Milkweed is a critically important plant for the monarch butterfly, which is threatened with extinction. The monarch caterpillar uses milkweed as its primary food source, and its powerful flowers provide nectar for countless butterflies, bees and insects. If you stop and observe a milkweed plant in ...

So, you have decided to raise livestock. You can sell meat as retail cuts, requiring a USDA licensed slaughterhouse. Or you can sell animals as halves, wholes or quarters instead of retail cuts. In this second scenario, you sell the live animal to your customers but deliver it to a Custom Exempt sla...

Raising sheep or goats for profit can be a satisfying enterprise. However, there are a number of management skills that each sheep or goat producer should have to be successful. Each livestock enterprise has different resources: land, labor, capital, feed and management. To raise sheep or goats sust...

While summer provides a bounty of fruits, veggies and flowers, it also brings invasive species. Common invasive species that you might find in your garden or landscape often started out as decorative landscape plants. Plants like knotweed, goutweed, burning bush and Japanese barberry were once impor...

You know we like to celebrate niche and farm-specific holidays here at Country Culture, and this month may be Editor Courtney’s favorite. August has been designated Goat Cheese Month, and goat cheese is good on pretty much everything. First, you may be asking yourself “How is goat cheese different f...

When daylilies are blooming, it officially feels like summer. Daylilies have a celebratory appearance, looking almost like stationary fireworks, reaching for the sun. These flowering fireworks come in many sizes, bloom shapes and colors. The orange-hued common daylily ( Hemerocallis fulva ) is one o...

During the long, hot and dry days of midsummer, nothing hits the juicy spot quite like a slice of watermelon. August 3 is National Watermelon Day, and for good reason. It’sbelieved that watermelon cultivation began in the Nile Valley in northernAfrica as early as the second millennium BCE. Watermelo...

Ah, August. Summer is in full swing, but autumn is already peeking around the corner. The rewards of gardening are everywhere. Fruits and berries are ripening, as are vegetable crops. It’s time to begin harvesting and enjoying that fresh, home-grown flavor. Is there anything better than the taste of...

Ogden Nash’s book “The Animal Garden,” published in 1965, is a chuckle to read. The rhyming verse and amusing illustrations tell an upbeat story about a family living in a home where no pets are allowed because the parents suffer from allergies. Roy and Joy try to convince their parents to let them ...

Pickles! If you’re a word nerd like me, occasionally you find yourself over at the Online Etymology Dictionary , where you can you look up the origins of words. Since we’re talking pickles today, I thought I’d share with you the history of “pickle”: “c. 1400, ‘spiced sauce served with meat or fowl’ ...

Container gardening, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Here are five great reasons to give container gardening a try: Container gardening provides a baby step for the beginning gardener. The idea of gardening appeals to many peoplebut sometimes the reality behind creating an inviting and at...

With higher temperatures and more frequent droughts occurring, rainwater harvesting is something nearly everyone can do to make the most of the moisture they get. Many homeowners erroneously think that if they live in an area with little rainfall, it’s not worth trying to catch for use later. “Infre...

Summer is here! Almost six months into the year, June 21 is the astronomical start of summer as the sun reaches its highest point. Also known as the summer solstice, the sun does not change path for a couple of days. To be clear, although the sun is often referred to as moving , we all know that us ...

Making your own compost is an eco-friendly and rewarding way to manage your food waste.But what can you do if your compost bin is being raided by wildlife? Many animals are attracted to compost for different reasons. Rats find compost ideal as a source of food and a warm place to nest. Skunks like t...

June is National Pollinator Month, making it the perfect time for kids to learn about pollinators, the key role they play in ecosystem and garden health and why we should care about their well-being. KidsGardening.org , a national nonprofit and leader in the youth gardening movement in conjunction w...