Benefits, Challenges and Opportunities for Improving the Effectiveness of Demonstration Gardens As Educational Tools for Cooperative Extension

This descriptive study summarizes the characteristics of Cooperative Extension horticulture demonstration gardens in North Carolina, how they are managed and used as educational tools by Extension agents and the perceived benefits and challenges. Agents develop gardens primarily to enhance their non-formal education efforts, enable self-directed learning, engage volunteers, and build partnerships. The majority of gardens are less than one half acre in size, include both edible and ornamental plantings, and are heavily supported by volunteers. Though many agents were found to be fully utilizing gardens to enhance non-formal education, few were fully employing practices that enable self-directed learning, or evaluating the garden’s outcomes and impacts. Agents perceived the greatest benefits of gardens to be their efficacy as an educational delivery method, their ability to enhance the overall program, and their capacity to provide opportunities for meaningful volunteer service and to facilitate the development of partnerships. The greatest challenges of incorporating gardens into Extension programming were perceived to be availability of time, money, and volunteer support. It was concluded that demonstration gardens are an appropriate and effective educational delivery method for Extension programming. When developing gardens, special emphasis should be given to involving and investing volunteers. Additional recommendations are to integrate the garden into the entire Extension program, to employ multiple practices to enhance self-directed learning, and to develop a framework for evaluation that captures the garden’s full impact.