Hello, farm family! Have you ever walked by a weedy bench and thought, “I’ll just pull a few weeds,” only to realize you then worked for over an hour? Me too. The positive side of that is that I got lots of weeds pulled rather than just a few. The drawback is I now have less time to do the other thi...

In time for National Ag Day on March 24, the nonprofit Rural Minds announces the launch of the new Farmer Mental Health Resilience Program in support of mental wellness for farmers and farm families. This critical new initiative aims to support the ag community by providing farmers and the individua...

Water is waning and landscapes are feeling the squeeze. Lawns and landscapes are increasingly left to languish under water use limits. In response to this pressing problem, Levi Dreiling and Jacob C. Domenghini of Kansas State University’s Department of Horticulture & Natural Resources set out to se...

A recent shift toward more restrictive weed control measures along with new, mandatory pesticide application rules has been mandated by the EPA. Wesley Everman, Ph.D., Iowa State Extension weed specialist, began an explanation of the rule changes with a brief history of what brought the EPA to devel...

At the Cultivate Conference in Columbus, one presentation invited landscape professionals to loosen their grip and embrace a little chaos – with purpose. In a session titled “Natural Disaster: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of Managing Naturalistic Landscapes,” David McKinney, curator at the Iowa Arbo...

Sean Birkel, Ph.D., Maine’s climatologist and Cooperative Extension team member, introduced the state’s new 26-station weather monitoring network to many farmers and foresters at the state’s Agricultural Trades Show in Augusta. “The mesonet will fill existing networks and observational gaps and prov...

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” So said Albert Einstein – and it’s imperative for growers to remain curious. A nursery-focused disease panel at the most recent Cultivate event took place solely so those in attendance could query about the ...

Presenters at the High Tunnel Production Conference in West Lebanon, NH, emphasized that high tunnels have different requirements and management needs than does in-field farming, so growers must make accommodations. The specialists who shared their expertise included Bruce Hoskins, assistant scienti...

Turfgrass is big business – but keeping it both healthy and looking healthy requires a certain amount of water, which can become scarce in certain areas and certain seasons. Water restrictions and rising costs require more sustainable solutions to improve water efficiency without compromising turf p...