Teaching Gardening and Horticulture across Missoula County

Published: 2022
By Patrick Mangan

The Garden City is always a busy place for gardening, growing flowers, and learning about plants. The Missoula County MSU Extension horticulture program offers classes to help support gardeners, backyard plant enthusiasts, and small farm owners throughout the county. In 2022, gardeners engaged in Master Gardener classes to learn about successfully growing plants through in-person offerings in Missoula, Florence, Arlee, and Condon. More than 100 new Master Gardeners completed the course and have been engaging in volunteer service throughout the Missoula area. The Missoula County MSU Extension Horticulture program worked closely with the Tribal Health Office on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal (CSKT) Nation to develop and offer educational programming around backyard vegetables to their employees. This program is preparing Tribal Health employees to better understand vegetable gardening, grow food locally to support their neighbors and community members, and integrate fresh foods into their lives, and the lives of those they serve. The program will continue to grow in future years and engage Tribal members in growing fresh, healthy foods in their own backyards. Additional educational opportunities throughout the year included workshops on tree pruning, weed control, forest health, rodent control, and soil fertility, creating opportunities for Missoula County residents to learn about various topics to support their horticultural pursuits.