Statewide, county Master Gardener programs are developing partnerships with many external organizations and internal teams within the university.
This includes a partnership with the Penn State College of Medicine on a research study to explore the effects of gardening on factors for heart disease in adults. The study proposed that an introductory gardening program could influence participants to eat more fruits and vegetables and increase physical activity.
Another collaboration is with the López-Uribe lab is to create the state's first long-term bee monitoring program, providing a better understanding of the regional bee diversity across Pennsylvania.
The "Grow-Save-Repeat" project, a partnership with Delaware Valley University, is designed to provide Master Gardeners with the resources and knowledge they need to educate home gardeners on seed saving and home plant breeding.
Master Gardeners across the state also supported the Extension vegetable team by aiding in detecting and reporting cucurbit downy mildew, an airborne disease of cucumber, squash, and melon crops.
Bees are the most important pollinators of flowering plants in natural, agricultural, and urban habitats, and are critical for their ecological function. The decline of bee populations worldwide has called attention to the need to better understand the diversity, distribution, and abundance of wild bee pollinators.
2020 and 2021 saw unprecedented vegetable seed sales, with shortages of many gardeners’ favorite varieties.
Master Gardeners collaborate with Penn State College of Medicine study to explore the effects of gardening on factors for heart disease in adults.
