Florida-Friendly Landscaping Fact Sheets

Description: As part of the Hillsborough County Extension website, under Florida Yards & Neighborhoods, Useful Publications, Fact Sheets are continually created which provide solutions to meet the specific needs of our residents.

Target audience: The target audience for these Fact Sheets is Hillsborough County residents and others that seek information on this website.

Issues addressed: The Fact Sheet topics are selected as timely articles to provide information about a current issue or in anticipation of resolving potential concerns of residents. Topics include: Recycling Christmas Trees, Ten Tips for Protecting Your Landscape Plants from the Cold, The Lazy Gardener, Extension Demonstration Gardens, Florida-Friendly Adopt-a-Pond Incentive Program, Picking the Benefits of a January Garden, Hassle-Free Houseplants, Recycling Yard and Kitchen Waste, Vermi-Composting, Microirrigation, Retrofitting an Irrigation System, The Bette S. Walker Discovery Garden, Carnivorous Plants, Drought Tolerant, High Color, Low Maintenance Landscapes, Fertilizer Facts: Words to Grow By, and Attracting Wildlife.

Distribution: Our Horticulture email list totals 2,781 individuals. We provide updates to this distribution list on a quarterly basis. Our annual website hits for Florida Yards & Neighborhoods/FFL total 95,232 in 2010 alone. Email sign-up sheets for people wanting to be added to our Horticulture list are provided and completed at each library plant clinic, garden club presentation, exhibit/display in which we participate and in our front lobby at Extension. Additionally, many of the Fact Sheets created are also used for monthly newspaper/magazine articles in Hillsborough County and the State of Florida.

These Fact Sheets are available online at: http://hillsborough_fyn.ifas.ufl.edu/Publications.html.

Resources: External funding provided by Tampa Bay Water.

Expected Outcome: Knowledge gain from the timely information provided, increased attendance at our workshops and seminars, increased recycling, rainwater harvesting and use of microirrigation versus inground irrigation systems for landscape irrigation.

Evaluation results: The have been positive in the increased number of website hits for the Fact Sheets created, increased workshop attendance and positive feedback from attendees regarding installation of their compost bin, rain barrel and microrirrigation kits. Additionally, residents email and call to receive additional information on the Fact Sheet topics and to suggest other topics for which they need information.

FANREP Member Role: Created the Fact Sheets utilizing UF IFAS science based research.

Implications for Future Programming: Positive responses to the Fact Sheets created indicate a need to continue this education dissemination method.

Files

Florida-Friendly Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: Recycling Live Christmas Trees

Florida-Friendly Fact Sheets

Ten Tips to Protect Landscape Plants from the Cold