Written by: Alyson Buchanan, Colorado Master Gardener 2023

It is finally spring, and we are all anxious to get our hands dirty with gardening projects or to determine what might have happened over the winter months to plants in our yard that do not seem to be coming back. Well, the local Colorado State University (CSU) Pueblo County Extension Office is here to help. The Extension Office is a hidden gem that offers all sorts of horticultural resources to home gardeners in Pueblo County and surrounding areas.

You may be asking yourself: What is an Extension Office? “Extension” means reaching out and extending university research and resources to meet public needs through non-formal educational programs for community members. The Pueblo County Extension engages people to help them solve problems, develop skills, and build a better future where they live and work. The Pueblo County Extension is here to bring the resources of CSU directly to the public by providing research-based information, assistance, and programs in five areas: Agriculture, Horticulture, Family and Consumer Science, Natural Resources, and 4-H Youth Programs. From a horticulture perspective, the Pueblo County Extension Office trains and utilizes Colorado Master Gardeners (CMG) to assist home gardeners identify plants, diseases, and insects, assess soil, fertilizer, and water requirements, provide information about annual, perennial, and vegetable gardening, trees, shrubs, turf grass, pollinators, and the list goes on and on!

This article pulls all the various Extension resources together in one place so you can easily and quickly find answers to all your questions and successfully complete that gardening project or troubleshoot what happened in your yard during the winter months.

CSU Pueblo Extension Office Websites

The Pueblo County Extension Office is located at 701 Court Street, Suite C, Pueblo, CO  81003 and may be reached at 719-583-6574. They are open Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. except for holidays.

The Extension’s website is chock-full of horticulture information at your fingertips. Explore the website at https://pueblo.extension.colostate.edu/. Starting at the home page, select the Horticulture tab from the top menu bar and then select an item from the drop-down menu to learn more about specific topics such as how to become a Colorado Master Gardener (CMG), local classes and events. You can also view current and previous editions of the Extension’s quarterly newsletter. Each of these sub-menu pages has links on the right-hand side you can select to access several of the Extension resources discussed in this article.

Also, from the Additional Resources section at the bottom of any page, you can select other links to access the remainder of the Extension resources, including the statewide CSU Colorado Extension website at https://extension.colostate.edu/.

A convenient webpage that should be bookmarked is https://extension.colostate.edu/garden/.

This is the Online Resources for Gardening and Landscape that combines links to the following Extension resources in one place: CSU Hort Blog, PlantTalk Colorado™, Yard and Garden Fact Sheets, and Master Gardener Garden Notes. Each of these resources are summarized in this article.

Master Gardener Help Line

Pueblo County Extension offers a Help Line that is staffed by CMGs to help home gardeners with identifying and troubleshooting all types of horticulture issues. The Help Line is staffed on Tuesdays and Fridays between 9AM-12PM and 2PM-4PM from April 1st through September 30th. You may contact the Help Line using one of the following methods:

• Email pueblomastergardener@gmail.com. Provide as much information as possible about the issue or question you have. Include information such as your phone number, where you are located within the county (neighborhood), Attach photos of the problem if possible, name of the plant involved, if you know it. A CMG will follow-up with
• Call 719-583-6566 to discuss an issue with a CMG when the Help Line is staffed or leave a message with your e-mail and as much information as possible about the issue, see above examples, and a CMG will follow-up with you.
• Walk-in to the Extension office at 701 Court St. when the Help Line is staffed with your questions, photos, plant clippings, insect samples, etc., to begin the diagnostic process. If you come in when the Help Line is not staffed and leave contact information, a CMG will follow-up with you.

Master Gardener Garden Notes:

Known simply as “Garden Notes”, these horticulture reference materials are the most comprehensive horticultural reference available for use through the Extension at https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/volunteer-information/cmg-gardennotes-class-handouts/. This research and fact-based set of over seven hundred and seventy documents is the primary educational resource used in the CMG Green School curriculum to train CMGs. If you are looking for the where, when, what, how and why to a horticultural issue, you have gotten to the right place! Topics covered include but are not limited to: Botany; Insect ID and Entomology; Integrated Pest Management; Pathology; Soils, Fertilizer and Soil Amendments; Water Wise Landscape Design; Weed Management; Turf Management; Native Plants; Tree Planting, Care and Pruning; Irrigation Management; Herbaceous Plants; Vegetables, and so on.

Yard and Garden Fact Sheets:

This resource is a set of many fact sheets for Colorado gardeners on many horticulture topics, including insects, wildlife, gardening basics, plant diseases, flowers, fruits and vegetables, native plants, trees and shrubs, and grass/turf. Many of the fact sheets are available in Spanish and in PDF format for easy printing. Access these fact sheets at https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/.

PlantTalk Colorado™:

PlantTalk Colorado™ is a collaboration between CSU Extension, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Green Industries of Colorado, Inc. Almost 500 general gardening topics are covered on the PlantTalk Colorado™ website at https://planttalk.colostate.edu/. Topics include annuals and perennials, design, fall gardening, houseplants, insects and diseases, lawns, soil, amendments and composting, trees, shrubs and vines, vegetables, waterwise and Xeriscape, water considerations, wildlife issues, and weeds. The website is a great resource to find research-based gardening information for the diverse Colorado climates and geography. Information is provided in the following three formats:

• PlantTalk Topics that offer short, 200 words or less, concise information about a topic. Each topic has links to fact sheets or other websites that offer more detailed information on the topic.
• Webinars that are free online classes available from CSU Extension. These webinars are offered on Wednesdays and/or Fridays each month from 12 pm to 1pm (advanced registration is required). Links are also provided to view prior webinars.
• Videos that are offered on the PlantTalk Colorado™ YouTube playlist.

CSU Co-Horts Blog:

Curl up on a weekend morning with a cup of tea or coffee to read these fun and interesting blogs dating back to 2013 that provide advice and observations from CSU Extension Horticulture Agents, Horticulture Specialists, and Master Gardeners from all over Colorado on a wide variety of horticultural topics. The Co-Horts Blog page can be found at https://csuhort.blogspot.com/.

The site also provides a list of online CSU Extension Gardening Webinars that take place on Wednesday’s or Friday’s each month. These online classes are free for the public; registration is required. You can also view recordings of past webinars dating back to 2020. It is an engaging way to learn about diverse and timely gardening topics.

Grow and Give:

Grow & Give is a CSU Extension Victory Garden that was created to address food insecurity in Colorado by connecting backyard and community gardens to food donation sites across the state. They provide resources to help citizens both ‘Grow’ and ‘Give’ part of their garden’s bounty to those in need.  The website is an excellent resource for backyard vegetable, herb and fruit gardeners and can be found at https://growgive.extension.colostate.edu/.  Two of the many resources offered on the site are as follows:

• Vegetable Guide – An eighty-five-page resource with crop-by-crop information for all regions of the state offered in both English and Spanish.
• What’s Wrong With My Plant? – A guide that walks you through the problem you are seeing and helps you to figure out what might be causing a problem. Once you know the issue you can click through to one of our videos linked in the guide to find out more.

YouTube Channel:

CSU Extension’s YouTube channel can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@CSUExtension/. The channel has over seven-hundred videos on many Extension topics.  Sort by ‘Playlist’ to easily find those videos pertaining to horticulture topics.

The Pueblo County Extension also has a YouTube channel that can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi0dsYcfX1gIbHQWPit8WDQ. The channel has 122 videos created by the Pueblo County Extension Office, which can also be sorted by ‘Playlist’ to easily find those videos pertaining to horticulture topics.

The Pueblo County Extension Office hopes that each of these horticulture resources will enable you to have a successful 2024 gardening season. The Pueblo County Extension Master Gardeners look forward to helping you identify issues early and offer resolution alternatives.

Source:  CSU Extension Website