{"id":2361,"date":"2022-06-03T15:28:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/?p=2361"},"modified":"2025-11-14T14:17:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:17:35","slug":"prunebetter-the-team-behind-the-scenes-and-whats-next-for-the-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/2022\/06\/03\/prunebetter-the-team-behind-the-scenes-and-whats-next-for-the-series\/","title":{"rendered":"PruneBetter: The team behind the scenes, and what’s next for the series…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pruning can feel like one of the most intimidating parts of caring for a garden\u2014that\u2019s why we released our #PruneBetter series. This series of social media posts covered a wide array of common garden favorites: blueberries, hydrangea, apple trees, and more! If you missed any of the posts this year, they are all still accessible via searching #PruneBetter on Instagram or Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our team worked hard behind the scenes to present you with science-backed and accessible content. This series started with LeAnn Locher (Master Gardener Outreach Coordinator), who envisioned utilizing OSU\u2019s social media platforms to not only link to educational content, but to present it directly. Both Instagram and Facebook allow our team to connect directly with Master Gardeners, students, faculty, and the public from one platform. Her idea presented a fun challenge: a series of 10-second videos, each conveying and\/or demonstrating a pruning tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LeAnn Locher, the origin of the idea of the PruneBetter project. P.S. if you\u2019re looking for information on hydrangea pruning (how beautiful are these, in the photo?!) check out our archive of posts from earlier this year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The #PruneBetter team also consisted of our invaluable background researcher, Mallory Mead (member of the Garden Ecology Lab). She sourced and compiled information\u2014Mallory also helped ensure our posts were timely (AKA posting about a particular plant during its prime pruning window).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mallory Mead; undergraduate student in Horticulture at OSU and member of the Garden Ecology Lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Content creation was headed by Nicole Bell (graduate student in the GEL). I (hi, it\u2019s me) wrote captions for the posts, but admittedly\u2014the hardest part was trying to figure out what to put in those 10 second videos! One of my favorite parts was getting to work with my parents: Bernadine Strik (professor emeritus in Horticulture, and mom) for the blueberry content, and Neil Bell (community horticulturist for OSU extension, and dad) for most of the video content. They were the ones who inspired me to pursue a career in horticulture, so it was fulfilling and fun to show them and incorporate them into just a bit of what I\u2019m working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What, exactly, does a day of planning and creating #PruneBetter content look like? Step 1: use Mallory\u2019s background research to create an idea for videos (up to nine 10-second segments, for posts) stories (videos up to 30 seconds, and sometimes before and after photos), and the caption. Step 2: select and travel to pruning site. These sites varied from the OSU Lewis Brown Horticulture Farm, the home garden of Nicole\u2019s parents, and gardens generously offered up for example by OSU Master Gardeners. Step 3: shoot content. Let me just say\u2026 10 seconds goes by quickly when you\u2019re talking! Although one of the most challenging parts of creating video content for our social media platforms, it was also a great learning experience. What information do we really <\/em>need to include? What visual is most <\/em>valuable to show or demonstrate? Step 4: choose the best of our material, and post! Posts included the slide of videos, the caption with supplemental information, and our stories (one of my favorite parts about creating this series was making the weekly quiz). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Neil and Nicole Bell, pruning and filming in their home orchard (apple tree pruning post).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the #PruneBetter campaign, we were surprised and amazed at the amount of engagement and support from the community. We loved seeing your shares, comments, and messages\u2014it means a lot. Gardening can feel like a never-ending sea of tasks, but I think it is made better with community, accessible knowledge, and (at least) knowing you\u2019re not in the work alone! We\u2019re not done yet\u2014keep an eye out for more content in June (hello, apple thinning!) and beyond.<\/strong> As long as there is something to prune, we\u2019ll be waiting to find and share all the ways we can #PruneBetter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To access the supplemental resources included in the posts this year, see below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blueberries: https:\/\/catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu\/ec1304<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roses: https:\/\/extension.oregonstate.edu\/…\/flowe…\/pruning-roses<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apples: https:\/\/extension.oregonstate.edu\/pub\/pnw-400<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lavender: https:\/\/extension.oregonstate.edu\/…\/pruning-lavender<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tree pruning with the pros: https:\/\/extension.oregonstate.edu\/collection\/pruning-pros<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figs (video): https:\/\/youtu.be\/0jKXn4wByz4<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fruit trees: https:\/\/extension.oregonstate.edu\/…\/tree-pruning-basics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pacific Power “Small Trees for Small Places” booklet: https:\/\/www.pacificpower.net\/…\/PP_SmallTrees_Booklet.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To access the posts made earlier this year, go to Instagram or Facebook and search the hashtag<\/em> #PruneBetter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pruning can feel like one of the most intimidating parts of caring for a garden\u2014that\u2019s why we released our #PruneBetter series. This series of social media posts covered a wide array of common garden favorites: blueberries, hydrangea, apple trees, and more! If you missed any of the posts this year, they are all still accessible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11848,"featured_media":2364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247980,1295211,1000],"tags":[1295309,1295312,1295310,1295311],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lab-news","category-people","category-teaching","tag-prunebetter","tag-behind-the-scenes","tag-outreach","tag-social-media","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2786\/files\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-03-at-8.21.52-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions\/2369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gardenecologylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}