Every citizen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a consumer of horticultural products, and in the final analysis every commercial horticultural enterprise depends on the success of the consumer. Nowhere is this more evident than in environmental and ornamental horticulture where consumer spending is largely discretionary. Consumer horticulture also impacts environmental quality. As suburban growth continues, more and more land is occupied by housing and this development increasingly strains natural systems. An educated consumer can make better decisions on plant material and landscape management practices resulting in improved urban and suburban environments and better quality of life for all Pennsylvanians.

Gardening is often reported as the most popular leisure activity in America. According to the USDA per capita expenditures on flowers and garden plants exceeded $140 per year in 1997 including almost $80.00 per capita for "Environmental Horticulture plants including trees, shrubs, bulbs, turfgrass and groundcovers. Production and sales of these products has increased at an average of 5% each year since 1989. Retail value of garden plants and flowers is nearly $40 billion per year. Services and hard good sales add billions more making this one of the largest and fastest growing segments of US agriculture. In Pennsylvania gardeners spend on average $663 per household each year and contribute $1.2 billion to the Pennsylvania economy. The landscape, nursery and greenhouse industries employ 38,000 Pennsylvanians.

The popularity of home gardening activities (landscaping, tree care, lawn care, fruit trees, flower gardening, ornamental gardening, shrub care, insect control, container gardening and vegetable gardening) is expected to increase 20% over the next 10 years thanks to a 53% increase in gardeners, age 45 to 64. Many of these new gardeners have minimal experience spending relatively little time in the garden (less than 2 hours per week).

Penn State Cooperative Extension programs currently educate gardening consumers in 67 counties, reaching more than 3/4 of a million households annually. Extension also serves a growing number of professional gardeners, horticulturists, first-time landscapers, and garden center employees. This group shares a professional interest in plant care but often lack recent research findings or applied knowledge. Extension offers hundreds of conferences, classes, field days, tours, workshops, demonstration trials, satellite conferences and telephone consultations for second career and hobby gardeners annually.

Volunteers trained as master gardeners serve many diverse and specialized gardening audiences including rural or urban adults, children or elderly adults. Their direct assistance to their local Extension office includes:

• teaching and demonstrating proper planning, planting, care and maintenance of garden plants;
• providing advice and technical assistance on maintaining a healthy, ornamental landscape or vegetable garden;
• interacting with individual gardeners to solve pest problems;
• teaching and demonstrating sustainable management and intensive gardening practices;
• selecting and evaluating plants in 'gardener select' demonstration gardens throughout Pennsylvania;
• developing local leadership to assist in revitalizing community gardens on vacant lots;
• designing gardening systems and methods for horticulture therapy;
• instructing and involving city youth in gardening projects to enhance their neighborhoods.

SUB POW: 5.K.1. Master Gardener Programs

Objective: 5.K.1.3. Basic training, advanced training, and volunteer service will improve horticulture and resource knowledge and skills of Master Gardeners.

1. Number of new Master Gardeners who have completed the basic training.
2. Number of new Master Gardeners who complete 50 hrs. volunteer service.

SUB POW: 5.K.2. Green Industry/Consumer Outreach

Objective: 5.K.2.1 As a result of extension programming, participants will be able to choose pest resistant and adapted species and cultivars of plants as their first step toward creating healthy gardens and landscapes.

1. The number of individuals assisted with plant selection for their landscapes. (The hort database is method to collect data.)
2. The number of participants who properly select plants for appropriate landscape.

Objective: 5.K.2.2. As a result of extension programming, participants will adopt IPM techniques and practices to create healthy gardens, lawns & landscapes.

1. The number of individuals assisted with pest management and identification.
2. The number of participants who properly identify pest problem and treat properly.

Objective: 5.K.2.3. Following green school training programs, green industry employees will be able to help consumers make appropriate choices and decisions for their lawn and landscapes.

1. Total number of green industry workers attending classes.
2. Number of presentations made at garden centers/nurseries by agents or Master Gardeners on home gardening topics.

1. Number of garden visitors.
2. Number of Master Gardeners attending training for Gardener Selects.

Objective: 5.K.2.5. Following garden planting and design programs, participants will be able to conduct a landscape analysis, identify and use native and other appropriate plants, identify and locate invasive plants and noxious weeds, and use appropriate vegetation and soil management techniques.

1. Number of participants attending conferences, workshops and tours.
2. The number of participants reporting applying extension training to improve environmental practices.

Objective: 5.K.2.6. - No longer available for program planning after September 30th, 2002. (This objective is being eliminated because the composting information is being collected under POW 4A.)

Objective: 5.K.2.7. Following educational programs, urban, suburban and economically-stressed households will successfully maintain a vegetable or flower garden for one season becoming experienced community gardeners who can then educate inexperienced gardeners.

1. Number of participants at extension programs offered at community gardens.
2. Number of community gardens established through or aided by extension programming.