| Summer
2002
Garden TIPS
By Olivia Maddox
Garden TIPS
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| Garden Tips
writer/editor Ginny Retzner unveiled the gardening
e-magazine at Purdue Extension's "Plant Info To Go" information
booth at the Indianapolis Flower & Patio Show. (Photo
by Tom Campbell) |
Judy Mellinger arrived at the Purdue Extension
booth at the Indiana Flower & Patio Show with her hands thrown
up in the air. She left with them full of basic resources
for the novice gardener.
At the time, the Indianapolis resident was
not even a beginning gardener--just an aspiring one who didn't
have a clue how to find her green thumb. "I just don't know
where to start," she said.
A self-described novice, the sum total of Mellinger's
gardening resume is a few marigolds and geraniums that she
planted around her house last summer. This year, she wanted
to branch out and plant a few of her favorite vegetables
as well as a cutting garden. "I like to have fresh flowers
on the table," she says. "I want to be able to just go out
in my backyard and get some vegetables or flowers without
having to run to the store."
From a laptop computer at the show, Purdue
Extension consumer horticulturist B. Rosie Lerner accessed
Extension's database of educational materials online and
printed a number of publications and articles for Mellinger,
including "Gardening Tips for Beginners" and "Flowers for
Cutting."
Extension educators and Indiana
Master Gardeners staffed Purdue's "Plant Info To Go" booth
during the show's nine-day run, answering questions from
a wide range of people--those like Mellinger who were looking
for a starting point to experienced gardeners who came
with specific questions.
Americans spent a record $33.5 billion on their
lawns and gardens in 1999-2000, according to a survey of
consumer gardening by the National Gardening Association.
This was up 11 percent from the previous year and the third
straight year of double-digit increases in lawn and garden
retail sales.
Additionally, the survey notes that 64 percent
of all U.S. households--an estimated 67 million--participated
in one or more types of lawn and garden activities. All this
activity does not take place without questions that need
to be answered.
In Indiana, this translates to phone lines
lighting up and a flood of e-mails for Purdue Extension horticulture
educators like Ricky Kemery in Allen County.
"We receive between 5,500 to 7,000 phone calls
a year just in Allen County," Kemery says, "and we process
around 1,000 diagnostic samples a year."
To meet the overwhelming demand, Purdue Extension
brought together specialists in horticulture, agronomy, entomology,
and botany and plant pathology and pooled their collective
resources into a single location--one that's available around
the clock. Garden
TIPS, a new online resource for Indiana gardeners, was
unveiled at the Flower & Patio Show, the annual event where
Hoosiers go to gear up for the spring growing season.
"People were really interested," says Ginny
Retzner, Purdue Agricultural Communication writer/editor
who oversees the site and demonstrated Garden TIPS at the
show. "They were looking for a helpful, useful site as a
resource."
In fact, a Purdue Agriculture survey of some
1,500 visitors to the show revealed that 48 percent use the
Internet as a resource for lawn, garden and landscape information.
More than 20 percent said that they would check the Web for
garden information several times a week, another 29 percent
would use the Internet as a resource once a week and 24 percent
would log on at least once a month.
One of the advantages of Garden TIPS is that
it's one-stop shopping, Lerner says. Six main sections on
the home page include garden flowers, fruits and vegetables,
lawn care, landscape plants, insects, pests and diseases,
and indoor plants. Also included are links to online Extension
publications, a monthly garden calendar, county-based events
and resources, children's activities and the Indiana Master
Gardeners Web site. Visitors can search for information by
subject matter, e-mail questions and subscribe to a free electronic
newsletter.
The Web site will also serve as a resource
for Extension educators around the state and for volunteer
Master Gardeners who staff gardening answerlines. "Master
Gardeners can check the site for information when answering
questions, as well as refer people to it," Kemery says. "This
can be a powerful tool for us."
Lerner agrees. "The interest is there, and
the need is there, " she says. "Garden TIPS makes it easier
to tap into all of Purdue's garden-related resources. It's
good information that hopefully will answer more questions
than it generates."
Related link:
www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/conhort.html
Garden TIPS
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