Developing and Implementing the Healthy Virginia Lawns Program

Extension agents representing nine existing Urban Nutrient Management programs involving Extension Master Gardener volunteers met for a series of meetings with Extension Specialists to develop a statewide urban nutrient management initiative. These facilitated meetings were used to glean from existing programmatic resources to create a new turn-key program kit to support new Extension units wanting to establish the program. Also, with the assistance of a social marketing company, OpinionWorks, we also developed a new name for the initiative: Healthy Virginia Lawns. We hosted an in-service training to introduce agents, local coordinators, and interested Extension Master Gardener volunteers to this new initiative. The overall purpose of this initiative is to equip homeowners with a certified nutrient management plan and information they need to properly manage their residential turf using best management practices to prevent excessive nutrients from entering the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. One goal of the initiative is to teach homeowners how to properly apply appropriate nutrients at the appropriate time of year in the appropriate amounts to their landscapes, primarily turf. This project has been funded by a grant from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.