Agriculture

There are many things that come together to allow plants to thrive. When it comes to plants native to our area, we are not required to go to great extremes to provide the ideal environment. An ideal environment, however, means a great many different things depending on what kind of plant you are.

Old farm sites that are long vacant often have remnants of a once thriving agricultural model that fed the whole family. Among the farm smorgasbord was the small home orchard, and among the orchards the Kieffer pear still stands if nothing else does.

The Kieffer pear has been around for a long time, and it seems we have forgotten how to treat it as an eating pear.

For some gardeners, the tactile experience of maintaining the garden is not really what they’re after. I love the whole process, but I realize that most people just want things to look good without too much fuss.

As our farm grows on the 4-legged and 2-legged side of things, I am noticing some perennial plant neglect. So I do need to do some rearranging so that the mixed borders get easier to care for, not more difficult. Therein lies the mission of the Perennial Plant Association’s “Plant of the Year” program.

Emergency grazing program extended in Shelby County

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a 2-month extension for emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres, freeing up forage and feed for ranchers as they look to recover from this challenging time. This includes land owners in Shelby County.