Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

This article is for perspective…are your calls this bad?

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=8232

More reason why the Cooperative Extension educational system is needed.

This article from Hort Technology January – March 2008 reveals that in MN gardeners most often obtain their garden or plant related information from friends and neighbors.

…what this says to me is that our county community horticulture educators and volunteers are absolutely critical to our role in getting Cornell research based information to NYS citizen. The number of NYS citizens who view you as friends and neighbors far excessed anything Cornell University could gather.

Keep up the good friends/neighbor work. You are the faces of our successful CCE educational system.

Lori

Here’s the full research article and please share your perspectives with a comment.

article.pdf

Are you looking for ways to share the excitement of school gardening with other teachers and educators? Need to convince your administrators of the benefits of beginning a garden in your school? Although you’re familiar with all the merits, are you looking for research-based justification of why gardening is so important? Use this Powerpoint presentation (link) to get everyone on board! Designed as a guided presentation, or a stand alone that can run on its own, this will help you rally others and build enthusiasm. Available from the Cornell GBL resource page: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gbl/pubs/index.html

You might also be interested in the Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden CSYSG training program created by the UC Davis Children’s Garden Program and UC Santa Cruz/Life Lab at:

http://www.csgn.org/page.php?id=75

He wrote The Last Child in the Woods and is a featured speaker Cornell Plantations fall Lecture series on September 24 2008.

This tool is on the website of the NYS Wildlife Management Association. Although the options are limited for some counties, this will hopefully improve in the relatively near future.

http://www.nyswma.org/dnn/NWCOSearch/tabid/63/Default.aspx

is a community science project with the goal of increasing our understanding of where bees are doing poorly and how the pollination of our garden and wild plants
are being affected. We’re hoping you will join us by planting
sunflowers in your garden. Community, demonstration, and school
gardens are invited to participate.

We’ll send you some free native sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seed and
twice a month, we’d like you to time how long it takes for 5 bees to
visit that sunflower. This information will give us an
index of pollination that we can compare across the United States.
Once we know where bees are in trouble, we can start developing a plan
to help them.

You can see the details about the project and register at
www.greatsunflower.org or contact us at sfbee@sfsu.edu.

Do join us!

Thanks so much,

Gretchen LeBuhn
Associate Professor
San Francisco State University

Gretchen LeBuhn
The Great Sunflower Project
www.GreatSunflower.org

All county educators or lead volunteers forging or interested in local partnerships consider submitting a session proposal and save the date to attend…

2008 AVRM National Conference planning is well underway. This year’s conference will be held in Binghamton, New York on October 1-3, 2008.

Power in Partnerships

The theme of this year’s conference Power in Partnerships reflects the potential and energy we experience working with volunteers. Together, we will discuss the emerging opportunities volunteer resources managers (VRMs) share in developing authentic, sustainable partnerships for our organizations.

We can build stronger communities by increasing communication between programs. Everyday we create more effective programs that increase the quality of life in our communities. What collaborative successes and synergy can we highlight in identifying new resources and learning how to leverage these resources together to meet the identified needs of our communities? What roles can educational institutions, funding sources, government, businesses, corporations and others play in creating a shared vision and making things happen?

Consider submitting a proposal for a workshop session. Presenters will receive a 10% discount on the conference registration. To submit a proposal, please visit the Conference page at www.avrm.org.

Supporting Awareness of Nutrition and Hunger

Statistics show that in many U.S. classrooms you’ll find children who are overweight sitting
next to others wondering where their next meal will come from; many are not getting the right
balance of nutrients in their diets or enough exercise. Research conducted at Texas A&M
University supports the connection between kids’ food gardens and improved nutrition. Could a
school garden be part of the solution to the diet- and exercise-related challenges children
face? Many forward-thinking educators and parents think so, and have worked to create youth
garden programs that focus on nutrition and hunger issues.

As a way to encourage the growth of health-focused youth gardens, NGA recognizes outstanding
programs via the Healthy Sprouts Awards, sponsored by Gardener’s Supply Company. These awards
support school and youth garden programs that teach about nutrition and the issue of hunger in
the United States.

CCE educators here’s yet another reason to partner with your nutrition collegues

To be eligible for the 2008 Healthy Sprouts Awards, your school or organization must plan to garden in 2009 with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18. The selection of winners is based on the demonstrated relationship between the garden program and nutrition and hunger issues in the United States.
This year NGA will present awards to 20 schools or organizations.

Applications must be postmarked no later than October 15, 2008. DOWNLOAD AN APPLICATION