19
Lori Bowling
and
00:37:23
Lori Bowling
Well, they may have the garden area within the facility, but they don't do the Master Gardener program. They don't do that.
00:37:27
Plant People
Got you. they may They may grow some things, but yeah, yeah.
00:37:28
Lori Bowling
And just and they may do some they may do some plant classes or horticulture classes, but they're not getting a nationally recognized certification like the inmates that are going through the Ashland program.
00:37:38
Plant People
Yeah.
00:37:41
Lori Bowling
m
00:37:41
Plant People
Yeah.
00:37:42
Lori Bowling
The first thing, I have a lot, like you said, I have a lot of agents that will come to me and ask me about it. The problem, um some of the problems that that you have are, especially if you go into a county program, you have a high turnover to those inmates.
00:37:56
Lori Bowling
They may be there, they're not there the whole time to go through the whole class. Yeah.
00:38:00
Plant People
Yeah, I ran into that, Lori, and I never would have thought about that. But that's a great point. Our local four or five years ago in my local community, we had ah the local county facility approach us. And I said, well it's a 12 week program.
00:38:11
Plant People
Then they have to give back 40 hours to complete the program.
00:38:13
Lori Bowling
Right.
00:38:14
Plant People
And they said, oh, that's not going to work for 80 percent of our folks. And so that was our roadblock.
00:38:17
Lori Bowling
Right.
00:38:19
Plant People
Never would have thought about that, Lori. That's a great point.
00:38:21
Lori Bowling
Right. So that that is that is a hindrance in certain settings. um In other settings, you know, maybe the state or the federal program or institutions,
00:38:32
Lori Bowling
First of all, you wanna make sure that that the powers that be at those places are on board with it, because if they're not, it will just be a uphill battle all the way.
00:38:42
Lori Bowling
um You need to make sure that they fully understand how that program is gonna work and that they fully understand that there has to be something for these people, the students that go through the class to be able to do the volunteer time on.
00:38:57
Lori Bowling
um You know, if they can't go outside the fence and you're not willing to put a garden or anything like that inside the fence, then the program's not going to work. um The biggest thing, though, is, again, getting the backing of the leadership in that facility.
00:39:17
Lori Bowling
That's huge.
00:39:17
Plant People
Oh, wow.
00:39:18
Lori Bowling
Yeah. Over the years at this federal facility that I've been at, we have gone through some years where I thought the program was going to be terminated. um it It was really scary to think that they're going to, you know, they were even considering that this program could be terminated. However, m they never did because it makes them look good to our community.
00:39:45
Lori Bowling
And, you know, these institutions, when they're set in, you know, ours is right there in a community where there's an elementary school and a middle school right beside them, right beside the federal institution.
00:39:55
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:39:57
Lori Bowling
And we've never had any issues with with the inmates or any anything with that facility being so close to the schools. But, you know, you always worry about if they're going to terminate the program.
00:40:13
Lori Bowling
And, they They saw that they wanted to be good community partners. They wanted they wanted to fit into their community. And they saw that this program that we did, this garden, was huge for that.
00:40:27
Plant People
Yeah, what a great story to tell that you're giving 60,000, 75,000 pounds of produce to that goes into local communities.
00:40:32
Lori Bowling
Yeah.
00:40:33
Plant People
What better story can you tell not only that, but the development of the the inmates that are the within within the facility? What a great story, yeah.
00:40:40
Lori Bowling
Right. And the main thing is that what's called the recidivism. You know, you don't want inmates coming back in the facility. So anything, any kind of training, any kind of education, you know, you could give an inmate or get them to take that when they are released, that they can make good use of it and and try to lead ah a better life so that they don't end up back inside that facility within a year or two.
00:41:10
Lori Bowling
so
00:41:11
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:12
Lori Bowling
that's That's the big goal, too, is you know trying to keep down on re repeat offenders and and having them come back to the facility.
00:41:17
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:20
Lori Bowling
so And that's hard to gather. I've asked the facility several times if if they have any information, any data, any numbers on that, and that that's something that's kind of hard to gather, I guess.
00:41:31
Plant People
yeah
00:41:31
Lori Bowling
and I don't usually get too much information on that. but And another thing is um not only the... the the people that run the facility being on board with you.
00:41:45
Lori Bowling
But, you know, I rely really heavily on that education department at that facility to screen my screen the inmates, to choose my students for that class.
00:41:55
Lori Bowling
So if the facility that you're looking at does have an education department, you need to really get in talks with them and
00:42:02
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:42:02
Lori Bowling
and have them help you in that, in that manner. And then there's another component too, you know, I don't just go in there just because I want to go in there. I have to go through volunteer training for the federal prison. And it's a four hour training every year that I have to go to They run a national background check on me.
00:42:22
Lori Bowling
The first time you go, and then every so many years, you have to do, they take your fingerprints and take your picture that. So, so um there's a lot that that is required of me to even be able to go into that facility to do any any program like this so just
00:42:40
Plant People
i know that I know that it's not easy and there's special hurdles you've overcome throughout the years, and I've heard them today, and I know there's even a lot more that you've probably not even discussed. and I remember the first time I went through there and forgot i had a pen in my pocket.
00:42:53
Plant People
I was like, oh, this is kind of different. Just as a guest speaker, i was like, this is kind of different.
00:42:56
Lori Bowling
you
00:42:58
Plant People
Lori has to deal with this all the time and then some. so ah But I know you've overcome all of those, and you and you've put together what's ah come to to be a very polished program over the years.
00:43:01
Lori Bowling
Right.
00:43:10
Plant People
so Hopefully that'll, Lori, I hope it'll continue on. I know it's a great, strong program. It's a state model as well as a national type model program and with only upsides.
00:43:21
Plant People
You know, you've mentioned kind of all the wonderful things. ah ah Once again, I see all the hard work in the program as I read about it in news articles and stuff. I've read about, you know, the program over time. ah a wonderful example. It may not work with everybody. I found that there is certain things I learned locally. That, you know, some of the things we just kind of talked our way through at, you know, local county programs, it may or may not be a fit, but you've certainly certainly done a good job with the program, Lori.
00:43:49
Lori Bowling
Thank you very much.
00:43:50
Plant People
Wonderful. And what a great discussion. um It's one that, once again, Lori, I've looked forward to and really enjoyed working with you all of those years in the eastern part of the state. And I know that, guess what, with Lori Bolling, who is Boyd County Horticulture Extension, a once again, this is not the only thing she does. In addition to this, I bet you have Master Gardener programs, just standard community programs, and you have other community programs and all these other things that you do in Extension besides this. so
00:44:20
Plant People
It sounds like this one program is enough to keep anyone busy, but it's probably not even what 10%, 20% of your total schedule.
00:44:21
Lori Bowling
Yes.
00:44:27
Lori Bowling
Probably, yeah.
00:44:28
Plant People
i know I know you stay busy, Lori, and I know your local communities certainly does appreciate all of the things that you've done over all the years. But Lori, appreciate you coming on the show today. What a great discussion. Just really do appreciate it. And for those listening, Please join us again next ah round, our next episode. Hopefully all of the other co-hosts, Brett, Jessica, and Alexis will be back with us to join in as we kind of go back to a regular schedule. But Lori, once again, thank you so very much for the discussion today. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you.
00:45:08
Lori Bowling
Thanks for having me.