After a few months of all that summer on the farm entails, the kids have returned to school. From helping with wheat harvest, hauling meals and equipment out to fields, taking naps in the car while helping me complete parts runs, sweeping shop floors, assisting with irrigation duties and making popcorn deliveries, it’s safe to say my kids experienced a healthy dose of farm-kid living during their summer break.

For fastest composting, alternate layers of “greens” and “browns.” Greens are materials with a high amount of nitrogen as compared to carbon. Browns have less nitrogen as compared to carbon. The mixture of the two produces the “just right” amount of carbon and nitrogen to give the microorganisms just what they need to compost quickly. The most common greens are fresh grass clippings, coffee grounds, small weeds, fruit and veggie scraps, plant trimmings and animal manure. The browns would include shredded leaves, sawdust, wood chips, hay, straw, dried grass clippings and prunings from small branches. These materials can be mixed together at the start or layered. If layering, alternate layers of brown materials (6 to 8 inches deep) with green materials (2 to 3 inches thick) until you reach a height of 3 to 5 feet. If green materials are in short supply, add 1 to 2 cups per square yard of a commercial garden fertilizer in place of the green material layer.

I’ve decided I’m not a great gardener. Maybe it’s the soil! Maybe it’s uneven watering! Maybe it’s the heat! Or Maybe I don’t have a green thumb. But even then, I still like to garden. I planted Fourth of July tomatoes thinking my first tomato would come around that time, but that is when the plant bloomed, and I am getting tomatoes from it now.

Watch Out for ‘Grandparent’ Scams It’s that time of year where the kids/grandkids are going off to school and a time that grandparents worry about their safety, especially if this is the first grandchild heading off to college. Unfortunately, scammers know this and are using it to their advantage.

The past couple of weeks I had the privilege of attending several Farm Bureau events in person — Big Tent Reunions, Summer Summit and Young Farmers and Ranchers Leaders Conference — without masks, and it was awesome. This isn’t a statement about restrictions, masks or vaccinations, it is a statement of how much we all need social interaction and how valuable relationships are. The whole time we were staying at home, I knew I was missing people. I just didn’t realize how much.

Customer reviews are a staple in the digital world. If you cannot see a product in person, the next best thing is reading about another person’s experience. The trust we instinctively place in each other’s opinions and observations are not limited to product reviews. Our everyday conversations leave impressions we probably never think about.

Kansas Farmers’ Market Month As I was driving home from work the other day, I saw sweet corn and peaches being sold at the courthouse square. Love this time of year, all the fresh fruit, vegetables, and other produce available for our purchase and ready to consume or preserve for this winter.

Fertilize Strawberries Early- to mid-August is the time to fertilize strawberries in order to increase the number of fruit produced next spring. Plenty of daylight and warm temperatures during June, July and August promotes the growth of new runners, or daughter plants.

My wife and I have had a busy summer of traveling to places both old and new, near and far. Some of the routes were committed to memory long ago while the new ones required some navigational assistance from modern mapping software.

Leaf Spot on Lilacs I have had a number of contacts regarding lilacs with leaves showing many spots and browning leaves. Cercospora leaf spot appears to be the cause.