Agriculture

Though many financial institutions across the nation have locked down lending in the wake of recent recessionary times, Farm Credit Services of Mid-America said at a recent local event it has filled the credit gap for its rural customers.

This Louisville-based cooperative, which has an office in Shelbyville on Mount Eden Road, played host to about

I am starting to appreciate anomalies in nature in ways I had never considered.

I suppose I am getting more acquainted with things not going as you plan. I can’t expect a season in the garden to unfold in seamless perfection if nothing else in life does.

So I am embracing an attitude of wonder instead of one of dismay when things start to distort, twist, stunt, grow nipples, galls or any other odd appendage.

I received a call the other day about what to do with a blue spruce covered in bagworms.

The tree is apparently covered (and large), so hand-picking was not an option. The caller said the pest was rather large, too, so I had to recommend a systemic insecticide as the treatment.

I prefer that we catch the bagworms earlier in the season so that we can take a biological approach but this is not always the case.

For years home gardeners have known about Monty's Joy Juice: The small vials of plant food that have provided nourishment for their roses and house plants since 1997.

But Monty's Plant & Soil Products is much, much more than help for the weekend gardener.

For the past two years the company has been running a research farm on Mulberry Pike, leasing 75 acres from Paul Hornback, a faithful Monty's user.

Now Monty's has added a distribution deal around the area with Southern States, giving its large-scale farm products yet another home.