Our Demonstration Gardens are used for many purposes but our primary goal is to determine how well certain plants perform in the Fort Bend County area. We ask questions like: Will this (tomato, berry, peach) variety produce here? If so, how much fruit can we expect to get from one plant in a season? Is the fruit tasty, fleshy, firm, large, small, etc.? Can this variety be cut and rooted here? Will the growth rate of this variety be increased with the addition of compost, more water, organic fertilizer? Of course, our Gardens are also used to train Master Gardeners in horticultural skills. We get hands-on training in planting techniques, berry patch maintenance, transplanting, rooting, plant identification, landscape design, insect control and identification, and many other areas. These skills are not classroom based. We get our hands dirty on our workdays!