Homeowner lawn and landscape practices and use of Cooperative Extension resources

Abstract Cooperative Extension is one of the most public‐facing aspects of land grant universities in the United States, providing research‐based informative materials focusing on assorted topics relating to agriculture, horticulture, and other aspects of home life. This experiment explored current lawn and landscape maintenance practices of homeowners across 12 US states, their awareness, use, and challenges with Cooperative Extension resources. A 50‐question survey was created at Kansas State University in Qualtrics and distributed through Amazon Mechanical Turk over 288 days in 2023–2024. Most homeowners revealed that they maintain their own lawn and landscapes, and 58% of homeowners spend between 2 and 5 h/week working outside on them. Nearly 50% of homeowners reported that family and friends were their primary information sources for lawn and landscape questions, while only 6% of homeowners used Extension resources as a primary source. About 53% of homeowners know that Extension information exists for lawn and landscapes. Among homeowners aware of Extension resources for lawn and landscapes, the top three challenges for using Extension resources were the following: required too much time to find answers (18%), information seemed outdated (17%), and the answers were not easily available (12%). Future Extension learning resources that are easy to find and updated regularly should help increase outreach efforts. Future Extension programming efforts should include traditional online Extension publications, informational videos, social media engagement, and updated Extension website blogs. Results from this survey provide insights into the current lawn and landscape practices by homeowners and should assist Extension programming efforts at land grant universities.