It’s only 175 square feet, but it’s cozy, clean and makes all the difference in the world to a young farmer who is learning to work the land.

Cheered on by the more than 1,000 attendees at the 20th Anniversary Georgia Organics Conference, four fledgling Georgia farmers celebrated their graduation from Georgia’s Journeyman Farmer Certificate Program — an innovative training program for beginning farmers.

The Dutch iris is relatively trouble-free and should bloom in May and June. Most references suggest a cold hardiness of zones 6 through 9, but gardeners tout a return in zone 5 when a protective layer of mulch has been added. They need plenty of sun to bloom their best, though a little afternoon shade would be tolerated.

Landscapers can soon add a bit of Georgia’s historical Piedmont and native prairies to their designs thanks to the creation of three new little bluestem perennial grasses, released through a University of Georgia and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) partnership.

Judges have selected 33 products to compete in the final round of the University of Georgia’s 2017 Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest in Atlanta on March 21.

Ron Gitaitis, a plant pathologist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, was inducted into the Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame by the Vidalia Onion Committee at the committee’s annual awards banquet, held on Feb. 4 at the Vidalia Community Center in Vidalia, Georgia.

The cost of controlling plant diseases combined with the cost of irrigation continues to push Georgia watermelon growers to become more innovative and productive, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable horticulturist Tim Coolong.

A few years ago, peanut farmers in the Dagomba village in the Ashanti region of Ghana had little training in how to grow, dry and store their crop in a way that would increase yield and improve quality. They planted the same variety that has grown in the region for decades and hoped that rains would fall at the right time to make a good crop. They harvested whenever they could and spread the nuts out on the ground to dry in the sun. But when offered the chance to learn improved techniques, they took advantage and have results to show for it.

It’s Arbor Day again, and that means it’s time for Georgians interested in adding trees to their landscape to get those trees in the ground.