Agriculture

One of the very first insects that I identified as a young gardener was the pine sawfly. We had planted more than 100 white pine seedlings some 30 years ago, and after a decade or so we started to lose a couple each year to one problem or another. Daddy charged me with inspection duty: looking for and plucking bagworms; collecting beetles in jars for identification at the county extension service; or closely noting the color, legs and chewing habits of the various caterpillars I encountered.

Shelby County Farmers’ Market adds Wednesday afternoon hours

New this week at the Shelby County Farmers’ Market will be a mid-week market held every Wednesday, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. This new market day, which began Wednesday, is in addition to the Saturday market, held from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday through October in the Coots Barn at the Shelby County Fairgrounds, 1513 Midland Trail in Shelbyville.

For more information, visit shelbycokyfarmersmarket.com.

Who among us is guilty of not noticing something until it’s too late? Yes, all of a sudden there is nothing left of your blue spruce or arborvitae. Bagworms have been munching on the needles for weeks, and we wonder how it all happened.

Well, they are at work right now so go outside and take inventory of your evergreens because that’s what the bagworm likes the most. Now is the time they do their damage unless we put a stop to it.

Likely as a child, you too, collected fireflies in a jar and took them to bed to light up your room on a warm summer night. I remember getting my parents to puncture the lid of a mason jar, so the magical insects could breathe.

Well, it turns out that all that light flashing wasn’t meant for our entertainment but rather about entertaining love.