News Stories - Page 347

Spring flowering bulbs, such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses, add lots of color and visual enjoyment to early spring flower beds. These bulbs are among the first flowers to appear in spring and signal that cold weather is on the way out and warmer days are just around the corner.

Many a gardener has spent a sunny October afternoon admiring his mums only to wake up the next morning to a winter wonderland and frostbitten flowers. Georgia’s first frost usually hits in the middle of November, but sometimes it sneaks into the state a little earlier. When it does, it is good to have some supplies on hand and a game plan.

For the past 12 years, the University of Georgia has tapped its own talent to help keep its dozens of Athens based building safe from termites.

Daniel Hillel, the 2012 World Food Prize Laureate and a 1950 graduate of the University of Georgia, spent the better part of his career perfecting arid- land farming methods in Israel and sharing them with farmers across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. On Nov. 8, Hillel will return to Athens to deliver the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ 2012 D.W. Brooks Lecture at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Every year around this time the national news is filled with stories of monument-sized pumpkins from places like Maine and Michigan, but Georgians are no slouches when it comes to giant produce.

Giant pumpkins don't just happen. It takes time and patience if you want to be the only person on your block who has a 300-pound jack-o-lantern.

With the majority of American children at least two generations removed from the farm, it is common for them to think their food originates at the grocery store. Or even worse, they may think it comes from a fast food restaurant. The Farm to School program was established to help battle this misperception and to help children connect and appreciate the food they eat.

Sweeping changes were approved in last year’s House Bill 386 that exempt inputs used in agricultural production from Georgia sales tax collections. For certified producers or farmers this means most of the items they buy to use in agricultural production will be sales tax exempt beginning in 2013.

The University of Georgia Traffic Injury Prevention Institute was awarded a $650,000 grant from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to continue its statewide education programs in the areas of child passenger safety, parent-teen driving safety and senior driver education.