Free Community Resources

You know how much I love to read Ms. Cheap each week in the Tennessean. She published a great article last week on resources offered by Agricultural Extension Service. She was writing about Tennessee, but I'm sure the services are similar around the country. Look at all these resources.

• Family Consumer Sciences programs: This includes classes and advice on what used to be known as "home ec,'' everything from homebuyer education to nutrition and food safety to radon and poisons.

• Soil testing: For $6 the Extension provides a box and instructions on how to take a soil sample from your yard and deliver it or send it to the central region office at Ellington Agricultural Center. In return you'll get a computer printout of your soil, along with lime and fertilizer recommendations.

• Analysis: If you have branches or leaves with mysterious disease or insect damage, or jars of sludge or bugs or just about anything else, your county extension office will analyze it at no charge. You also can take these things to the Central Region office lab at Ellington for analysis, but they charge $15.

• 4-H after-school programs and camps for children

• Horticulture program: Covers many facets, from general agriculture dealing with crops and livestock, to plant, insect and disease identification, to homeowner horticulture, to Master Gardener classes for all ages.

• Brochures: The service has hundreds of brochures that cover proper pruning to fighting childhood obesity, and many of them can be accessed at www.utextension.utk.edu. For mailed copies, call your county extension office.


**Excerpt from an article by Mary Hance, Ms. Cheap, in the Tennessean