Unbiased, research-based information is the cornerstone of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. Information runs the gamut from gardening to soybeans and cotton, to food preservation, backyard chickens and commercial poultry operations, financial planning, leadership, 4-H Club and much more.
Putting all that information at the fingertips of Arkansans is the goal of the extension service’s revamped website - uaex.edu.
It has been years in the works, with input from many of the service’s 700 employees. Checking and transferring content from the old site to the new, while adding new features, pictures and graphics, takes time when you have thousands of pages to move.
Not only does the new site look better, it is streamlined and easily searchable.
The website is organized under six main headings:
“Farm and Ranch” covers topics related to commercial agriculture from pest management, economics and marketing, crops and commercial horticulture to animals and forages, technology and biosecurity.
“Yard and Garden” covers all the information you need to grow everything from backyard vegetables and fruits to shrubs, trees, annuals and perennials, to lawns and houseplants. Want to learn more about becoming a Master Gardener? This is the place to find it.
“Business and Communities” is the go-to site for questions about leadership, strategic planning, business and entrepreneurship, government contracts and economic development, as well as voter information, explanations of governmental policies and how to begin and manage nonprofits.
“Environment and Nature” focuses on wildlife, water quality, forestry and preparing for or recovering from natural disasters.
“Health and Living” covers all the aspects of home life from food and nutrition to food safety, health, personal finance, aging and information for child-care providers. This is also the site for information about the Extension Homemakers program.
The final category is “4-H and Youth.” While not just for the 133,000 Arkansas 4-H’ers, this is the place consumers can find out what is offered through 4-H youth programs. It isn’t just cows and cooking - although they are still extension youth programs. Here you can also find out about the excellent programming that is available at the Arkansas 4-H Center, the Excel Leadership program and other programs related to shooting sports, after-school activities, hands-on science, the military, healthy living and science, engineering and technology.
Under each of the main headers, you can toggle over subchapters to see the various components or search for a topic you are interested in.
You will find a wealth of information by searching within the main subject areas, but there’s also a search button at the very top of the home page that will explore the entire website. Enter whatever you are looking for, and it will give you links to all the hits on the website that match.
The home page also links to an event calendar, publications, county offices, personnel directory, a chapter about extension, media resources and “contact us.” FOR GARDENERS
If gardening is your main interest, you will find a lot to whet your appetite under “Yard and Garden.”
In its Resource Library you will find large databases on plants, with crape myrtle varieties, hydrangeas, plant ID, weed ID, tree ID, plant disease images, a horticulture glossary and a link to Gerald Klingaman’s “Plant of the Week.”
“In the Garden” includes a month-by-month list of things to do in the garden and links to information about butterfly gardening, herbs and native plants. There’s also a link to the reference desk archives where you will find a compilation of horticulture questions and answers.
All of the extension publications are online and can be printed from home. Some publications are free but others must be ordered; they can be bought here and shipped to your home.
If you are into social media there is a link at the bottom of the page that will take you to Facebook, Twitter and the many blogs that extension is involved in.
Click on any of the blogs and you’ll see that you can sign up to follow them to receive a notice when a new post is made.
For example, “In the Garden” follows me as I travel the state, and it showcases what is happening in the gardens the extension manages.
You can even find links to YouTube videos. One not to be missed is “Compost Happens,” from the Washington County Master Gardeners. Follow the links on uaex.edu or tinyurl.com/compostsong to see an instructive musical performed by Steven Skattebo and the “Compost Tease” - Wendy Kozeny, Dawn Fisher and Joyce Starr.
Or watch the Master Gardeners on their trip to Costa Rica: tinyurl.com/corigarden.
Speaking of Master Gardeners, find out more about the program. “Yard and Garden” includes a whole section on the Master Gardener program, but each county also has the option to showcase what its Master Gardeners are doing, under that county’s link on the home page. Each county extension office has its own web pages and is now able to update those on their own. Look there for a link to what is happening in your own county.
There is also a Flickr site with many photos that can you can upload for use in PowerPoint presentations and such.
The site is a work in progress. It was a daunting task transferring everything over, and there is more to add. It will be updated weekly and will be an ever-evolving and growing resource for Arkansans. So bookmark uaex.edu and check back often.
Janet Carson is a horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.
HomeStyle, Pages 40 on 03/15/2014