Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

A house surrounded by nature helps boost a child’s attention capabilities, a study by a Cornell researcher suggests.”When children’s cognitive functioning was compared before
and after they moved from poor- to better-quality housing that had more green spaces around, profound differences emerged in their attention capacities even when the effects of the improved housing were taken into account,” said Nancy Wells, assistant professor of design and environmental analysis in the College of Human Ecology. Wells also conducted a study that suggests the mental health of adults improves with a move from poor to quality housing. Although the green-space study sample was small — only 17 children — the statistical findings were highly significant, said Wells. Children in the study who had the greatest gains in terms of “greenness” between their old and new homes showed the greatest improvements in functioning.
“The findings suggest that the power of nature is indeed profound,” she said. To conduct the study, published in Environment and Behavior, the researcher assessed the extent of natural surroundings around the children’s old and new homes by rating, for example, the amount of nature in the views from various rooms and the degree of the yard’s natural setting. To assess their children’s abilities to focus attention, parents answered a series of questions from the Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale, a nationally standardized measure of directed attention capacity. “The results suggest that the natural environment may play a far more significant role in the well-being of children within a housing environment than has previously been recognized,” Wells said.

Please continue to collected responses to our 2007 CCE Lawn Care Survey.

Online version

Paper version (pdf)

We have about 1,000 responses entered so far. If you have collected paper surveys you can send them to Max Welcome 134 Plant Science Horticulture Cornell Ithaca NY 14850 or enter them via the online version.

A quick glance at what we have so far:

We have received responses from lawn owners in every NYS county. We have greater than 75 responses from lawn owners in Monroe, Tompkins, Oneida and Wyoming. Wyoming has collected the greatest percentage of responses based on population.

It would be terrific if all counties were able to collect responses from at least 0.1% of their population. That’s just 100 responses per 100,000 residents.

Who usually mows your home lawn?
I do. 75%

Another unpaid person does. 16%

Another paid person or service does. 8%
Which best describes how tall your lawn grows before it is cut?

4 inches or more. 46%

Less than 4 inches. 34%

The lawn is mowed about every week regardless of grass height. 17%

I don’t know. 3%

Which best describes the height of your mower blade?

It is at the highest blade height setting. 25%

The blade is set to cut the lawn to between 2 and 3 inches. 58%

The blade is set to cut the lawn to less than 2 inches. 5%

I do not know. 11%
Which best describes how often your lawn mower blade is sharpened?

More than once a season.22%

Once a season. 44%

Once every 2 to 3 years. 21%

Never. 10%

With the closing of media services our Master Gardener Volunteer manual has been move to electronic only form for distribution. It is available the left hand column link on the site below. You can print it or down load it on to CD for your trainees or have them access it directly online.

http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/education/mgprogram/volunteer.html

In-service

September 20 and 21:
Why Don’t They Get It: Telling the Extension Garden Story

Registration and agenda

Why Don’t They Get It: Telling the Extension Garden Story
Are you feeling the pressure to tell Extension stakeholders the story of
the benefits of your work in gardening with children, youth and/or adults? Do you wonder why it isn’t clear to people why Extension work matters, when garden-based learning makes such a difference? This workshop provides a four step framework
and useful tools to successfully tell your Extension story. Learn how to map your Extension gardening effort, determine what story to tell and ways to gather data for that story, how to interpret and organize story data, and work with a proven formula for developing a story that gets the attention of stakeholders. Come prepared with a garden program or program story to work on during this workshop. Also be prepared to engage in group discussion, program critique, and to be a friendly advisor to your peers as they develop their stories. Although this workshop will apply to your other programs, we are focusing on garden-based learning and community horticulture, as well as the interaction between our youth and adult programs.

Tools shared as they relate to your gardening programs:
Program logic model
Matrix of approaches to Extension work
Overview of five program evaluation methods
Quick tip sheets on program evaluation
Impact reporting background, formula, and examples

Registration and agenda

More details on topics.

October 23 & 24, 2007 (Tuesday 11 a.m. to Wednesday 1 p.m.)

Lawn care for community horticulture educators, featuring Cornell’s turf grass experts.
CCE educators report that up to 50% of all home care inquires their county offices receive are about lawn care; for many counties that’s more than 800 lawn related questions per year. This in-service provides an opportunity for educators to hear first hand form the Cornell turf experts how to best address homeowner questions with the latest research findings. Participants will then be able to practice applying that knowledge in hands on activities guided by experienced practitioners. Participants will also be eligible to receive funds to organize regional lawn care trainings for other educators and Master Gardener Volunteers in spring 2008.

Cornell Plantations’ Fall ‘07 Lecture Series Covers Climate Change, Horticulture, Native Plants, History, and Archaeology

ITHACA, N.Y. — Horticulturists, authors, and environmentalists are featured in the lineup of six free Wednesday evening lectures in Cornell Plantations’ Fall 2007 Lecture Series, starting September 5th. With the exception of the September 5th event, all lectures are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Alice Statler Auditorium in Statler Hall, on the Cornell University campus. Nearby free parking is available.

This year’s lecture series schedule is as follows:

• Wednesday, September 5 at 5:30 p.m., Warren Hall Auditorium, room B45: “The Zookeeper’s Wife. Author Diane Ackerman delivers the 11th annual William H. and Jane Torrence Harder Lecture. Join us afterward for a garden reception at Cornell Plantations’ Botanical Garden (off Plantations Road) to kick off the series.

• Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m., Statler Auditorium: “Tremble, Bloom, and a Slow Fade to Brown.William Cullina, author and director of horticultural research for the New England Wildflower Society, presents the 2nd annual Class of 1945 lecture. Book signing to follow.

• Wednesday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m., Statler Auditorium: “Fragrance in the Garden. Holly Shimizu, executive director of the United States Botanic Garden, delivers the 19th annual Audrey Harkness O’Connor Lecture.

• Wednesday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m., Statler Auditorium: “Paradise Transformed: Private Gardens for the 21st Century.” Guy Cooper and Gordon Taylor, authors, television presenters, and international landscape designers, deliver the 25th annual William J. Hamilton, Jr. lecture. Book signing to follow.

• Wednesday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m., Statler Auditorium: “Climate Change and our Gardens, Farms, and Natural Landscapes,” by David Wolfe, professor of horticulture at Cornell University. Book signing to follow.

• Wednesday, November 28 at 7:30 p.m., Statler Auditorium: “Reconstructing the Desert Gardens of Naguar Palace, Rajasthan, India,by Kathryn L. Gleason, associate professor of landscape architecture at Cornell University.

Ample free parking is available after 5 p.m. in the parking garage on Hoy Road, just a short walk from Statler Hall. Handicapped access is available at the back of the Statler. For more information, please visit our website at www.plantations.cornell.edu, or call 607-255-2400.

National Gardening Association has a new monthly on-line newsletter on Edible Landscaping.

September’s issue contains:

• The Fall Greens Garden

• Edible of the Month: Apples

• Recipe: German Apple Pancake

• Planning Your Landscape 101

• Growing Berry Shrubs

• Edible Trees

• Growing Edible Flowers in Your Garden

• Vegetable Garden Design

• Edible Resource Guide

The “Green-Blue Summit: Clean Water through Residential Integrated Pest Management’ took place in July 2007. It brought together more than 100 professionals interested in the connections between integrated pest management (IPM) and water quality in turf and structural settings. Presentations focused on water quality risks posed by pest management practices in residential landscapes and structures, and on educating the public to minimizing these risks. Participants from private industry, government, land grant universities, and nonprofit organizations collaborated in workshops to identify key issues and develop strategies for educating consumers.

See details of the summit agenda and project ideas that resulted from this event.

Also video of presentations.

Looking to create an exciting learning or assessment tool…. at this website anyone can download a Jeopardy game template and make a game that focuses on anything they like … plant diseases, plant identification, basic gardening principles…
http://www.wonderdogprograms.com/programs/jeopardy/index.html

Charlie Mazza emeritus extension faculty in Horticulture shares this tool for connecting with learners beyond your workshop time:

In April, I attended an all day workshop at the College of Human Ecology on Cornell campus. At the end of the day, the professor had all 40 people who attended fill out aindex card and address an envelope to ourselves. On the post card, we were to write two or more things we would do as a result of the information we acquired at the workshop. These were personal action steps that we keep us from leaving the workshop behind when we left — whatever we wanted to promise ourselves we would do. The professor sent those envelopes and post cards to us 4 months later as a reminder of what we said we would do. Nothing else was in the envelope — just the “to do” post card we had filled out for ourselves back in April.

It was an easy and very effective way of keeping contact with us. It occurred to me that it could have some value in our gardening classes, when we spend a substantial amount of time with a group and want to keep the learning alive.

I also like the way it forces you to pick at the time of the workshop those items that resonated most with you as relevant and doable. We often do that with a standard evaluation form at the end of a workshop, such as “what are you planning on doing in the future?” but this next step of mailing it back to you in 4 months (or any time interval) is a reminder of what you once thought was important enough to suggest for yourself. Even if you are doing it by then, it is a pat on the back that you have followed up. If you are not doing it, you can pick it up as a new goal.

Have you tried this at your workshops? Or other tools to connect learners beyond the time period you are together? Please share.