Agriculture

This is National Agriculture Week, a time for assessing and appreciating our nation’s farms and the crops they produce for us.

But as you look around Shelby County, you’ll find that those crops are coming under heavy rotation, that our farms aren’t what they used to be.

Those bucolic images of dairy cows roaming the pastures and tobacco growing tall and green in fields and hanging in rustic barns are evolving into a future of new livelihoods that might surprise you a bit.

Controlling certain weeds takes some strategic planning, and mid-March the game begins.

I personally don’t care about weeds in the lawn, but I do try to keep them out of the landscape beds and the vegetable garden. I also prefer to approach the whole affair with as little chemical input as possible, so I have developed a well-timed strategy of hand-weeding, mulching, using corn gluten as a pre-emergent and a little flame throwing.

I’ll explain.

Spring break from teaching at U of L falls conveniently during the week of St. Patrick’s Day and when I always plant out my seed potato for the year.

While I always manage a mid-March planting, we must consider the condition of the soil.

Don’t start digging if the soil is too wet.  Be patient and only work once the soil is friable.

Select potato varieties that compliment the way you cook.  The most versatile varieties include favorites like Yukon Gold and Red Cloud.

I am always a little annoyed when people ask me how to get rid of bees.

Short of a deathly allergy we should all be lucky enough to have a healthy population in the garden. I have tons out and about the landscape, in the clover where I walk daily, in the garden where I work, amid the flowers where I weed…and I have never been stung.

Bees are vital, as I am sure you know, when it comes to pollination. It is not some romantic job for the bees but a matter of serious food production.