Transcript
Alexis : Welcome to the new year. It's still January, so I'm going to say that. um And new year, new year, no, never knew me.
Brett: New Year, new you.
Alexis : I'm perfect the way I am.
Brett: similar Similar you.
Alexis : ah
Plant People: How long does it take to replace your outside skin? Whatever is 60 days or something?
Jessica : You're like so a snake or something?
Plant People: yay Yeah.
Brett: Oh, do you guys have ex you guys have exoskeletons too?
Alexis : Oh, yeah.
Plant People: You're like a snake.
Alexis : It's like every every cell in your body is replaced has been replaced once in a certain year.
Jessica : Exoskeletons, yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Plant People: Yes. That, that stat, which I wish I knew now and throw that out, but I don't.
Alexis : Yeah, yeah.
Brett: And every cell is replaced with Napoleon or something?
Alexis : I want to say it's like seven years or something.
Brett: The cell from...
Plant People: Yeah. So new year, new you, new decade, new you, but yeah, new year at any rate, new year, happy new year.
Alexis : Just swapping.
Brett: I think I'm thinking something else. Adam?
Alexis : Yeah. ah
Brett: Black Adam?
Jessica : Happy New Year. It's what we're trying to say.
Brett: Happy New Year!
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis : Happy New Year.
Plant People: We are up in the, we're up in the new year now, you know.
Brett: Clearly not New Year, new us. Clearly New Year, same us.
Jessica : It's the same us.
Alexis : Yeah. New Year, same favorite podcast um for those of you listening.
Jessica : yes You know.
Brett: You can step in the same podcast twice, it seems.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: And we are all back together and we've got that vibe.
Alexis : Yeah.
Plant People: We've got that energy. You can feel it already.
Alexis : fresh.
Jessica : Feel it.
Alexis : It only took us like three tries to get this recording going.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis : So technology is ah trying us today, similar to what the weather will be doing soon.
Jessica : do it It's doing its thing.
Alexis : So just trying my patience.
Brett: TLDR, we might be getting a lot of snow. We're we're in that space where everyone's freaking out.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: And who knows?
Alexis : Yeah, here.
Jessica : it is It is quite funny, though. I have to say this. ah The weatherman battle that's getting ready to occur.
Brett: know.
Jessica : i have seen i have seen so many things i have yes that have made me chuckle so much about like the Lexington-based weatherman versus the Louisville-based weatherman to what models they're using and like at what hour are they going to start rolling up their sleeves.
Brett: don't
Plant People: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Alexis : Who's correct?
Brett: know.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yes.
Jessica : Right. And like who, and and it's like, this is their Superbowl, right?
Plant People: Full body shots and big maps. Yes. Yes.
Alexis : ahha
Jessica : This is their Superbowl to see who's gonna.
Alexis : Extreme weather, baby.
Brett: is what we This is what we trained for.
Alexis : Real MVP.
Jessica : Yeah. Yeah.
Plant People: This is the big show.
Jessica : And it's been, it's been very funny to follow along. Like they're throwing beef at each other. Like they're really, you know, some of them are.
Brett: Damn.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: let's not Let's not leave out Matt Dixon, you know, the real the real king.
Plant People: The real OG.
Jessica : Yeah. He needs to be put on that list.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Brett: That's right. I wonder when he's rolling up his sleeves.
Alexis : so mvp
Jessica : Right. When is he rolling up his sleeves?
Plant People: He may be the one that they go to when they really need that predictive model.
Brett: Mm-hmm. He wears short sleeves because his sleeves stay rolled, you know?
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: They never, they never unroll.
Alexis : He's always in the zone. All right. this he's He's always here for us.
Brett: Big fan, big fan.
Alexis : Well, sweet. Well, speaking of ah the new year, new me, maybe it's new year, new you, new classes that are rolling out at your local extension offices, such as the two that we have on the podcast.
Jessica : o
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Yep.
Plant People: Well, yeah, everyone has new classes, yeah.
Jessica : i
Brett: Well, think it's just ah we're coming, we're in the middle of conference season. We've had, we have some conferences down, some not down.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Some of them are, you know, in regional places that people can get to but everybody in the state of Kentucky has a local extension office in their county and those counties offer a lot of cool stuff.
Brett: And so, yeah, I would love to just hear as exam.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Now, keep in mind, when we're talking about Ray, talking about Jessica, when we used to talk about Alexis, though she's now a coward who works on campus, we talk about people who are the cream of the crop.
Alexis : It's true.
Brett: So, you know, these classes that they're going to be offering, you know, let's just say it's pretty good.
Plant People: Oh, no pressure.
Alexis : Certainly.
Plant People: No pressure.
Alexis : The best of the best would only be on this podcast.
Brett: Pretty good. But your local office is going to offer some stuff.
Jessica : Oh, thank you.
Brett: And if they're if there they say, here's something today that you want them to offer, or think about offering, you know, get in touch with them and let them know that you're interested in that. So, yeah, what do you...
Alexis : Be like, oh, I heard of that Mercer County does this, so why aren't you doing it? Ooh.
Plant People: We get that lot.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: We get that. And that's one of the cool things.
Brett: Lord have mercy.
Plant People: Yeah. That's one of the cool things we hear from people. They go to cool programs and other counties. And I, and I've actually gotten some really cool, um, Program ideas like that, you know, we talk to each though each other as agents, but we don't always catch all the cool things going on around us at surrounding offices.
Plant People: So, yeah, it's kind of always cool to say, well, so-and-so did this really cool, you know, greenery program right before Christmas or did this really neat Apple production grafting, you know, or whatever.
Plant People: So that's always kind of one of the main ways I get ideas is just talking with people and agents. As far as doing program planning, when we start our new program year or new program cycle, however you want to look at it.
Jessica : Right.
Brett: And one thing to note about what we're going to talk about today is that that Ray and Jessica have a very, and obviously this podcast, have a very specific horticultural bent.
Brett: You know, that's what they're going to be focused on because horticulture is the best. But there are several other program areas. So if you wanted to learn how to sew or if you wanted to maybe learn about balancing your finances or you wanted to maybe eat a little bit healthier or something like that,
Alexis : Can.
Brett: in addition to your beef cattle and your your other crops and stuff like that, all of that stuff ah comes out of a lot of these extension offices. And so we're going to focus on horticulture because, again, best slash hort culture is the name the pod.
Brett: but but's But there's lots of other cool stuff, too.
Jessica : That is true.
Plant People: And
Alexis : kind of in the name. It's like sort of a required.
Plant People: before we did do a deep dive into county-based programming, which is what, you know, we're primarily going to be talking about today, a group of agents, Central Kentucky Horticulture Agents, to be specific.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Alexis : The reason you're here.
Plant People: specific Wow, I just started the new year. We got together the other day and, you know, we we started this segment of the agenda where we' we're like, oh, this conference or that conference.
Alexis : yeah
Plant People: And it just went on. for 35 minutes or so. And I bet you we had 40 plus conferences listed out that were statewide.
Jessica : You could do one every single week.
Plant People: It was absolutely amazing, Jessica. Yes.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: It was amazing at all the cool stuff.
Jessica : Every single week there's something going on.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And it's from anything from vegetable production to fruit to ah ah turf perf conference to Kentucky Landscaping Association, forestry
Plant People: Big event. We're talking big events, big conventions. Yeah.
Plant People: Forestry related things, organic related things, equipment related things. One in Louisville, 30,000 plus people attend that. I mean, just these amazing events we just talked on and on about. And it was an eye opener for me as an agent because we had several new people in the room that were, um you know, worked with the extension service.
Plant People: So we had all these new ideals kind of flowing. But yeah, it was an eye opener for me. And I thought I had a ah pretty good handle on all the cool things going on in Kentucky. And some of the things we talked about were in surrounding states like Tennessee or Ohio.
Plant People: But It was, i was taking notes as fast as I could on things that I personally wanted to go to that were kind of big scale stuff, like conferences.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Really cool. Really cool. So lots of stuff going on. My point of that being, i just encourage everybody to kind of watch for that. We've had special episodes before on conference season, but truly it is conference season.
Plant People: There is a, there's a meeting or an event or a program for just about every interest out there. from from mushrooms to record keeping, you name it. There's probably something for you.
Plant People: So just keep an eye on that. Now we're ready to dive into the county programming.
Brett: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Sorry, I derailed us. I did derail us.
Alexis : No, that was a really good point, right? Like there's so many niche, whether it's your area or something that you're interested in um or just your region.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah.
Alexis : That's a good really good point.
Plant People: We just finished up fruit and veggie, another awesome program. So yeah, all the cool things, you know, always, always good times. So, but as far as county programming, um it's ah interesting, um you know, sometimes you'll get folks because it's the, you know, producers, especially producers, sometimes says more homeowners probably than producers. They'll ask, you know, what do you do are you with yourself in the winter time? You know, since you're not, you know, out programming as much, I'm like, well, actually,
Plant People: For me personally, wintertime is probably a big program time for me ah for homeowner-ish topics and commercial topics because that's when people are not out typically with their hands in the dirt. They have more availability to come into programs in our office in the days and evenings. So I really take advantage in extension this time of year of cramming as much programming in. And I always tell myself I'm going to try to space my programming out.
Plant People: But I've never felt like I can effectively do that because there's a there's a heavy seasonality in extension to programming.
Alexis : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: If you're in certain areas, you know, primarily ag natural resources and horticulture, we're very cyclical, we're very seasonal. And I say we do, you know, 70% of our programs and 25 30% of the year, it's kind It's how we do things.
Plant People: So it's the hot and heavy program season. Man, starting January through, don't know, early May, it's just go time for programming, not day.
Alexis : Well, and you want to like ah prepare people, right? Like you want them to have the info before they to do it.
Plant People: Yes. Yeah.
Alexis : So like, you know, when do they need that info? They need it in the winter before spring arrives. Right.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis : So.
Plant People: And there's certain art to that, you know, whether it's a homeowner or it's, you know, commercial folks, you actually plan.
Alexis : Mm
Plant People: Yeah. Even farther out, sometimes you're doing fall programming so they can order commercial level of seeds and stuff.
Alexis : hmm.
Plant People: But yeah, it's like this balancing act of, we want to have programs, but we want to have them not so far out that it's, it feels like too far out.
Alexis : not timely and it's people are thinking in that right way yeah yeah that's always a struggle
Plant People: for Yes, exactly.
Jessica : Right. Right.
Plant People: Exactly. And these are things these are things you learn the hard way as far as, ah you know, you you want to you want to hit the timing just right to catch people's attention.
Plant People: And some of my biggest programs for homeowners, I'll say on the homeowner side, it's not true so much for commercial people, but some of my best attended programs, most successful is when you get that couple of warm days in March.
Alexis : um
Plant People: early March, late February, a couple of 60 or 70 degree days that are just, man, people are ready then, even though they shouldn't be planting things at that time necessarily.
Alexis : Mm-hmm. They get the itch.
Plant People: But yeah, it's that itch.
Alexis : They get the itch.
Plant People: Either that or I try to guess when most of the gardening magazines are going to hit their hands. That's also a big time where, you know, people are ready to go.
Alexis : When the seeds start showing up in the box stores and the bulbs and stuff, that's when people start to think in along those lines.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It's, it's, ah it's out in their mind.
Alexis : Yeah, yeah.
Brett: so what
Jessica : well
Brett: So what kind of programs you got? jet Jess, do you have anything coming up that you're particularly hyped?
Alexis : Wait, can i ask can I ask a leading question that Brett would normally ask?
Brett: Oh, oh
Alexis : um How do you decide what programs you're going to for the year or for the next six months or whatever? However you do that, how do you how do you decide?
Plant People: I usually base it on the questions I've had the previous year and that and just you you know just over the years just kind of trying to guess what people are interested in. How about you, Jessica?
Jessica : Well, I have a horticulture council that provides feedback to me about ah classes that they wish to see.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : i also have people make suggestions when they come to other classes. i have a a small garden club and they help you know direct me with things that they would like to see your needs in the community.
Jessica : And I take notes of those throughout the year. There's some things that I have just been interested in and want to try try out. And i will ask those groups. their thoughts on that.
Jessica : ah Starting out before my council was really built up and my garden club and my bee club and all of those groups that I work closely with, it was more of me just being like, okay, let's talk about tomatoes and see, you know, when I was building that clientele, but now it makes the life so much easier.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : um that I have them making those recommendations or things that I like have offered before.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : And I'm like, do I need to keep offering this? Do people really want this program? And like my garden group, like two classes that I have coming up this spring.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Jessica : One is growing asparagus, which I've offered in the past. And I'm going to give away asparagus crowns with that class. And another one is strawberries. And um I've offered those in the past.
Jessica : But everyone in my garden club and my hort council was like, heck yeah, we want those again. Right. and the same thing is I normally every year, the last four years, I've done an apple care class where we do hands on pruning and it is filled every year.
Jessica : ah So that's one of the ones I'm like, do I keep doing this every single year?
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Jessica : But this year we're doing apple grafting and that's kind of replaced that one for this year. But some of them it's okay to do every single year. I have found out over time because they still fit you know they fill up and people are still interested in those topics versus some of them you do them one time and you're like, well, I'm never doing this again.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : or or you know, you find out what works and doesn't work.
Brett: Knives out a Benoit Blanc workshop. Or is that his name?
Jessica : Yes.
Plant People: Yes.
Jessica : Yeah.
Brett: Benoit Blanc.
Alexis : that's That's the grafting workshop.
Brett: Benoit Blanc.
Plant People: Sharp objects.
Alexis : Yeah, yeah.
Brett: Whoever the guy is playing at the Super Bowl.
Jessica : Yeah. Yes.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah. I have, i have classes scheduled. um I have all mine broken down between i have a, I do a monthly general public class. That's sort of how I label it.
Jessica : And then I have my garden club and I do an activity with them each month.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : I also do a program at the library, the first Thursday of each month. And so I have a different class for that. And then I have what I have a category just called extra. And that's, um, Partnering with a neighboring county for like a Gardening 101 class.
Jessica : um Other events we have at the office here. a Tomato Day that I offer, which is turned into a massive event.
Jessica : Not necessarily a class, but...
Plant People: Do you do incentives by like giving away tomato transplants, Jessica? Because I'm curious. and People have done that different ways.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. So you have educational incentives, Sam?
Jessica : So Tomato Day... Tomato Day came from a during COVID. The local greenhouse high school greenhouse was stuck with all their plants. They weren't allowed to sell any more of them.
Jessica : So I went in and purchased them and we just gave them away at the extension office and we...
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Put a little packet together of like growing tomato information, that kind of stuff. And they went. And so we did it again. And it's just continued to build each year.
Jessica : And last year, i wasn't even here for it. I was on maternity leave, but my great council members insisted that we still do it. And we also start offering tomato free tomato plants at night.
Jessica : and we had over 200 people come to the office and everyone fills out a survey about how they found out about the event and they all get and we've been collecting data the last of several years of did you get plants last year if you did did you harvest any tomatoes did you use them and we've gotten a lot of good information the last several years from that yeah but
Brett: When was tomato day?
Plant People: Good metrics, yeah.
Brett: Okay. when was when was tomato day
Jessica : Tomato Day, it's it's already – it's going to be scheduled for May 5th this year.
Brett: it yes
Brett: okay
Plant People: When people should actually be planting their home tomatoes, kind of, yeah, be appropriate.
Jessica : Right. – so
Plant People: Now, you've just listed like a full year, actually probably about two years worth of programming in one year. Now, that's programming that you schedule out. Now, you're probably like most agents, Jessica, I imagine, and that then you have just random people like requesting programs or you to talk at events and things, and that really just – That's kind of how I look at my schedule, things that I schedule that I really want to focus on and get get set.
Jessica : Right. huh
Plant People: I've learned to do that early, and I'm sure most educators, that field educators, non-formal educators, that's a lot of times that's how we do it. If you have things you want to do that year, you have to put them in the schedule, and then you're ready for the request and as you have time.
Jessica : right
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah. And there's other things that happen within an office too. Like we have a farm city dinner that's coming up in March.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : We have a leadership luncheon in February. We have an October. I know I have the harvest home and table fair. And then we can't forget about the whole month of July for me, in my case is dedicated to County fair.
Jessica : So um you have that, that goes into it as well, but it's fun.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Like this time of year getting to plan out these classes and the library
Plant People: Yeah. Order all the supplies and yeah.
Jessica : Yeah. Yeah.
Brett: So what what are some like examples of like your library programming or your general public that you like that are coming up this year for you?
Jessica : yeah Yeah, so so like the library is kind of like a lunch and learn situation where it's at noon, people can bring their lunch and the library provides drinks and like a little, you know, dessert for people to participate.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : And I've done classes in the past that are just very traditional, like classroom setting, gardening 101, you know, insect pest, a variety of things. We've done a tree ID one where I brought in a lot of tree samples and show, you know, how to identify common trees around our area.
Jessica : But this year, my theme with the library is to do more hands-on things, small projects.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : So ah for February, we're doing microgreens. We're starting seeds in March. We're going to do dish gardens in April. We're doing propagation that was requested.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : um One that I'm also very excited about um that Ray mentioned, how we share program ideas with each other.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : One that my FCS agent and i are going to work on together that we're taking from Clark County. ah is herbs for tea, for iced tea. and talking about the different herbs you can grow easily and use an iced tea. And then our FCS agent says she'll prepare the iced tea and different recipes to use them in and have them as like a tasting event.
Jessica : So...
Plant People: And I'm hearing you with all of these programs, you're not just ah you And the cool thing about the extension services, is yes, you have a lot of cases you have county office, a county office and teaching space there.
Alexis : Cool.
Plant People: But I'm hearing you say, Jessica, that you're out in the community doing a lot of these programs.
Jessica : Great. And it's a different audience. And I've discovered over time that I have a different audience who comes to the Extension Office versus the library.
Plant People: m
Jessica : And they have slowly started to integrate with each other.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : as ah the more time I've spent at the library, some of my people from who meet at the Extension Office have come down there.
Plant People: Oh, awesome.
Jessica : And then vice versa, some of the people who've never been to the Extension Office are now coming up here for classes. And, then you know, they get on the newsletter list and follow us on social media ah to come to all of these these classes.
Jessica : yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. And I heard a lot of homeowner classes.
Alexis : And a lot of your classes are free too, right, Jess?
Plant People: go go ahead. Yeah.
Alexis : Like for minimal fees.
Jessica : All of them are free except Apple grafting because it's a hefty price with that one. And we're're're we're doing that out Shaker Village.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And there's um just a lot of lot of things that go into it.
Brett: What's the hefty price?
Jessica : Oh, hefty price, ah like $25. Yeah.
Brett: Okay, cool.
Jessica : um
Plant People: It's very expensive.
Alexis : For like four trees or something.
Plant People: Some of these classes are very expensive to host.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis : sort
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Oh, well, $25 for like someone to come to the class. But material-wise...
Brett: It costs you all on the back end more.
Jessica : Yes. um
Brett: Yeah.
Jessica : And then my...
Brett: I going to say, that them like a Chipotle burrito in 2025.
Plant People: You're not covering the cost.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: You're offsetting the cost.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And then ah my greenery classes.
Plant People: A little bit.
Alexis : Right.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : i charge That's the only other thing I charge for because the greenery price adds up. And then all of the other they ribbon, fake berries, because I will not use real berries because it is a mess.
Jessica : And um all of that stuff that goes along with it. But besides that, I try to offer everything for free. I'm very fortunate in the county that I'm in to have a program support where I can do that and um offer plants.
Plant People: Yes.
Jessica : Like I also plan to do like a fig growing fig class and order fig plants to give out. um But of course, with a lot of these, especially with those, I have a you have to RSVP by a certain date and ah space is limited.
Alexis : Mm-hmm. Pills up.
Jessica : a lot of times I tell you, you can still come to the class because some people sign up and then they don't show.
Plant People: yes
Jessica : ah So you might get lucky and get one of those plants, but I just have to set a limit because I got to know how many plants to order.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: And that's what I do is like the first 50 and it's really, since it's an educational incentive, it's also an attendance incentive.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: That's a first the first 15 to register gets X amount of strawberries. And like you said, if someone doesn't show and you have to show to receive those plants, then that allows you to go down the list and and move those plants out very quickly.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : What?
Brett: Well, I would just I would just add not to be totally pedantic here. You said it's free. And the reality is that you are paying a little tiny bit of tax money every year, federally and locally to support these kinds of programs.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And that is like the the beautiful thing about public programming. And so people will come, you know they'll ask how much something is or whatever. And I'll always jokingly, but not jokingly say, just, you know, just keep paying your taxes.
Alexis : Just pay your taxes.
Brett: And other than that, um but I think that that's the beautiful thing is the way that like the infrastructure and the system that's in place receiving receiving that input that relatively on an individual basis, it's very, very small amount of money that get yields all of this really cool stuff.
Alexis : Yeah.
Brett: and you know, as we think about and go through times where people question or or are curious about the value of public investment and public programming. I think hearing you talk about this stuff is just really inspiring of like what's possible.
Brett: I think the same thing about the libraries. um We recently went and took advantage of um a maker's space at ah one of our like local libraries where you can do some 3D printing and stuff like that.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: And
Alexis : Super cool.
Brett: I don't know. It's just a really cool to remind ourselves that like this stuff happens because people wanted it. People support it. The people support it decentrally in a decentralized way. And so anyway, that's my little pitch for public services and, and,
Alexis : For reference, um I am in Jessica's County, so I pay my property tax and that's what your extension tax is paid off of. And I can't remember exactly, but it was less than $3.
Alexis : So less than $3 is going to get me all of the classes Jessica is talking about except for two for free and getting all those plants and stuff like that. Like that's the opportunity that's there.
Alexis : So like when we say it's a minimal, obviously it's based on your property tax, but it is a very minimal cost. So just wanted just wanted to put that out there.
Plant People: We try to make, yeah, very small.
Alexis : Sometimes people are like, what's minimal? And I'm like, no, it's like, it's very small.
Jessica : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: Less than a Chipotle burrito for sure.
Plant People: And we try to make these accessible.
Alexis : Yes.
Plant People: Definitely at Chipotle. We had that last night. It was very good. Now I'm hungry for that again, Brett. Thank you. My burrito is very, very impressive in weight and size. So yes, absolutely.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: But we try to make these things accessible, these community programs. Jessica, you've mentioned a a lot of homeowner programs. We also do commercial programs. And I know we have Zoom programs that some counties got together. And we're always trying to find ways to be more effective and reach a larger audience and make it as convenient for people to attend our programs as possible.
Plant People: And an example of that, that Jessica's worked a lot on a few of us and Jessica, is ah like a commercial series coming up. And we work with specialists on campus. We're not necessarily delivering the bulk of the program, that those programs are ourselves, but but that's a Zoom series coming up.
Brett: you
Plant People: Anybody in the state or outside of the state, for that matter, anybody that sees an ad that wants to register for that, they can register and then we'll send a link the day of and they get attend this really cool commercial series and get all sorts of updates, you know, from entomology to, you know, direct marketing and and other topics.
Plant People: But that's some other programs that we do.
Jessica : Pathology.
Plant People: Yeah, plant pathology. So we've got, you know, things like that as well. And those are evening programs to try to take that availability one step further. we You know, we program during the day and we do evening classes as well.
Plant People: And we try to balance all of that with, you know, our lives. Um, But the whole theme behind all of that is just because we are community funded, federally and locally, we just try to be accessible and try to make sure that everybody's got a shot to attend these programs, um you know, best chance. So that's ah just kind of what we do in format and topic.
Brett: Well, I'm going to one of the things where I um just dissect the thing until everyone tunes out. But so like you talked about, you said you mentioned too ah two or three things. You said microgreens, you said dish gardens.
Brett: i can't remember what the other one was. Those those are ones that we had.
Alexis : Those are the library programs.
Brett: yeah Those are library programs.
Jessica : Yeah.
Brett: We have episodes about that. If you want to go back and listen to those about doing microgreens, doing dish gardens.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: But like, take me through dish garden. Is is that is dish garden one where people get to take some take something home with them?
Jessica : Yeah. Yeah. So that'll...
Brett: And to to so take me through like from sign up experience and then I leave, like, what is that? What's that experience look like to someone who hasn't walked into one of these before?
Jessica : Well, I'll try my best because that'll be the first one I'm offering of the dish garden. But with how other ones have gone in the past, it'll be with the library. It's a little different because I don't know who is all coming.
Jessica : That one. I don't, I can't control having an artist.
Alexis : The library doesn't take signups.
Jessica : Don't doesn't take signups. Yeah. So with that, I'm going to advertise that one when it comes up. Like there will be limited ah limited supplies available. Right. So I'm going to make it very clear and upfront that there's only so many, you know, you will have the opportunity to make a dish garden, but we only have so many to do that. Right. And so it'll be advertised out in my newsletter. It'll go on our Facebook pages. It'll go on the library's Facebook page. um So then, like i said, i'm do it at noon at the Lunch and Learn and ah come in have the whole setup there to make a dish garden, including little plants, the soil, containers, everything there, and do a short educational PowerPoint.
Jessica : So a lot with these hands-on ones, if i I will either have a very short PowerPoint that kind of goes over what we're doing, the reason why we do it, Maybe like if you have issues with this, this is probably the reason, like care care of things.
Alexis : care.
Jessica : um Or like my when I did the native tree one, I didn't have a PowerPoint with me, but I provided ah keys, right? So everyone got printed out a key and i ah the forestry books that have the Kentucky native tree books to help them identify trees. So they'll have some sort of material to take home with them.
Jessica : to reference how to do this, how to do care, how, like the goal with a lot of these classes is okay, we do it there. Now, how do i repeat this at home? especially with growing, you know, growing things and taking care of things.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Jessica : So that's the ultimate goal. Like we'll come in and then we will go through step-by-step care, how to do it, and then allow people to have the freedom to do it themselves. And I will provide as much assistance as they need, little or a lot ah to do that project.
Jessica : And then hopefully they'll tell their friends about what they got to do and want to sign up for my newsletter and, you know, find out more and more programming. So, but still.
Brett: Yeah, that's really cool. Because i what i'm um what I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of like an alternative experience where... I go and I watch a YouTube video that provides some of the stuff maybe that you're talking about, maybe about care, maybe it's in pieces, maybe some there's a lot of conflicting information.
Brett: And then I try to go on Amazon or some other retailer and order the pieces. And then I maybe go to the nursery or maybe the big box store and I try to get the plants and maybe I get the right ones, maybe I don't get the right ones.
Brett: And then maybe I i have a really high threshold for frustration, but I happen to be married to someone who doesn't. And so then if the thing doesn't work out, it's like, well, I guess I'm not going to do that.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Brett: Whereas like I get to come to this thing, talk to somebody who learned from somebody who knows what they're talking about. And I have just the amount of materials to try this out and be set up for some amount of success.
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: to then take that home and just see if it's for me. And just to contrast that with the like hyper isolated individualized, you have to order everything, you know, and, and you're not going to probably be able to order one tray and just enough media and just, and you know, like that, that to me is like a huge, a huge value add to the experience that,
Alexis : had
Brett: But for a lot of people who are trying to get started in things, we think we have a lot of people who are curious about stuff. That's a tremendously valuable thing. And like, in this case, there's no cost. You show up, you know, and again, and you're, you're talking about people have to show up and there's no preregistration.
Brett: i assume disputes are settled through fistfights in the parking lot or whatever.
Plant People: Yes, absolutely.
Brett: But, um, and so there is, there but some ah at the office, there's some opportunity to, to be able to register.
Jessica : Yes, yes, yes. And...
Brett: Right.
Jessica : Right. So especially for some of those like like Apple grafting that we're taking registration for right now, like you have to pay to keep your spot just because it's a lot of material.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : It's a lot of time to do that class.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : um The other ones, you know, you have to register by a certain date.
Brett: Thank you.
Jessica : That just gives me enough time prep together. We had just... A week ago, as we mentioned, we're in January here. i did for those people who are just dying to plant something or do something, even with all this snow looming, ah we did winter seed sowing in milk jugs.
Jessica : And I had 20 plus different perennial flower seeds and different milk weeds and all of that. And yeah. It took a little prep, but then also I had people who were willing to help me prep for it. When they saw the flyer, they I got several phone calls that were like, hey, you need milk jugs? I got 20 distilled water you know milk jugs or jugs in my garage and I'll donate them to you. And I ended up with like over 40 of them and and everybody used them you know in the class and they all got used and recycled and repurposed that way ah to start you know to start seeds. But you know with the office, having that
Jessica : you have to RSVP by a certain date is extremely helpful, especially with some of these more intense classes. I mentioned before, like you you find out ones that I'm never doing that again.
Jessica : ah For me, it was shiitake mushrooms, not because i don't like them, not because it's not, it's actually pretty easy to inoculate a log.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Jessica : the stress of trying to find a tree, the branches, the right size, the right time. I lucked out in the end and had a tree company come through for me, but the, the logs were massive. I couldn't even get them in the building a, on a cart.
Jessica : um And I was just like, after that was over, i was like, never again. am I doing this? Instead i pivoted and I did oyster mushrooms, the,
Brett: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Nice.
Jessica : And that was fantastic and great. And I'm willing to do that again. Originally, i had the plan for March to be mushroom madness. I had this whole theme in my head, but now I'm doing a lot of asparagus and apple grafting instead.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: madness.
Alexis : but
Plant People: Grafting madness.
Brett: that's I mean, that's the interesting the interesting flip side is that if you were just going to do a demo and you only had to locate one log and, you you know, okay.
Jessica : right
Brett: Or if someone wanted to try that at home, it's easier for them to find a single branch of whatever hardwood species works, you know, the right size than it is to try to assemble kits for 20 30 people and
Jessica : But I wanted to stress myself out and search for branches.
Alexis : Yeah.
Jessica : It's
Plant People: it's It's a and lot harder to do the hands-on stuff in it, but you know we try to adhere to good teaching principles.
Alexis : Yeah.
Jessica : rewarding, though.
Plant People: It's very rewarding. and we you know If you look at some of the information as a far as educating adults and working with adults, like tactile, hands-on learners, I get so much positive feedback from students.
Plant People: And that's something people can't download. I remember, you know, entering extension in the They're like, oh, the the rise of the Internet and the accessibility, it's going to do away with us.
Alexis : Mm-mm.
Plant People: But no, it just ah sort of made information more available.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: But, you know, to operationalize and make that useful in people's lives, there's other components to that, right? There's information, but then when you come into offices, a lot of our activities, just what Jessica is saying, right?
Plant People: There's all these hands on components that, you know, if you're not for sure about something or even after you've looked over the information or watched one of our educational videos, you're still not for sure. You can come in and see it and do it.
Plant People: And then that's kind of the final piece. So, yeah, having the information is one thing. And that is great. That's a great starting point. But Jessica has mentioned all these awesome opportunities where.
Plant People: you actually kind of learn by doing to steal the 4-H motto. And that's very true of adults as well as youth, but you can kind of put it all together with programming.
Brett: Well, you said, you said 4-H and that just, you know, there, there are versions of this, of these things that are available for kids along with a wide wide variety of other things.
Plant People: Sure.
Jessica : Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Plant People: Sure.
Brett: And I'm just thinking like, as a lot of people are feeling the tightness of the economy. ah And I think turning to some of these public publicly available things for like an edutainment experience where you go and you learn and you have fun and you interact with people,
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: ah for a very low cost or or no cost is it's a really valuable thing. and It's maybe not on people's radar. So we've we've sorry.
Jessica : We, oh, I was gonna say we have like a very big and active 4-H cooking club and a Cloverbud, which is Cloverbud is the younger version of a 4-H-er.
Brett: guys
Jessica : So they're like six to eight years old. Cloverbud cooking club, right? So those are free and they're learning cooking skills after after school.
Jessica : And there it's a very popular club that fills up and we have to cap it because we just don't have enough you know space for all of them. and But there's all sorts of those, like you're mentioning, Brett, that are great ah resources for for kids to be a part of, from art clubs to another popular one at our office that everyone always giggles about, but they rocking and rolling, is our cat club that we have at the office.
Jessica : um Very popular.
Plant People: Learn how to grow your own cat.
Jessica : yeah. Yeah.
Alexis : Kind of grow your own cat.
Jessica : yeah
Alexis : And ah like, I'll just say, ah coming from when I was in a county, a very ah robust 4-H program, um you know, growing up in the county I was in, i tended to think that 4-H was just, you know, for horses and cows, right, was the main main thing.
Alexis : And um
Jessica : Thank you.
Alexis : before each, I don't know if it's now or always has been or just was what my mom told me it was supposed to be. But but seeing the county I was in, you know, there was there was kids that got to, a you know, a free trip. I mean, they worked for it, but they didn't pay anything. And they went to Alaska and they got to see some really cool stuff and learn about different cultures and see the Iditarod and, you know, just like some of the things they were able to experience that, you know, um they were likely would not have been able to experience for that.
Alexis : And there's a lot of opportunities in 4-H to be able to do that. And, you know, they do projects on electricity and, you know, they get to make their own lamps.
Alexis : And, you know, so there's like a lot of really cool stuff that is not, I mean, there's, and and there's also, you know, things that they can do if they want to be, you know, there's kids that are in the city who want to know more about horses or cows or whatever.
Jessica : And speech.
Alexis : And so there's opportunities for them to have those experiences, even if they're not on a farm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis : So I just sometimes i like to remind people that because I didn't grow up thinking that.
Jessica : Are...
Alexis : And there's just so much more to four h free opportunities for children that and in like teens, you know, they have teen clubs and cooking and just so much stuff that's not like farming necessarily.
Jessica : We just finished our ah country hams.
Alexis : Yeah.
Jessica : Country hams is a massive program.
Alexis : is
Jessica : And not only are these kids learning about curing a country ham and doing that whole process, they also a part of that.
Brett: I didn't even know it was stick.
Plant People: No. It's a being relatively.
Jessica : They have to learn how to do speeches.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right. We ask what we are saying.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: um
Jessica : We're always making the hams feel better.
Plant People: Public speaking. Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah, so our office our office tonight will have, I don't know how many people here, but every room in our office and even the front vestibule and all of that are set up with chairs for speech contests tonight.
Plant People: Hmm.
Jessica : So...
Brett: One of the things that I've noticed about a lot of the programs,
Plant People: And
Brett: the best ones, and it's there's a chicken and an egg element to it that I've seen at least, where participation drives the program to be better and then the program is better, which then drives participation.
Brett: But like if you go and the thing's a little underwhelming or lackluster, there's not a lot of participation yet showing up and participating and giving ideas and and maybe volunteering to help out with stuff here and there is like the way that a lot of these things grow and turn into something cool.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: And the feedback mechanism, Alexis and and Jessica and y'all were talking about earlier of like, You can get on the council. You don't have to get on the council, but you can get on the council to advise about future programming and ask for future things.
Plant People: you know
Brett: And it's just, that participatory component of, and I'm not, um I'll stay off the soapbox about public programming, but that participatory part is like what makes these things amazing.
Brett: And it it also makes, as as the person providing it, when I have people who are interested and show up and turn out, you're like, I feel better.
Alexis : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: I feel like, okay, I'm on the right track and and all that stuff.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: But I wanted, did want to, we talked a lot about kind of homeowner, maybe, ah people who are trying to tiptoe into dish gardener or something like that. But there's also a lot of support is a challenge because there are just by sheer numbers, there are way more people who work in other job work jobs and
Alexis : here
Brett: want to have some plants to spice up their life, or maybe they want to have some backyard needs or whatever. But we do have a base of commercial growers as well. And can you all talk a little bit, and Ray, I know you mentioned a little bit, but in addition to ah the, talk about the programming you guys offer, but also um i know like certification of scales is one example, but there's some other things that you do to support that industry too.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Alexis : The support.
Brett: In addition to the, you can call me if you have problems later on.
Plant People: And that that's just it, Brett. I mean, we do programs and that's that's one thing. That's a lot. You know, we have on-campus specialists like you guys, you and Alexis, that, you know, we couldn't do without. then we have the hardcore field researchers, subject matter people, supports us. And then we're the kind of the last mile in the county. We deliver programming. But when it comes to commercial ah producers ah and homeowners, for that matter, another really unique thing that we do in the Cooperative Extension Service that's going to be hard to be replaced by AI, to be quite honest, is that we will, in a lot of cases, not in every single county, but almost every single county, we're set up in such a way that if you're having trouble, if you're, let's say, a commercial producer with a high tone, you're having a tomato disease issue,
Plant People: we can set up a time to come out to look at your operation individually. And for me, that's a very high level of service. Now that's in addition to all the commercial, you know, pesticide trainings or greenhouse trainings or food safety certifications that we offer.
Plant People: That is direct outreach, one-on-one customer service that we offer. And that's something that's really, really unique. And it's ah kind of at a different level.
Alexis : For free, you go do those site visits for free, just to reiterate.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : People try to pay us, but again, then I say, do you pay your taxes?
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis : they They always did, yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis : Yeah, exactly.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: But
Brett: You've got your legal pad of questions that you have been wondering or things that come up as you're walking around. Cause you know, obviously Alexis as an agent did this a lot and and we've done it a little bit together ah from the state level, but we are not able to offer nearly the level of service that your local County agent or is going to be able to offer as far as ah multiple visits to follow back.
Brett: Or if you have questions afterward to call um i think that's yeah tremendously.
Jessica : you
Plant People: I feel like we're kind of a pyramid. You support us, Brett. You guys do amazing job, CCD. Lots of other folks on campus do a great job supporting us. And then we're kind of, like I said, that last mile in counties.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: So our system has to work like that, I think. And that's something else really unique about the Cooperative Extension Service that we had this discussion 25 years ago, you know, are we going to be replaced by information?
Plant People: But then we kept circling back to the fact that the Cooperative Extension Service generates information, research-based information, and then we apply that sometimes through general programs, sometimes through very specific programs on things like, you know, new chemicals or new varieties that may have taken three to five years for, you know, on-campus specialists to kind of hone and go through the process of vetting those new varieties and coming up with their top three recommendations or whatever in a given scenario.
Brett: yeah
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: But that's another really unique thing about the Cooperative Extension Service. We're not just in the information dissemination business. We're in the information generation business. I mean, information online has to come from somewhere, right?
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: And that's our one big pivot is we're the probably the the single biggest in within our subject matter in the U.S. of that information generation as far as research goes.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: That's one of our big challenges. tent poles that we stand under is that we generate, you know, research information. And then we go all the way down to a county level where Jessica and I are at. And that gets pushed out heavily at a very local level.
Plant People: Sometimes we're walking around your farm under your greenhouse or under your high tunnel, putting that information to work on your operation. And that's one of the great things about the extension service.
Plant People: And I didn't always appreciate that, but if people have pointed that out to me and I've ran into people from from other countries in some cases over the years. And it was kind of, i had a specific moment.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: The person was a farm manager of a large commercial farm from France. And he, ah I guess they have some equivalent to the extension service over there, but he said he's always enjoyed the extension service in the United States because of the things that we just mentioned.
Plant People: He said, it's so amazing.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: And Brett mentioned it earlier, the return on investment and alexa Alexis touched on it. the dollar for dollar return on investment for him. He said, every time I use you guys, I'm getting 10 times more than I put in And that's our goal is to give communities more than they put in.
Plant People: and that's, we want to be a good investment. We want to be a good return on investment, but you know, it took somebody from not from the United States as a native to point that out to me.
Jessica : you
Plant People: And I, that's always stuck with me all these years ah when he pointed that out, that that, you know, that's kind of one of the things that we do, you know, we're an investment in the way our system works and we're supported.
Plant People: Brett mentioned federally, and then we have local tax money involved specifically here in Kentucky, not in all States. But yeah, our system is a big system with a lot of moving parts and it's on campus, it's off campus, it's, you know, in communities and on your farm.
Plant People: So that's my elevator speech you got.
Brett: Extension is the United States most unique and powerful contribution to higher education. Because our system of offering degrees to people is, we've we've elevated it, but it's based on a British system.
Brett: Our system of doing research and and conducting research on research stations, that's actually copying a German system, you know, back in the 17, 1800s, extension is an entirely American invention.
Brett: ah And which is kind of a wild thing to think about, but that's what that tripartite mission is actually this blend and extension is the thing that we, and you you talk, you read, well, maybe you don't, I read about international history of extension and people have tried to replicate it over and over again in other places afterward.
Alexis : Yeah.
Plant People: So
Brett: And they just They just can't get the same level of traction. And I don't think we would ever get the same level of traction to recreate it now. It was a very odd time. there's lots of criticisms to be made of how and why and all that kind of stuff.
Brett: But the actual public service mission of a higher education thing where there's information being generated, there's graduates who have a connection to it.
Plant People: that transfer of knowledge. yeah
Brett: All of that is this really uniquely American thing. And so, you know, if, if you're, if you struggle at times sometimes to feel patriotic, that's one thing that i come back to is like, okay, we did this cool thing and we are able to still do that, this cool thing.
Brett: And it's one of the reasons I really like my job, but, um,
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: we're doing it together, you know, with ah from people in the community supporting us, and we return that support. So it's kind of, it's a feedback loop. so
Brett: Well, if this episode did not get you hyped to go and see what your local extension office has to offer, ah by the way, you all mentioned you buried or you mentioned the um the newsletter thing.
Brett: But like if I'm I'm out there and I'm like, OK, cool, I'm located in whatever county.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And I am determined to get to the office for some cool stuff this year, find out about what they have and what's going on. Like what would be the main ways to get that information and get connected?
Plant People: Tell people to look at our website.
Jessica : Well,
Plant People: I mean, start with our website. And if that, you know, you don't find something that works for you, then make a direct phone call and then be put on a general contact list and we can narrow down if you're interested in youth topics or home horticulture or commercial, you know, field crops, you know, we'll narrow that down.
Plant People: There's kind of a narrowing down process and we get you on the right list. But how do you guys do it, Jessica?
Jessica : Or just stop in. I've had several people who stop in or like, I'm new to the area or my neighbor has told me, you know, to come up here, that you guys offer programs and you can meet, you know, meet us agents or our front staff who also knows the The drill, kind of like Ray said, of like they ask like what you're interested in.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And we still send out paper newsletters at our office. um That and then or we get people to follow the Facebook pages that we have, the social media pages.
Jessica : And that we've picked up a lot of new new people that way over the years, social media pages.
Brett: And if you search your county extension, it it's very It's very search engine and optimized.
Jessica : Yep.
Brett: It's going to be right there at the top.
Alexis : Mm-hmm.
Brett: um If you have trouble, you can reach out to us, but you you shouldn't. google Google is smarter than me.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: um Cool. all Awesome. um Alexis, do you have any final thoughts to take us out of this this discussion here?
Alexis : um Just remember that if you're if you're feeling unheard somewhere in your life, there's an extension office that wants to hear hear from you. So, guard yeah, yeah.
Plant People: Garden therapy, garden therapy.
Jessica : but
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis : Just, you know, say...
Jessica : We talk about all things.
Plant People: Yeah. All the things. Sometimes that landscape walk becomes 20 other things.
Jessica : All the things.
Alexis : Yeah.
Plant People: So, yeah.
Jessica : Yes.
Alexis : yeah
Brett: Is that why you keep sending me to the extension office when I ask you questions, Alexis?
Alexis : Yeah, yeah. I'm like, have you asked your local extension agent?
Brett: I would like to hear you less is kind of what I'm hearing now.
Alexis : Yeah. so ah
Brett: excuse me
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis : um Yes, but take take advantage of that. You pay for it already, hopefully, if you pay your taxes. So it's worth going to check out what's what's up there. And at the very least, you can submit a soil sample once or twice a year, as we always preach to you.
Alexis : thank you. That's my challenge to you in 2026 is ah go learn about your local county extension office if you're in Kentucky.
Jessica : you
Alexis : And if you're not, find the closest one to you and learn about them. So anyways, we thank you guys for being and you here with us today. You can follow us on Instagram at Hort Culture Pod. I'm going to my one of my goals for 2026 to better about.
Alexis : keeping the Instagram up to date. So but you can also follow on social media Mercer County and Bourbon County extension. You can also follow CCD where we keep some stuff posted on there too.
Alexis : So check out all of those.
Brett: Oh, that yeah, I wanted to ask one one clarifying question.
Alexis : Yeah.
Brett: So if I live in an adjoining county, am I allowed to come to your programming?
Jessica : Oh, yeah. We have people cross county lines all the time.
Brett: Cool.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Cool.
Alexis : The only HACUP can be 4-H. So they usually like to stay within county, but you can get you know permission if for some reason you know they're offering something that your county's not offering. So just a little side note there. But anyways, thank you guys for being here. We hope that you'll listen with us next time and that you stay warm because it's January.
Alexis : See ya.
