Got Dirt?: A statewide gardening initiative to increase access to fruits and vegetables in Wisconsin

Objective: Got Dirt?, a statewide gardening initiative in Wisconsin, was designed to increase access to fruits and vegetables through the use of school, childcare, community, and home fruit and vegetable gardens. The program components consisted of a step-by-step instructional toolkit and seven hands-on training sessions offered statewide for learning how to start a fruit and vegetable garden. A process evaluation was completed in 2006 through the use of two web-based surveys and five key informant interviews to determine the initiative's effectiveness. Design: Two web-based surveys were distributed to 143 hands-on training attendees and approximately 437 individuals receiving only a hard copy of the toolkit in 2005 with known email and home addresses. A total of 203 toolkit surveys were completed (46% response rate). A total of 84 training surveys were completed (59% response rate). Each of the seven garden experts that led one of the seven trainings was asked to complete a key informant interview. Five of the seven training leaders or facilitators completed key informant interviews. Results: In 2005, a total of 54 gardens were started as a result of the hands-on garden trainings and 97 resulted from individuals using the toolkit exclusively. Starting childcare and school gardens were found to be significantly associated with attending one of the trainings. Individuals attending one of the seven trainings had less prior gardening experience than individuals receiving only a hard copy of the toolkit. A significant difference between the trainings and the toolkit was found regarding the anticipated future use of the toolkit, as respondents receiving only a hard copy of the toolkit are more likely to use it again in the future. Conclusions: Individuals attending the training had less prior gardening experience and may have been less likely to start a garden in general. Conversely, respondents receiving only hard copies of the toolkit had more gardening experience and were more likely to report using the toolkit to start a garden. Future interventions or programming should focus on childcare providers, as this may be an effective target group for gardening programs. More longitudinal, large-scale, scientifically valid studies are needed to demonstrate the impact of gardening on access to and consumption of fruits and vegetables.