Recent Posts

  • Summer Weather Safety

    Heat stress can affect people, animals, and plants. The interaction of heat and humidity creates a heat sensation beyond air temperature alone. A calculation of this interaction gives us the Heat Index – an estimate of how hot we really feel under the temperature and humidity conditions if we’re standing in the shade. For example,…

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  • A small potted snake plant.

    There is a portion of a wall in our living room that is bare and is a source of aggravation for beloved husband. We’ve considered and experimented with different furniture items but haven’t found the thing that’s just right. The one we hoped would work, a tri-level plant stand, failed when the various potted plants…

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  • A boxwood shrub with lesions on the stems.

    Boxwood shrubs (Buxus sempervirens) were imported to North America in the 1650s, but they were features in European and Asian gardens long before that. Durable, versatile, and evergreen, boxwoods are used to create garden walls, sculpted walks, topiaries, and formal parterre gardens. They’re also a popular choice for foundation plantings around homes. So, when a…

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  • A young adult male with Downs Syndrome and his brown horse

    Each year, Georgia 4-H hosts the State 4-H Horse Show at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry, Georgia.

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  • Citizen science, also called participatory science, is helping universities and environmental agencies answer questions like these and do other things, like monitor streams for pollution, to address real-world issues. Many projects are suitable for both youth and adult participants.

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  • A hill of juniper with tree seedlings growing up through it.

    In the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed an eruption of weeds in juniper ground cover plantings around the county. I saw this same issue last year, too, beginning in March. Ground covers are generally used as a low maintenance means to control weeds, sometimes in areas that are difficult to access. Creeping junipers (Juniperus…

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  • An Indian man sitting on the floor, his knees are pulled to his chest, his head is resting on his knees and his eyes are shut.

    Considering the increased focus on mental health over the past few years, I was surprised to learn that May has been national Mental Health Awareness Month since 1949. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It is not a fixed characteristic; it can change from time to time like our weight or hair…

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  • Broadleaf shrub showing healthy green leaves

    Last month, I recommended renewal pruning for broadleaf shrubs showing signs of freeze injury. I applied this advice in late March to a gardenia hedge that turned black after the December deep-freeze, cutting the stems back severely until I found living tissue. I expected to see leaf buds within the first three weeks of April.…

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  • Five middle school youth and an adult coach at an outdoor archery match

    In Forsyth County, 4-H youth in 4th-12th grade can participate in the Project S.A.F.E. Archery Team. The team practices weekly from August to April and competes in the Indoor Archery Match in Perry each January and Target Challenge Weekend in May.    Divisions in 4-H Archery are divided by both age and discipline. The three age…

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  • a white dish full of dark molasses with a wooden spoon

    In short, molasses is a byproduct created – to the tune of 55 million tons per year globally – in the refinement of sugar beets and sugar cane into those sweet crystals we love to eat. Molasses is the reason brown sugar is brown and moist. As a catalyst in history and products of the…

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