- Author: Maria Murrietta
The UC Master Gardeners of San Luis Obispo County covered a lot of territory in 2019. Our 90 volunteers recorded over 5,000 volunteer hours and 1100 continuing education hours.
Here's a snapshot of the 2019 activities and what we have planned for 2020.
More than 1,000 SLO County residents attended our monthly workshops in the garden. We visited a variety of community groups and libraries for an additional 18 presentations, which included a collaboration with the SLO Botanical Garden for a speaker series featuring UC Master Gardeners. MGs also staffed 10 information tables at festivals from San Miguel to Morro Bay to Arroyo Grande.
Thank you to everyone who responded to the follow up surveys. Your feedback tells us a lot about what you're are learning and how you're protecting natural resources.
Water conserving practices
- 75% have improved their drip irrigation systems and are more knowledgeable about selecting low water use plants
- 85% have improved their use of mulch
Improved pest management
- 73% have improved their pest monitoring practices
- 59% are reducing pesticide use
Improved personal food supply
- 79% have improved their edible growing practices
- 20% have started donating produce to community programs
Sharing the bounty is important. MGs harvested nearly 1100 lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables from the demonstration garden and delivered it directly to the SLO Food Bank.
Good job SLO County!
Looking Ahead at 2020
Visit our website for the 2020 schedule of monthly workshops - https://ucanr.edu/sites/mgslo/. New topics include Ca natives, invasive plants and seed saving.
Additional events and programming in the works include plant sales beginning in April and presentations on Pollinators in the Garden at 6 libraries throughout the county.
Last but not least, we received a record number of applications for the 2020 Master Gardener training class. A class of 34 will begin in January and wrap up in May. The addition of 34 enthusiastic certified Master Gardeners will help us increase programming and outreach efforts to help more home gardeners improve their practices, protect natural resources and have some fun in the process.
Thank you to everyone who came out to our workshops and events this year.
We'll see you in 2020!
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