August Newsletter - Burke County

Gardening in Small Spaces
Taylor Campbell, Extension Agent Horticulture

Gardening, in its many forms, is a popular hobby in North Carolina. It promotes healthy habits such as spending time outdoors, being physically active, and raising homegrown fruits and vegetables for your family. If you live in urban areas, have little space, or have limited mobility, you may think gardening won’t work for you. However, raised-bed and container gardening are good solutions for these challenges.

Raised-bed gardens allow you to have control over the planting media. You can create your own soil or soilless mixes, which is great for areas with poor soil quality or poor drainage. You’ll get better root growth with amended soils and typically higher yields. Raised beds are easier for those with mobility issues because they usually require less stooping and bending during weeding and watering tasks.

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Help Livestock Endure Heat and Humidity

Livestock producers can help their animals endure the stress from heat and humidity in a variety of ways. To reduce livestock heat stress in hot humid conditions, it is important to provide plenty of food, water, and shade, and maintain good animal health.
Species specific management also helps producers reduce economic losses from heat stress.

Cows consume around 70% of their feed after midnight through early morning. The heat production from ruminant digestion is tremendous, and occurs about 4 hours after ingestion. Feed cattle on grain rations early in the morning, so they wont have to rely on feeding in the hottest part of the day. Endophyte infected fescue pastures increase heat stress, as the toxins elevate body temperature. Decreased milk production, decreased weight gains, and lowered reproductive efficiency result also. Diluting pure fescue stands with clovers, has continually shown to offset these effects in research. Access to an adequate cool, clean water supply that is centrally located, helps to reduce heat stress. Avoid giving access to ponds, as wading warms the water, contaminates it, and reduces animal intake. Provide shade, preferably in higher elevation areas to utilize wind currents for cooling.

Horses in particular have trouble maintaining body temp in hot humid conditions. Use the comfort index to determine whether or not horses should be worked or ridden. To calculate, add the relative humidity to the temperature and use the sum. 130 to 150, use caution, above 180, do not ride or work the horse. Healthy livestock handle heat stress better, so reduce stresses from diseases and internal and external parasites and you will help your livestock to endure the stress of summer heat and humidity.

This year marks the 24th annual celebration of National Farmers Market Week (NFMW) A week that showcases the importance of farmers markets in our local communities.

Consumers want food that is healthy and environmentally friendly and our local farmers are meeting this need each week. Farmers that utilize farmer’s markets are minimizing the amount of waste and adopting environmentally sound farming practices that improve the natural environment while producing healthy food for consumers. These consumers purchase the sustainable produce providing money directly to the farmer in order to continue building our local food supply. Thirteen full time jobs per $1 million in revenue earned are created compared to 3 full time jobs for farmers not selling locally. The USDA estimates that local food sales from farmers markets, food hubs, CSAs, farm stands and farm to schools programs have grown from about $5 billion in 2008 to $11.7 billion in 2014.

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Back to School
Brandi Silver, Extension Agent, FCS

In order to help your child have a safe, happy and productive year, get started on the right foot. Schools are open to address any concerns a parent or child might have. The best time to get help is one to two weeks before school opens. All staff in Burke County will return on Aug.16. Administrative personnel are currently on site Monday-Thursday from 8-3 and the first day of the 2023-2024 school year is August 28!

You can find enrollment information for pre-k through 12th grade on the Burke County Schools website.

Some students may be nervous about new situations, including changing to a new school, classroom or teacher. If your child seems nervous, ask them what they are worried about and help them problem-solve ways to master the new situation. All BCPS schools will have an open house prior to the 1st day. Be sure to check out your schools website or give them a call to see when open house will take place. This could help ease any fears your child may have about the 1st day of school!

Put a positive spin on going back to school. Remind your student about seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Ask your child what they are excited to learn about this year.

Consider starting your child on their school sleeping schedule a week or so ahead of time so that time change is not a factor on their first couple of days at school.

Have a great year and remember to teach kindness.

August Gardening Tasks
Taylor Campbell, Extension Agent, Horticulture

In August, there are several gardening tasks and considerations to keep in mind. Some of the plants currently in bloom include Rose-of-Sharon, Peegee Hydrangea, Abelia, Canna, Dahlia, Trumpet Creeper, Cardinal Flower, Butterfly Weed, Phlox, Cleome, Hosta, and Liriope, along with various summer annuals.

For fertilizing, Strawberry plants will benefit from additional nitrogen this month. However, it's essential to avoid fertilizing shrubs in late August, September, October, or November.

When it comes to planting, you can start by planting pansy seeds in flats this month for planting in September. Additionally, August is the ideal time to plant Spider lily (lycoris), Autumn Crocus (colchicum), and sternbergia bulbs. You can also sow seeds of hollyhock, delphinium, and stokesia to ensure healthy perennial plants for next spring. Houseplants can be placed outdoors as the heat and humidity is great for tropical plants. Be sure to repot them this month as well.

If you plan to grow fall vegetables, consider planting beets, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard, radish, rutabaga, spinach, squash, and turnip this month.

Pruning should be avoided for shrubs in August, September, or October.

Regarding pest management, scout for insect pests in landscape shrubs like spider mites in arborvitae and juniper, black spot in roses, and lace bugs in azalea and pyracantha. Peach and nectarine trees may require a trunk spray for peach tree borers at the end of August. Fall vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower may face infestations of worms, and squash could be affected by borers, so sprays may be necessary.

For lawn care, treat all lawn areas for grubs using the recommended baits. If planning to have a tall fescue or bluegrass lawn, prepare the lawn areas for reseeding later in August.

August is a suitable time for propagating favorite shrubs through cuttings or layering.

In terms of specific chores, it's beneficial to have a well-prepared planting plan for any fall landscape planting. Ensure regular watering for favorite landscape plants and the vegetable garden, especially during dry weather. Begin constructing a compost bin this month. Lastly, dig Irish potatoes in August.