April 1, 2024 • 25 mins
The Sunshine Gardening Podcast, hosted by Kristin Hildabrand, spotlights Kentucky's Horticulture Webinar Wednesday program. In a recent episode, agent Kelly Jackson discussed the program's essentials and its growth. The show notes provide details for connecting and registering for the webinars. Subscribe to the podcast for more gardening tips and inspiration. Happy gardening!
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(00:00):
- The team has tried to do over the course
of these seasons is try to reach out even
beyond just Kentucky extension.
And so we had, for our100th episode last year,
we had Dr. Allen arm to join
and he spoke aboutlandscaping in small areas.
That was a great program.And then we had, at the end
of last year's season, therewas a report that came out
(00:21):
of the Mount Cuba Center.
It was on the research they did with segs
and how to use those in the landscape.
And these are native segs, allnative to Kentucky as well.
And so we had their guy on to do a program
and that was just like, Iimmediately purchased segs
after I heard that, I thought,I'm missing this plant.
I only know of yellow nutsed, which nobody wants.
(00:42):
But these are the nativesegs that you can,
even certain ones of that thatthey tested with mowing like
or a lawn and replacement with segs.
So that was, that was a great program.
- That voice right there wasthe knowledgeable Kelly Jackson
as the horticulture extensionagent for Christian County
and one of the cultivators
behind the Fruitful Horticulturewebinar Wednesdays program.
(01:06):
Kelly brings insights directly
to our podcast conversation today.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening Podcast,
or we help your garden grow.
I'm your host, Kristen Hildebrand.
In today's episode, episode 27,
we are spotlighting thehorticulture webinar Wednesdays
program offered right here in Kentucky.
(01:28):
Today we discuss with AgentKelly Jackson, the essentials
of the horticulturewebinar Wednesdays program
and explore the growth ofthis educational initiative.
You'll get an insider'speak at the topics covered,
the engaging educationalcontent behind the scenes
of the webinar series, thegrowth it has witnessed,
(01:50):
and how these webinars can help enrich
your horticultural skills.
So grab your gardeninggloves and let's dive in.
- Welcome to the SunshineGardening Podcast.
This gardening show will equip
and inspire avid gardeners with tips
and tricks to help themnavigate the gardening world.
The show will also highlightspecific growing requirements
(02:13):
for seasonal plants
so the sun will shine brighterover their Kentucky garden.
And now here's that ray ofSunshine Garden Enthusiast
and Horticulture extensionagent Kristen Hildebrand
with the University
of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
- Alright, we are so excitedto have with us today.
Joining on the podcast is KellyJackson. How are you Kelly?
(02:36):
- I am excellent today.
- Great, great.
And I know that one ofthe exciting programs
that you help coordinatefor us throughout the state
of Kentucky is the HorticultureWebinar Wednesday series.
And for a lot of peoplelistening to us this morning
or here on the podcast, canyou give us a little bit
of details about thatprogram, what all it involves
(02:59):
and how it got started?
Give us some general info about it.
- Sure. Yeah, so horticulturewebinar Wednesdays
came into being like alot of different things
with technology during thecovid period that we had.
And it was an excellent wayto kind of get, still continue
to teach classes to the public.
So a group of horticultureagents got together
(03:21):
and thought, how could we do this?
And it's been going for five years.
This is the fifth season nowand it's going very well.
And essentially all itis is basically a class
that you might attend atany county extension office,
but we do it live,
we do it every Wednesdayduring our season.
Uh, we don't do it year round, but
(03:41):
or during our growing season.
And then all of those arerecorded for future use.
And really that's what we'veseen a massive increase in.
People go into the YouTube channel
and watching those even later.
But it's fun to do it live
because that's where you getthe questions from the public
and we can get to answerthose from the whoever
the expert is that day.
(04:02):
So you don't get that on the recording,
but you still get accessto the information.
It's, it's been a great outreachI think, for the community.
- Yes, I know that a lot
of my master gardeners herein Warren County have really
enjoyed it and we'vetried to promote it also
to the public here so thatway people can gain access.
And one of the things thatI think is so great is
(04:22):
that you all's topicsvary from month to month.
Can you kind of give us,
I know you said it's the fifth season,
but is there anythingthat you can tell us about
for this upcoming season
that we might see featuredin a future horticulture
webinar Wednesdays program?
- Sure. Yeah. So we startedour first one for this year
for the 2024 season we had last week.
(04:44):
And it was Andy Mills who's aUK Ag agent and Mead County.
And he talked about growingthose gigantic pumpkins,
which they have a huge pumpkinway off in their county.
It was a little bit, maybea little bit outside of
what we typically do,but not really either
because we have a lotof vegetable gardeners
that wa that watch these.
And you know, in the back ofyour head you always think,
(05:05):
man, what if I could growthe biggest of something
until you hear what level ofwork goes into growing one
of these giant pumpkins.
And it was, it's aneye-opening experience.
So not
to dissuade people you couldeasily get a 200 300 pounder,
but if you're gonna tr try to grow one
of these 2000 pound pumpkins,it's, it's a undertaking.
So you can go back
(05:25):
and watch that as soon
as I get it up on the YouTube channel.
That's a really, really,uh, a good program.
But coming up we've gotone on hummingbirds,
attracting hummingbirds to your garden
and then kind of, these arenot in order necessarily,
but we have one comingup on chaos gardening,
if you're not familiarwith that term, it's,
it's the opposite of formal gardening.
Okay. So it's the oppositeof I want all these plants
(05:47):
to be this way and layered,
this is everything goes inthe garden mostly from seeds,
what comes up comes upand survives in that zone.
And it's a different,
just a different buzzword at the moment.
I guess you could say. Ihave someone on hostas,
some on peonies
or peonies, I don't knowwhich way you pronounce that.
So those are some ofour very first classes
coming up in the next month.
(06:08):
- Yeah. And how exciting is it
to hear about growing a gigantic pumpkin?
Because you know, whenwe get to state fair
we're always curious about the process.
'cause when we actually see it live
and in person, it doeskinda peak your curiosity
on what all it takes.
And I feel like gardenerswe like to be challenged
and this is a great way thatpeople can be challenged
(06:30):
and learn a lot as they do it too.
So, and it seems like withhummingbirds, you know,
wildlife is a huge benefit to the garden
and we've seen a lot ofpopularity with hummingbirds
and bees and butterflies.
So I like that you all offer something
in that category as well. So people
- Are naturally attracted to hummingbirds.
(06:51):
They like to see, even thoughwe only have the one in
Kentucky, it's still people just want
to see those little guys come by.
And there's a lot of questions about that.
Like what do you do atthe end of the season?
What about feeding them andthe fights that they get into?
So all of that'll getaddressed in that program.
- Yeah, I love, I love that
and I also love watching the hummingbirds
(07:12):
throughout the summer months as well.
So it, it's fun just to pass the time just
by doing that there.
Now as far as the instructors for these
horticulture webinar Wednesdays,who basically teaches some
of these courses for you guys?
- Generally it's the horticulture agents
and some of the agagents across the state.
(07:33):
It's more often the horticulture agents.
And then in addition tothat, a few specialists too.
We've had far as ag agents,
we've had a topic on maple syrup, like how
to tap your maple treesfor making your own syrup.
And that was an ag agent out
of Eastern Kentucky that did that program.
That's in our, it's in our list.
And then a specialist, we have Larson, uh,
(07:54):
Dr. Larson on pretty often about insects
and he's always entertaining.
What I have, well the team hastried to do over the course
of these seasons is try to reach out even
beyond just Kentucky extension.
And so we had, for our100th episode last year,
we had Dr. Allen Arma to join
and he spoke aboutlandscaping in small areas.
(08:16):
That was a great program.And then we had, at the end
of last year's season, therewas a report that came out
of the Mount Cuba Center.
I dunno if you're familiar with that,
but it was on the researchthey did with segs
and how to use those in the landscape.
And these are native segs allnative to Kentucky as well.
And so we had their, theirguy on to do a program
(08:38):
and that was just like, Iimmediately purchased sedges
after I heard that I thoughtI'm missing this plant.
I only know of yellow nutsedge, which nobody wants,
but these are the nativesegs that you can,
even certain ones of that thatthey tested with mowing like
or a lawn and replacement with segs.
So that was, that was agreat program I thought.
So we try to find every oncein a while just sprinkle in
(09:00):
among our, our regularspeakers some special topic
that's hot, that's new,that's interesting.
And that was all new researchfrom a three year study,
so that was great to have them one.
- Yeah, I love that you all try
to get basically experts in their field
and that kind of knowledge
and wisdom seems like they'revery passionate about those
topics and it makes it for a very engaging
(09:22):
and interesting program.
So kudos to you guys.
Now, I know it takes several people
to plan the horticulturewebinar Wednesdays program.
You're just one of the organizers
Who all else is involvedwith this program?
- Uh, so there's four horticulture agents.
Sharon Flint is in Scott County
and she organizes the Zoom links
(09:43):
and sending out the emails tothe public if they register to
to be on one of the classes.
Amy Aldenderfer is in Hardin County
and she is kind of the,the voice during the show.
She's doing a lot of thetalking to the public
and getting them to signin and greeting people.
It's amazing here recentlyespecially, and I guess
'cause we've been going longenough now we're getting people
(10:04):
to sign in, not just fromKentucky but from other states.
I think this last one, the firstone we had was from Florida
that was watching ourprogram had signed in
to watch it, so that's great.
So she's good about engaging the public.
And then Annette Heiserfor out of Davis County,
she runs the chat boxfor us during the program
and then I do the backend work.
(10:25):
So I'm usually not even on the,
the air, I'm just hitting record.
And then for, I always jokefor every speaker that we have,
I watch it three times becausethe editing as you know,
takes, you have to go backthrough it again and cut
and paste and fix any errors that happen.
And then what we just started doing
is adding the timestamps in
(10:46):
because sometimes peopledon't wanna watch the entire
episode if they're onlyinterested in one part
and you can't set the timestamps
until you've finished editing.
So you do it, watch it live,you watch it during editing
and then you watch itagain to set timestamps
and then it goes on the YouTube channel.
So that's, that's the part Ido and part I prefer off camera
-.
Well hey, it takes multiplepeople to make it run smoothly
(11:09):
and as efficiently as you guys have done.
So kudos to you all
and I know I always reallyenjoy getting that information,
seeing the programs that you all offer
and again sharing it with thepeople here in Warren County.
Just outta curiosity,you probably see some
of the statistics with a lot
of the horticulture webinarWednesdays programs,
but has there been like a couple
(11:30):
of episodes that have been most popular?
You said you're in the fifth season,
so I was just curious if there was one
that might have just blown yourmind on how many people. Oh
- Yeah, I've got, Ipulled up the analytics
before, lemme do the lifetime search.
So it shows you of course how many views.
The number one video
that we have on the channelis on growing Paw paws
(11:51):
and that is the specialist now
- Sherry, right?
- Yep. Sherry from KSU.mm-Hmm.
And there's been over 21,000views of growing pawpaws
and people are allowed, you know,
as you watch these videos onYouTube, you can go to the chat
and ask questions there as well.
Mm-Hmm and thenwe try to get you answers
to those more questionsfor that particular topic.
(12:13):
I don't know, you wouldthink Pawpaw's is such a
outlier crop outlier plant,
but there's a lot of interest in that.
It's probably why KSU has suchan extensive pawpaw research
program is that they knowthat there's a lot
and blueberries is number two, a lot
of people interested in blueberries.
Starting a communitygarden is the third one.
(12:34):
Raspberries and the top 10 trees
for Kentucky rounds out the top five.
So it's kind of varied.
The one on community gardensis not really about the
vegetables themselves, it'sabout organizing people
and starting a community garden.
There's a lot of interest in that as well.
- Yeah, I know probably a lot
of us have that gardening interest.
There's probably communityprojects and opportunities there
(12:55):
and sometimes you need to kindof know some of those things
to keep it well organizedand be successful.
So I appreciate yougiving us those top five.
I am interested that thePaw Paws was number one,
but we have a pawpaw class
that's coming up here atthe Warren County office
and we've had a lot ofpeople ask for that.
So if they miss the class, I guess
I know where to send them. Send them to
- The video.
(13:16):
- Yeah, yeah, send them there.
One question I do have on thehorticulture webinar Wednesday
is how long generallydo these sessions last?
- So it's difficult to lock in on a time.
The goal is based on the,as we started getting more
and more of these videos andYouTube, you start to see
that people's attentionspans go for about 15,
(13:37):
20 minutes on a video longerthan that and it's difficult.
So that's why we went back
and started adding timestamps to this.
We've asked our speakers to kind of,
even a topic like pawpaw's is a big topic
from start to finish, right?
It might work better if we just talk about
what are the varietiesof pawpaw's for Kentucky
or how do you harvest
(13:58):
and what do you do with thosepawpaws at harvests instead
of trying to encompass it all.
So that's what we've startedtrying to do this year.
Well and even last year iskind of narrow those down
and target about 20 minutes tops
and then questions after that.
We don't include the questionsthat are live in the videos
because typically if you'veever sat on these before,
and I know you have the questions, a lot
(14:18):
of times it's just aboutan individual's situation.
Like I have this and thatdoesn't necessarily relate
to everybody, so we don'tinclude the questions.
Or maybe another way to say that is,
that's the perk youget if you show up live
for the program is you get toask the specialist yourself,
but you can still askyour questions in too.
But that's our goal. We havesome that are much longer than
that, but we're working on kind
(14:39):
of shortening the overalllength of the programs.
- Yeah, I like how that, yousaid that you've tried to do,
you know, really good aboutcondensing the information down
because it's, like you said, we kind
of get the glazed overlook after.
Yeah. So long and now when do you all
generally offer the sessions?
You said it's on Wednesday, but what time
of day is that for folks?
- It's 1230 Easterntime. 1130 central time.
(15:02):
- Okay. So kind of during the lunch hour.
So it could be very wellworked into someone's schedule,
especially if they wanna taketheir lunch at their desk,
they can join and listen
and again at the end askquestions if they have specific
questions related to the material.
So that sounds great. Youmentioned the live option versus
the recording option.
(15:22):
So if someone can't attend,do they still need to register
to get the recording link orhow is that done generally?
- No. Probably the smartestthing to do would be if they,
if they use YouTube, of course that's
where they're all postedis to go to the channel
and to subscribe to that channel.
We have about 1300,
1400 subscribers to the YouTube channel.
So just go there and click subscribe.
(15:44):
We don't do like all of theum, things that you see.
If you watch anything on YouTube,
it's like click and subscribe.
We don't do that. But if youwanna know when one gets loaded
up, then that's the best way really to do
that is to go and subscribe.
Yes, we're not, we'renot trying to, to make,
this is not a a moneymaker thing, like most
of those people on YouTube are.
It's just an educational thing.
- Yeah. So on YouTube,
(16:06):
is it just horticulturewebinar Wednesdays?
Is that the name of the channel? Yes.
- Okay. I think if you go to YouTube
and you put the symbol atHorticulture webinar Wednesday,
it'll take you right to the channel.
- Okay. I just wanted to askfor folks that are listening
and as far as people, whenthey do get registered,
how is the easiest way forthem to get registered?
Is there a social media waythat they need to follow
(16:27):
or do you all have an email list served?
I'm just curious how that process works.
- So there's two ways to do that.
If they're on social media, on Facebook,
we have a horticulture webinar,Wednesday's Facebook page
and of course you can subscribe there
and see when they show up in your feed.
You can also go to thewebsite, Kentucky hort news.com
and there's a tab at the topthat's called H ww webinars
(16:51):
and you can click on theupcoming classes that you want
to attend and go ahead andtype in your email address.
When you do that, itgenerates an automatic email
with the link to the live version
so you can just watch it. Cool,
- Cool. We try to,
- We try to remove all the barriers,
but, so there's a couple ofdifferent options there for you.
- Yeah, so if you, if you wanna go
(17:12):
to the social media page there, you can go
to horticulture webinarWednesdays and check it out.
Is it just like oneregistration for the whole month
or is it individual classes?
- Yeah, so originally it wasone for the whole season.
You could sign up for everything
and then spammer somehow find a way
to mess things up for us.
So now it's one per month,so you can click on the one,
(17:33):
like if you wanna see thehummingbirds next week,
it would show up bothclasses that we had in March.
You obviously wouldn'tregister for last week's,
but you could register for that one
and then you would need to go back in
and for the April, if there's any in April
that you wanna see and register for those.
If you register and youdon't attend, that's okay.
There's, I mean there's no fee
for any of this, it's all free.
But um, if you wanna make sureyou get a notification the
(17:55):
day of the program as a reminder
and as the direct linkto that, I would sign up
for all the ones youthink you might watch.
- Yes, yes, for sure.
Any type of interest you definitely wanna
make sure you sign up for.
Is there anything that'srequired from the participant
besides just like, like you said,
registering and signing up?
Of course you said there'soptions to ask questions,
(18:16):
but do you all do anything beyond that,
like an evaluation piece?
I was just curious to get feedback. We
- Don't do that anymore.
We used to, there is anopportunity of course
to if there's topics thatyou want to hear more about,
you can through the webpage at the bottom
where you would sign up,you can click on that link,
it'll generate an emailto Kentucky Hor News
(18:37):
and you know, say, I reallywould like to hear it.
I just had one the otherday. They wanted a topic on
something that was of interest to them.
I think it was Linn Roses,
which I don't think that we've had.
So that's one we can add into our list
because obviously somebody outthere is interested in that.
So that's a way for them tokind of give feedback as well.
As far as if they'venever done a Zoom class
(18:57):
before, you don't necessarily have
to download the Zoom software.
You can click on the linkand open it in a web browser,
but if you, if you prefer it's free,
you can download theZoom and and use that.
Or if you're not at a computer,
you can push the button on thephone and just listen to it.
Not quite as effective,
but you could listen to it on your phone
or do the whole thing through
the phone, the Zoom andeverything. So yeah,
(19:18):
- Sounds like we've got multipleoptions there for joining
and especially for thosethat might not feel
as comfortable with Zoom.
I know there's still probablysome folks out there,
but sounds like you all aredoing a really good job about
offering these four culturalwebinar Wednesdays programs.
Now I know you mentioned a couple just,
and they're coming up, but
how often do you all tellthe classes in advance?
(19:41):
Do y'all try to share those onsocial media all at one time
for the upcoming month orhow does that work, Kelly?
- Yeah, on the social media,they're, they're released
for the month ahead, usuallya couple weeks before April.
All of April's classesare up right now on,
on the Facebook page, on the website.
As soon as we have everythingscheduled, I go ahead
(20:02):
and put everything upthere for the entire year
or if we're got a few gaps thatwe're still trying to fill,
it'll just show to be determinedor whatever coming soon.
So I only have up throughApril right now on the page,
but we have the speakersalready selected through June,
so I just need to make an update is all.
- Cool. Cool. One of thegreat things you said
(20:24):
that this is the fifthseason, so if somebody wanted
to go back and watch whathappened in the first season
or the second season, third
or fourth, they do have that option.
It seems like, from my memory,
that it also has not only the recording,
but it has other materialthat goes along with it too.
- Yeah, so if they go to the webpage,
Kentucky Hort News Mm-Hmm, they can flip
through every one of the years, seasons,
(20:47):
I call 'em seasons on there.
They can flip through allthe seasons and just scroll.
If they don't have in mind whatthey're already looking for,
they can scroll through those.
If the speaker had ahandouts or a PowerPoint
or a link to a UK
or another universitypublication, we include
that in the notes section onthat page so they can click on
that and and get that information.
(21:08):
If they already know they'relooking for a specific topic,
then it's probably best togo straight to the YouTube.
We've got those organizedinto like vegetables
or woody plants or flowers or pests
and they can go straight to those sections
or just do a search in the, the bar above
and go straight to the video.
And then in the description of it, we try
(21:30):
to include those links as well.
So they got two ways toget to it to get to those.
- Yeah, yeah, thoseplaylists are really helpful
to help organize a lot ofthe content, especially
after five seasons.
That's a lot of information.
So you all generally start in the spring
and go till about October, is that right?
- We try to go through the end of October
to pick up Tree Week,
(21:50):
which is like a Kentucky Initiative thing
that's going on probably in the last few
years, at least for me anyways.
So we go through Octoberand then spring varies.
We have started early as February before,
but uh, really March iswhen people tend to get,
we probably could have gone alittle bit earlier this year.
Mm-Hmm. we'vehad an earlier spring,
but some years in February whenyou're talking about growing
(22:12):
plants and there's snow out,
nobody's really that interested in it.
So March is where we typicallypick up and begin the season.
- Yeah. So kind of be bankingon March through October.
And I like that you mentioned Tree Week
because that is a big initiative
through the UK CooperativeExtension Service
and like you said, the top,
was it the top fivetrees is in the top five
(22:32):
for you all is being, you know,
highly watched and and viewed.
Yeah. So it sounds likegreat information that a lot
of our Kentucky citizens
and gardeners can pick upif there's any interest,
I know y'all have donelawn care in the past
and those pest, a lot
of people have questionsabout different pest,
so y'all are doing a, agreat job there, Kelly.
(22:53):
Now if somebody has questionsabout the horticulture webinar
Wednesdays program, how doyou all hook up with anybody
that has questions on it?
- They can post questions at the bottom
of the Kentucky Hort News
where the listings of the classes are.
There's a button therethat says Get in touch
so they can send an email straight
through there if they havea question about that.
But they're alwayswelcome to contact their,
(23:14):
they could probably contacttheir own county agent
and they could forward it on to us,
or they can contact one ofone of us that was mentioned
or me either one. It's fine.
- Yeah. Yeah. We'll have
to share some links down in the show notes
for today's episode.
So again, make sure to, uh,
check us out on the shownotes for this episode.
Kelly, thank you so much
for being a guest on our show today,
(23:36):
and we hope to talk to youagain sometime in the future.
- Sure. Great. Thanks for having us.
- That's it for today's SunshineGardening podcast episode.
I hope you feel inspired
to check out the horticulturewebinar on Wednesdays
and expand your gardening knowledge.
A big thank you to Kelly Jackson
for being our guest on thepodcast today to connect
(23:57):
with the horticulture webinar,
Wednesdays program on social media
and learn how to registerfor the next webinar.
You can find the details inthe show notes for episode 27.
You can view the show notes
for episode 27 over on the
blog@warrencountyagriculture.com.
Before we say goodbye,make sure to subscribe
to the Sunshine GardeningPodcast for more gardening tips,
(24:20):
wisdom and inspirationdelivered right to your ears.
If you have any questions, feedback,
or ideas for future episodes,don't hesitate to reach out.
Until next time, keep your hands dirty
and your heart's full.
Happy gardening.
- Thanks for listening to theSunshine Gardening Podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
(24:41):
If you enjoy today's content, make sure
to hit the subscribe buttonwherever you get your podcast
to catch future segments
of the Sunshine GardeningPodcast gardeners.
Keep on digging and learningmore about gardening,
so the sunshine's brighterover your Kentucky Garden.
The Sunshine Gardening Podcasts
with Kristen Hilderbrand is aproduction of the University
(25:02):
of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
- The team has tried to do over the course
of these seasons is try to reach out even
beyond just Kentucky extension.
And so we had, for our100th episode last year,
we had Dr. Allen arm to join
and he spoke aboutlandscaping in small areas.
That was a great program.And then we had, at the end
of last year's season, therewas a report that came out
(00:21):
of the Mount Cuba Center.
It was on the research they did with segs
and how to use those in the landscape.
And these are native segs, allnative to Kentucky as well.
And so we had their guy on to do a program
and that was just like, Iimmediately purchased segs
after I heard that, I thought,I'm missing this plant.
I only know of yellow nutsed, which nobody wants.
(00:42):
But these are the nativesegs that you can,
even certain ones of that thatthey tested with mowing like
or a lawn and replacement with segs.
So that was, that was a great program.
- That voice right there wasthe knowledgeable Kelly Jackson
as the horticulture extensionagent for Christian County
and one of the cultivators
behind the Fruitful Horticulturewebinar Wednesdays program.
(01:06):
Kelly brings insights directly
to our podcast conversation today.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening Podcast,
or we help your garden grow.
I'm your host, Kristen Hildebrand.
In today's episode, episode 27,
we are spotlighting thehorticulture webinar Wednesdays
program offered right here in Kentucky.
(01:28):
Today we discuss with AgentKelly Jackson, the essentials
of the horticulturewebinar Wednesdays program
and explore the growth ofthis educational initiative.
You'll get an insider'speak at the topics covered,
the engaging educationalcontent behind the scenes
of the webinar series, thegrowth it has witnessed,
(01:50):
and how these webinars can help enrich
your horticultural skills.
So grab your gardeninggloves and let's dive in.
- Welcome to the SunshineGardening Podcast.
This gardening show will equip
and inspire avid gardeners with tips
and tricks to help themnavigate the gardening world.
The show will also highlightspecific growing requirements
(02:13):
for seasonal plants
so the sun will shine brighterover their Kentucky garden.
And now here's that ray ofSunshine Garden Enthusiast
and Horticulture extensionagent Kristen Hildebrand
with the University
of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
- Alright, we are so excitedto have with us today.
Joining on the podcast is KellyJackson. How are you Kelly?
(02:36):
- I am excellent today.
- Great, great.
And I know that one ofthe exciting programs
that you help coordinatefor us throughout the state
of Kentucky is the HorticultureWebinar Wednesday series.
And for a lot of peoplelistening to us this morning
or here on the podcast, canyou give us a little bit
of details about thatprogram, what all it involves
(02:59):
and how it got started?
Give us some general info about it.
- Sure. Yeah, so horticulturewebinar Wednesdays
came into being like alot of different things
with technology during thecovid period that we had.
And it was an excellent wayto kind of get, still continue
to teach classes to the public.
So a group of horticultureagents got together
(03:21):
and thought, how could we do this?
And it's been going for five years.
This is the fifth season nowand it's going very well.
And essentially all itis is basically a class
that you might attend atany county extension office,
but we do it live,
we do it every Wednesdayduring our season.
Uh, we don't do it year round, but
(03:41):
or during our growing season.
And then all of those arerecorded for future use.
And really that's what we'veseen a massive increase in.
People go into the YouTube channel
and watching those even later.
But it's fun to do it live
because that's where you getthe questions from the public
and we can get to answerthose from the whoever
the expert is that day.
(04:02):
So you don't get that on the recording,
but you still get accessto the information.
It's, it's been a great outreachI think, for the community.
- Yes, I know that a lot
of my master gardeners herein Warren County have really
enjoyed it and we'vetried to promote it also
to the public here so thatway people can gain access.
And one of the things thatI think is so great is
(04:22):
that you all's topicsvary from month to month.
Can you kind of give us,
I know you said it's the fifth season,
but is there anythingthat you can tell us about
for this upcoming season
that we might see featuredin a future horticulture
webinar Wednesdays program?
- Sure. Yeah. So we startedour first one for this year
for the 2024 season we had last week.
(04:44):
And it was Andy Mills who's aUK Ag agent and Mead County.
And he talked about growingthose gigantic pumpkins,
which they have a huge pumpkinway off in their county.
It was a little bit, maybea little bit outside of
what we typically do,but not really either
because we have a lotof vegetable gardeners
that wa that watch these.
And you know, in the back ofyour head you always think,
(05:05):
man, what if I could growthe biggest of something
until you hear what level ofwork goes into growing one
of these giant pumpkins.
And it was, it's aneye-opening experience.
So not
to dissuade people you couldeasily get a 200 300 pounder,
but if you're gonna tr try to grow one
of these 2000 pound pumpkins,it's, it's a undertaking.
So you can go back
(05:25):
and watch that as soon
as I get it up on the YouTube channel.
That's a really, really,uh, a good program.
But coming up we've gotone on hummingbirds,
attracting hummingbirds to your garden
and then kind of, these arenot in order necessarily,
but we have one comingup on chaos gardening,
if you're not familiarwith that term, it's,
it's the opposite of formal gardening.
Okay. So it's the oppositeof I want all these plants
(05:47):
to be this way and layered,
this is everything goes inthe garden mostly from seeds,
what comes up comes upand survives in that zone.
And it's a different,
just a different buzzword at the moment.
I guess you could say. Ihave someone on hostas,
some on peonies
or peonies, I don't knowwhich way you pronounce that.
So those are some ofour very first classes
coming up in the next month.
(06:08):
- Yeah. And how exciting is it
to hear about growing a gigantic pumpkin?
Because you know, whenwe get to state fair
we're always curious about the process.
'cause when we actually see it live
and in person, it doeskinda peak your curiosity
on what all it takes.
And I feel like gardenerswe like to be challenged
and this is a great way thatpeople can be challenged
(06:30):
and learn a lot as they do it too.
So, and it seems like withhummingbirds, you know,
wildlife is a huge benefit to the garden
and we've seen a lot ofpopularity with hummingbirds
and bees and butterflies.
So I like that you all offer something
in that category as well. So people
- Are naturally attracted to hummingbirds.
(06:51):
They like to see, even thoughwe only have the one in
Kentucky, it's still people just want
to see those little guys come by.
And there's a lot of questions about that.
Like what do you do atthe end of the season?
What about feeding them andthe fights that they get into?
So all of that'll getaddressed in that program.
- Yeah, I love, I love that
and I also love watching the hummingbirds
(07:12):
throughout the summer months as well.
So it, it's fun just to pass the time just
by doing that there.
Now as far as the instructors for these
horticulture webinar Wednesdays,who basically teaches some
of these courses for you guys?
- Generally it's the horticulture agents
and some of the agagents across the state.
(07:33):
It's more often the horticulture agents.
And then in addition tothat, a few specialists too.
We've had far as ag agents,
we've had a topic on maple syrup, like how
to tap your maple treesfor making your own syrup.
And that was an ag agent out
of Eastern Kentucky that did that program.
That's in our, it's in our list.
And then a specialist, we have Larson, uh,
(07:54):
Dr. Larson on pretty often about insects
and he's always entertaining.
What I have, well the team hastried to do over the course
of these seasons is try to reach out even
beyond just Kentucky extension.
And so we had, for our100th episode last year,
we had Dr. Allen Arma to join
and he spoke aboutlandscaping in small areas.
(08:16):
That was a great program.And then we had, at the end
of last year's season, therewas a report that came out
of the Mount Cuba Center.
I dunno if you're familiar with that,
but it was on the researchthey did with segs
and how to use those in the landscape.
And these are native segs allnative to Kentucky as well.
And so we had their, theirguy on to do a program
(08:38):
and that was just like, Iimmediately purchased sedges
after I heard that I thoughtI'm missing this plant.
I only know of yellow nutsedge, which nobody wants,
but these are the nativesegs that you can,
even certain ones of that thatthey tested with mowing like
or a lawn and replacement with segs.
So that was, that was agreat program I thought.
So we try to find every oncein a while just sprinkle in
(09:00):
among our, our regularspeakers some special topic
that's hot, that's new,that's interesting.
And that was all new researchfrom a three year study,
so that was great to have them one.
- Yeah, I love that you all try
to get basically experts in their field
and that kind of knowledge
and wisdom seems like they'revery passionate about those
topics and it makes it for a very engaging
(09:22):
and interesting program.
So kudos to you guys.
Now, I know it takes several people
to plan the horticulturewebinar Wednesdays program.
You're just one of the organizers
Who all else is involvedwith this program?
- Uh, so there's four horticulture agents.
Sharon Flint is in Scott County
and she organizes the Zoom links
(09:43):
and sending out the emails tothe public if they register to
to be on one of the classes.
Amy Aldenderfer is in Hardin County
and she is kind of the,the voice during the show.
She's doing a lot of thetalking to the public
and getting them to signin and greeting people.
It's amazing here recentlyespecially, and I guess
'cause we've been going longenough now we're getting people
(10:04):
to sign in, not just fromKentucky but from other states.
I think this last one, the firstone we had was from Florida
that was watching ourprogram had signed in
to watch it, so that's great.
So she's good about engaging the public.
And then Annette Heiserfor out of Davis County,
she runs the chat boxfor us during the program
and then I do the backend work.
(10:25):
So I'm usually not even on the,
the air, I'm just hitting record.
And then for, I always jokefor every speaker that we have,
I watch it three times becausethe editing as you know,
takes, you have to go backthrough it again and cut
and paste and fix any errors that happen.
And then what we just started doing
is adding the timestamps in
(10:46):
because sometimes peopledon't wanna watch the entire
episode if they're onlyinterested in one part
and you can't set the timestamps
until you've finished editing.
So you do it, watch it live,you watch it during editing
and then you watch itagain to set timestamps
and then it goes on the YouTube channel.
So that's, that's the part Ido and part I prefer off camera
-
Well hey, it takes multiplepeople to make it run smoothly
(11:09):
and as efficiently as you guys have done.
So kudos to you all
and I know I always reallyenjoy getting that information,
seeing the programs that you all offer
and again sharing it with thepeople here in Warren County.
Just outta curiosity,you probably see some
of the statistics with a lot
of the horticulture webinarWednesdays programs,
but has there been like a couple
(11:30):
of episodes that have been most popular?
You said you're in the fifth season,
so I was just curious if there was one
that might have just blown yourmind on how many people. Oh
- Yeah, I've got, Ipulled up the analytics
before, lemme do the lifetime search.
So it shows you of course how many views.
The number one video
that we have on the channelis on growing Paw paws
(11:51):
and that is the specialist now
- Sherry, right?
- Yep. Sherry from KSU.mm-Hmm
And there's been over 21,000views of growing pawpaws
and people are allowed, you know,
as you watch these videos onYouTube, you can go to the chat
and ask questions there as well.
Mm-Hmm
to those more questionsfor that particular topic.
(12:13):
I don't know, you wouldthink Pawpaw's is such a
outlier crop outlier plant,
but there's a lot of interest in that.
It's probably why KSU has suchan extensive pawpaw research
program is that they knowthat
and blueberries is number two, a lot
of people interested in blueberries.
Starting a communitygarden is the third one.
(12:34):
Raspberries and the top 10 trees
for Kentucky rounds out the top five.
So it's kind of varied.
The one on community gardensis not really about the
vegetables themselves, it'sabout organizing people
and starting a community garden.
There's a lot of interest in that as well.
- Yeah, I know probably a lot
of us have that gardening interest.
There's probably communityprojects and opportunities there
(12:55):
and sometimes you need to kindof know some of those things
to keep it well organizedand be successful.
So I appreciate yougiving us those top five.
I am interested that thePaw Paws was number one,
but we have a pawpaw class
that's coming up here atthe Warren County office
and we've had a lot ofpeople ask for that.
So if they miss the class, I guess
I know where to send them. Send them to
- The video.
(13:16):
- Yeah, yeah, send them there.
One question I do have on thehorticulture webinar Wednesday
is how long generallydo these sessions last?
- So it's difficult to lock in on a time.
The goal is based on the,as we started getting more
and more of these videos andYouTube, you start to see
that people's attentionspans go for about 15,
(13:37):
20 minutes on a video longerthan that and it's difficult.
So that's why we went back
and started adding timestamps to this.
We've asked our speakers to kind of,
even a topic like pawpaw's is a big topic
from start to finish, right?
It might work better if we just talk about
what are the varietiesof pawpaw's for Kentucky
or how do you harvest
(13:58):
and what do you do with thosepawpaws at harvests instead
of trying to encompass it all.
So that's what we've startedtrying to do this year.
Well and even last year iskind of narrow those down
and target about 20 minutes tops
and then questions after that.
We don't include the questionsthat are live in the videos
because typically if you'veever sat on these before,
and I know you have the questions, a lot
(14:18):
of times it's just aboutan individual's situation.
Like I have this and thatdoesn't necessarily relate
to everybody, so we don'tinclude the questions.
Or maybe another way to say that is,
that's the perk youget if you show up live
for the program is you get toask the specialist yourself,
but you can still askyour questions in too.
But that's our goal. We havesome that are much longer than
that, but we're working on kind
(14:39):
of shortening the overalllength of the programs.
- Yeah, I like how that, yousaid that you've tried to do,
you know, really good aboutcondensing the information down
because it's, like you said, we kind
of get the glazed overlook after.
Yeah. So long and now when do you all
generally offer the sessions?
You said it's on Wednesday, but what time
of day is that for folks?
- It's 1230 Easterntime. 1130 central time.
(15:02):
- Okay. So kind of during the lunch hour.
So it could be very wellworked into someone's schedule,
especially if they wanna taketheir lunch at their desk,
they can join and listen
and again at the end askquestions if they have specific
questions related to the material.
So that sounds great. Youmentioned the live option versus
the recording option.
(15:22):
So if someone can't attend,do they still need to register
to get the recording link orhow is that done generally?
- No. Probably the smartestthing to do would be if they,
if they use YouTube, of course that's
where they're all postedis to go to the channel
and to subscribe to that channel.
We have about 1300,
1400 subscribers to the YouTube channel.
So just go there and click subscribe.
(15:44):
We don't do like all of theum, things that you see.
If you watch anything on YouTube,
it's like click and subscribe.
We don't do that. But if youwanna know when one gets loaded
up, then that's the best way really to do
that is to go and subscribe.
Yes, we're not, we'renot trying to, to make,
this is not a a moneymaker thing, like most
of those people on YouTube are.
It's just an educational thing.
- Yeah. So on YouTube,
(16:06):
is it just horticulturewebinar Wednesdays?
Is that the name of the channel? Yes.
- Okay. I think if you go to YouTube
and you put the symbol atHorticulture webinar Wednesday,
it'll take you right to the channel.
- Okay. I just wanted to askfor folks that are listening
and as far as people, whenthey do get registered,
how is the easiest way forthem to get registered?
Is there a social media waythat they need to follow
(16:27):
or do you all have an email list served?
I'm just curious how that process works.
- So there's two ways to do that.
If they're on social media, on Facebook,
we have a horticulture webinar,Wednesday's Facebook page
and of course you can subscribe there
and see when they show up in your feed.
You can also go to thewebsite, Kentucky hort news.com
and there's a tab at the topthat's called H ww webinars
(16:51):
and you can click on theupcoming classes that you want
to attend and go ahead andtype in your email address.
When you do that, itgenerates an automatic email
with the link to the live version
so you can just watch it. Cool,
- Cool. We try to,
- We try to remove all the barriers,
but, so there's a couple ofdifferent options there for you.
- Yeah, so if you, if you wanna go
(17:12):
to the social media page there, you can go
to horticulture webinarWednesdays and check it out.
Is it just like oneregistration for the whole month
or is it individual classes?
- Yeah, so originally it wasone for the whole season.
You could sign up for everything
and then spammer somehow find a way
to mess things up for us.
So now it's one per month,so you can click on the one,
(17:33):
like if you wanna see thehummingbirds next week,
it would show up bothclasses that we had in March.
You obviously wouldn'tregister for last week's,
but you could register for that one
and then you would need to go back in
and for the April, if there's any in April
that you wanna see and register for those.
If you register and youdon't attend, that's okay.
There's, I mean there's no fee
for any of this, it's all free.
But um, if you wanna make sureyou get a notification the
(17:55):
day of the program as a reminder
and as the direct linkto that, I would sign up
for all the ones youthink you might watch.
- Yes, yes, for sure.
Any type of interest you definitely wanna
make sure you sign up for.
Is there anything that'srequired from the participant
besides just like, like you said,
registering and signing up?
Of course you said there'soptions to ask questions,
(18:16):
but do you all do anything beyond that,
like an evaluation piece?
I was just curious to get feedback. We
- Don't do that anymore.
We used to, there is anopportunity of course
to if there's topics thatyou want to hear more about,
you can through the webpage at the bottom
where you would sign up,you can click on that link,
it'll generate an emailto Kentucky Hor News
(18:37):
and you know, say, I reallywould like to hear it.
I just had one the otherday. They wanted a topic on
something that was of interest to them.
I think it was Linn Roses,
which I don't think that we've had.
So that's one we can add into our list
because obviously somebody outthere is interested in that.
So that's a way for them tokind of give feedback as well.
As far as if they'venever done a Zoom class
(18:57):
before, you don't necessarily have
to download the Zoom software.
You can click on the linkand open it in a web browser,
but if you, if you prefer it's free,
you can download theZoom and and use that.
Or if you're not at a computer,
you can push the button on thephone and just listen to it.
Not quite as effective,
but you could listen to it on your phone
or do the whole thing through
the phone, the Zoom andeverything. So yeah,
(19:18):
- Sounds like we've got multipleoptions there for joining
and especially for thosethat might not feel
as comfortable with Zoom.
I know there's still probablysome folks out there,
but sounds like you all aredoing a really good job about
offering these four culturalwebinar Wednesdays programs.
Now I know you mentioned a couple just,
and they're coming up, but
how often do you all tellthe classes in advance?
(19:41):
Do y'all try to share those onsocial media all at one time
for the upcoming month orhow does that work, Kelly?
- Yeah, on the social media,they're, they're released
for the month ahead, usuallya couple weeks before April.
All of April's classesare up right now on,
on the Facebook page, on the website.
As soon as we have everythingscheduled, I go ahead
(20:02):
and put everything upthere for the entire year
or if we're got a few gaps thatwe're still trying to fill,
it'll just show to be determinedor whatever coming soon.
So I only have up throughApril right now on the page,
but we have the speakersalready selected through June,
so I just need to make an update is all.
- Cool. Cool. One of thegreat things you said
(20:24):
that this is the fifthseason, so if somebody wanted
to go back and watch whathappened in the first season
or the second season, third
or fourth, they do have that option.
It seems like, from my memory,
that it also has not only the recording,
but it has other materialthat goes along with it too.
- Yeah, so if they go to the webpage,
Kentucky Hort News Mm-Hmm
through every one of the years, seasons,
(20:47):
I call 'em seasons on there.
They can flip through allthe seasons and just scroll.
If they don't have in mind whatthey're already looking for,
they can scroll through those.
If the speaker had ahandouts or a PowerPoint
or a link to a UK
or another universitypublication, we include
that in the notes section onthat page so they can click on
that and and get that information.
(21:08):
If they already know they'relooking for a specific topic,
then it's probably best togo straight to the YouTube.
We've got those organizedinto like vegetables
or woody plants or flowers or pests
and they can go straight to those sections
or just do a search in the, the bar above
and go straight to the video.
And then in the description of it, we try
(21:30):
to include those links as well.
So they got two ways toget to it to get to those.
- Yeah, yeah, thoseplaylists are really helpful
to help organize a lot ofthe content, especially
after five seasons.
That's a lot of information.
So you all generally start in the spring
and go till about October, is that right?
- We try to go through the end of October
to pick up Tree Week,
(21:50):
which is like a Kentucky Initiative thing
that's going on probably in the last few
years, at least for me anyways.
So we go through Octoberand then spring varies.
We have started early as February before,
but uh, really March iswhen people tend to get,
we probably could have gone alittle bit earlier this year.
Mm-Hmm.
but some years in February whenyou're talking about growing
(22:12):
plants and there's snow out,
nobody's really that interested in it.
So March is where we typicallypick up and begin the season.
- Yeah. So kind of be bankingon March through October.
And I like that you mentioned Tree Week
because that is a big initiative
through the UK CooperativeExtension Service
and like you said, the top,
was it the top fivetrees is in the top five
(22:32):
for you all is being, you know,
highly watched and and viewed.
Yeah. So it sounds likegreat information that a lot
of our Kentucky citizens
and gardeners can pick upif there's any interest,
I know y'all have donelawn care in the past
and those pest, a lot
of people have questionsabout different pest,
so y'all are doing a, agreat job there, Kelly.
(22:53):
Now if somebody has questionsabout the horticulture webinar
Wednesdays program, how doyou all hook up with anybody
that has questions on it?
- They can post questions at the bottom
of the Kentucky Hort News
where the listings of the classes are.
There's a button therethat says Get in touch
so they can send an email straight
through there if they havea question about that.
But they're alwayswelcome to contact their,
(23:14):
they could probably contacttheir own county agent
and they could forward it on to us,
or they can contact one ofone of us that was mentioned
or me either one. It's fine.
- Yeah. Yeah. We'll have
to share some links down in the show notes
for today's episode.
So again, make sure to, uh,
check us out on the shownotes for this episode.
Kelly, thank you so much
for being a guest on our show today,
(23:36):
and we hope to talk to youagain sometime in the future.
- Sure. Great. Thanks for having us.
- That's it for today's SunshineGardening podcast episode.
I hope you feel inspired
to check out the horticulturewebinar on Wednesdays
and expand your gardening knowledge.
A big thank you to Kelly Jackson
for being our guest on thepodcast today to connect
(23:57):
with the horticulture webinar,
Wednesdays program on social media
and learn how to registerfor the next webinar.
You can find the details inthe show notes for episode 27.
You can view the show notes
for episode 27 over on the
blog@warrencountyagriculture.com.
Before we say goodbye,make sure to subscribe
to the Sunshine GardeningPodcast for more gardening tips,
(24:20):
wisdom and inspirationdelivered right to your ears.
If you have any questions, feedback,
or ideas for future episodes,don't hesitate to reach out.
Until next time, keep your hands dirty
and your heart's full.
Happy gardening.
- Thanks for listening to theSunshine Gardening Podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
(24:41):
If you enjoy today's content, make sure
to hit the subscribe buttonwherever you get your podcast
to catch future segments
of the Sunshine GardeningPodcast gardeners.
Keep on digging and learningmore about gardening,
so the sunshine's brighterover your Kentucky Garden.
The Sunshine Gardening Podcasts
with Kristen Hilderbrand is aproduction of the University
(25:02):
of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
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