Agriculture

Wendy Johnson of Copper Coin Farm in Simpsonville says the economy is “starting to make a pretty good turn in the Saddlebred community.”
That is good news for the organizers of the annual All American Cup Stallion Review and Auction, a daylong event that begins at 7 a.m., Saturday at Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville.
There will be three tour buses to transport potential bidders to Sunrise Stables in Versailles and Alliance Stud and Copper Coin farms in Simpsonville.
“Attendance is up from last year,” Johnson says.

So what does The Old Farmer’s Almanac say about 2011? Even if you don’t follow this sort of prognostication there are some interesting observations based in a little fact and a little myth.
Here are a few of my favorites that may explain a bit more about nature as we enter into another year:

We all have bad habits. Some people chew their fingernails; others mow their grass too short in the summer. You can guess which one bugs me the most.
The odd thing about many of the worst bad habits in the garden is that they have become so commonplace. The worst offenses are repeated everywhere to the extent that gardeners think they are the rule.
Over-mulching, for example, has been an epidemic problem for many years despite the fact that research spells out trouble for our plants when we bury their roots under a foot of hardwood mulch.

I like a book that tells a story while teaching me a little something along the way.  I like when the writer’s personality is revealed in their prose, and I like when a book makes me feel like I am not the only one that marvels at what nature and people can do.
Here are my 2010 picks for just this sort of thing: