NEIGHBORnetwork

Kirsten Conrad is the Agriculture Natural Resources Extension Agent in Arlington County and the City of Alexandria, VA. She works alongside landscapers, homeowner associations, local governments, and more to provide answers and education about pest management, urban agriculture, and preserving the natural landscape.

Q: Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up? A: I was born and was raised in southwest Ohio in a small town called Oxford, where I attended elementary and high school. My parents met in Denmark when my dad was in the U.S. Army, and German was a dual first language for me. Although we lived in Germany for two years, my family was rooted in Oxford. We camped and traveled a lot in Europe and in Canada and the U.S., and my love for our country’s coastal areas and the outdoors is rooted in these experiences.

Q: What got you interested in horticulture in the first place? A: My family influences certainly informed my professional inclinations. My paternal grandfather was the director of grounds at Miami University for many years, where he created a beautiful tree-filled campus and a formal gardens that are named for him today. My maternal grandfather and one of my uncles were farmers in northern Germany, and I have very fond memories of visiting and staying on the farm. Another uncle on my mother’s side was a landscape contractor near Copenhagen. But most of all, my family was oriented to the outdoors. My father always had a vegetable garden, fruit trees, and later, a pond, and a woodlot. Our home was surrounded by natural spaces, creeks, and woods where we hiked, fished, and hunted mushrooms. I learned a lot about natural resources, wild animals, geology, landscape, and food gardening at home. My formal education degrees at Auburn University in landscape design, and much later at Indiana University in outdoor recreation resource management, were both outgrowths of these life-long interests.

Q: What is a typical day for you? A: I don’t think there is a typical day. One of the things I like about my job is its variability. I work with the general public, with professional landscapers and pesticide applicators, with homeowner association committees and local government departments, with nonprofit organizations doing like-minded work, with volunteer organization leadership committees, with schools, and with other Extension colleagues in Virginia. In a given week, I can be juggling communications about volunteer projects, partnerships with outside organizations, questions from our Help Desk or eXtension clients, professional development training, or course development for volunteer training, and calls from residents on subjects as diverse as tree health and human parasites and everything in-between. Q: Tell us about some of your peers and predecessors whom you admire. A: I work with so many talented and knowledgeable people. Certainly, I have had the benefit of great professional networks with fellow ANR agents in the Northern District. Adria Bordas in Fairfax County, Paige Thacker in Prince William County, Tim Ohlwiler in Fauquier County, and Beth Sastre Flores in Loudoun have been friends and mentors. Our amazing Extension Master Gardener volunteer program has had outstanding program coordinators and two who stand out are Leslie Fillmore, who has held this part-time job since 2017, and Joanne Hutton, who held the job when I started here. I greatly admired the late John Bottom, who was a mentor and whose career in the USDA and volunteer work with our Extension Leadership Council were hugely meaningful to me. Also, I have to mention Puwen Lee, founder of the Plot Against Hunger program, who truly was a leader of the start of what is now a multi-faceted urban agriculture initiative in Arlington. Alonso Abugattas, the outstanding award-winning author and speaker, who is the Natural Resources Manager for Arlington County, is a great reason Arlington has such a robust greenspace conservation effort. He was instrumental in the formation of the Arlington Regional Master Naturalist Chapter of volunteers that I serve as an advisor to.

Q: What is the most-fulfilling part of your profession? A: What I have loved most about my job is the chance to be an educator. I am deeply involved with the people I work with in our urban agriculture, landscape best management, and natural resources volunteer groups in the business of helping others to be better stewards of the landscape. I do this in social media gardening groups, in training provided to green industry professionals, and in partnership with other institutions of higher education. Most valuable to me has been the opportunity to learn and expand my skills. I learn something every single day—from my colleagues, from my volunteers, from the public who contact me with questions that require research. I have been

Kirsten Conrad Arling�on Ex�ension Agent

By Jackie DiBartolomeo

grateful to be able to help those who care enough to ask about pesticide reduction, how to teach children about our world, what trees to plant, how to grow our own food, and so very much more about how to make our shared community a better place to live. I don’t always have all the answers, but it has been exciting to be able to do this job in a place where the need is great and where residents care enough to ask for and take my advice.

Q: Where do you see Cooperative Extension going in the next 10 years? A: I work for a vibrant, dynamic organization. The mission of Cooperative Extension to share research-based education is simple and as profoundly important today as it was at its founding in the late 1860s. It is an institution with a great history and remarkable resiliency. Extension is unique. The model allows enough flexibility to address local need and has a core mission to provide its jurisdiction’s residents with research-based best practices that work. The traditionally free-of-charge Extension-provided services balance those provided by local for-profit businesses and support and expand the work of many non-profit organizations. Over the next 10 years, I feel that Extension’s work to educate about climate change, species migration, invasive plant and pest management, and urban agriculture will be in great demand. We are already seeing the results of climate change effects in our landscape. Consumers and businesses will need help in making better decisions about land use, stormwater management, chemical pesticide use, and soil health that Extension’s Agriculture Natural Resources program area is well-equipped to address. The growth of urban agriculture practices, home gardening, food production, and including outdoor learning areas on school grounds are other traditional areas of expertise that we are expanding.

Q: Do you like to garden for yourself? If so, what plants are your favorites to grow? Any tips? A: I live in a townhouse with a small garden that gives pleasure perhaps because it is small. I can enjoy a place to do a little gardening without feeling like it owns me. But I also garden at the Fairlington Community Center Teaching Garden, one of our six Extension Demonstration gardens. I also have a small community garden plot at the Chinquapin Community Garden in Alexandria, VA. I have a particularly soft spot for plants with blue flowers—Love in a Mist, Vitex, annual salvia, Nepeta, Russian sage—but truly, I don’t believe that nature’s colors “clash.” I love the riot of color of zinnias and cosmos and the deep, rich intense hues of poppies, peonies, clematis, and dahlias. My most-heartfelt tips for new gardeners are to first, cultivate the soil as carefully as the plants you want to grow. Second, get to know the plants in your own gardens and when you know these, learn the names of the trees at your school or church, and know about the plants you want to grow before you plant them: their mature size; their growing habits; their pests; their soil, moisture, light, and pH preferences. Lastly, become a serious student and emulator of other gardeners’ successes.

Q: What else do you like to do in your time off from work? A: I am a beach person much more than a mountain person. I love the great open spaces where I can see the horizon and the sky, and have always had an affinity for the places from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean where I have had the good luck to live and play for many years. I travel quite a bit. I take my bike and my kayak to Delaware when I can get away. I have children and grandchildren in Canada and North Carolina, and other family members in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Florida, whom I love to visit with. And finally, great cooks often become great gardeners and I aspire to become better at both of these, although I am still learning after all these years.

Q: Is there anything else about yourself that you think our readers would be interested to know? A: My Agriculture Natural Resources program area serves both the residents of Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. We have about 450 volunteers in my two established programs that help to provide education and services to residents and that support county and city initiatives. I would love for more people to know about Cooperative Extension, to take advantage of what Cooperative Extension resources have to offer to gardeners and non-gardeners alike. I would also like for folks to understand that Extension operates county and city offices at the pleasure of your local government. If you have the good fortune to have access to the people and programs of Extension, thank your local county board, city council, or other representatives and support the funding that provides these services.

Q: How can our readers contact you? A: My contact information is on our local office website: https://arlington. ext.vt.edu/. Folks can also contact our Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at mgarlalex@gmail.com for assistance with weed and plant disease management, household and landscape insect identification, and landscape troubleshooting. Our award-winning public education programs offer on-line classes, in-person classes, volunteer training support, and recorded classes at www. mgnv.org. o

Jackie DiBartolomeo is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a staff reporter with The Campus Trainer.