Aiken Soil and Water Conservation

09/04/2026

Our office will be closed Monday for holiday!

09/03/2026

We held our first legislator breakfast and it was a huge success! Looking forward to next year!

09/02/2026

2026 APFC Annual Meeting Oct 5 Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdT-CNKnCeb6KWIQcKrFHxtEt3O87e_oZ89H-j7ryTGtcH5-g/viewform

09/01/2026

Free seeds
Thursday 1-3pm
Aiken County Public Library

08/31/2026

08/31/2026

🫛Southern Peas have been a staple in American agriculture since the 1700s, and this is your chance to make them even better!

Click the link and take our quick survey. https://msstate.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5bgL119WeiyjzX8

08/30/2026

Pull up that porch rocker and bring your mug out with me for a minute—the morning air is starting to get that crisp late-summer bite to it, and that means one big thing around here: it’s time to start talking garlic. ☕🧄

Most folks look out at the late-summer garden, see the vine crops starting to slow down, and think things are winding down for the year. But to me, late summer is where next year’s best harvest actually begins. If you’ve never planted fall garlic, you’re missing out on one of the easiest, most rewarding crops on the entire homestead. You tuck them into the dirt right before winter sets in, let the snow tuck them in, and come early summer, you’ve got braided bundles of homegrown flavor hanging in the pantry.

Before you go dropping cloves in the dirt, though, the secret is getting that ground ready right now while the sun is still warm. Here is how I set my garlic beds up for huge, fat bulbs:

🧄 Give the Soil a Good Square Meal: Garlic is a hungry feeder, and it’s going to live in that bed for the next nine months. As your summer sweet corn or bush beans finish up, clear the row and work in a generous 2-to-3-inch layer of rich, aged compost or well-rotted manure. You want that soil loose, crumbly, and packed with organic matter so the roots can dig deep before the ground freezes solid.

🧄 Mind the Drainage: Garlic loves moisture in spring, but it absolutely despises "wet feet" through a soggy winter. If you have heavy clay like a lot of us do, build a nice, raised mound or plant directly in raised beds. Standing water over winter is the number one reason garlic cloves rot instead of sprout.

🧄 The Big-Clove Rule: When planting time arrives in mid-to-late fall (usually a couple of weeks after your first light frost), break your bulbs apart right before planting, never days ahead. Save the biggest, plumpest outer cloves for the dirt—big cloves grow big bulbs, while the little inner ones go straight into the kitchen skillet for supper!

🧄 Pointy Side to the Sky: Plant each clove about 2 inches deep, blunt root-end pointing down, pointy tip aiming up, spaced about 6 inches apart.

🧄 The Winter Blanket: Once they are tucked in, cover the entire bed with a thick 4-to-6-inch blanket of clean straw or shredded leaves. That mulch keeps the soil temperature steady, stops the frost from heaving the cloves out of the ground, and keeps early spring weeds from stealing nutrients.

Come next spring, when everything else is still brown and asleep, those bright green garlic spears will be the very first green life pushing up through the straw to greet you. There’s nothing quite like that feeling!

Are you making room for a garlic patch in your garden beds this fall, or will this be your first year giving it a try? Tell me what varieties you love to plant, or drop your favorite fall soil-prep tips in the comments below! 👇

08/30/2026

🌾 THE LARGEST TRANSFER OF FARMLAND IN U.S. HISTORY IS UNDERWAY — AND IT AFFECTS US RIGHT HERE AT HOME

As a homeowner, and with everything I’ve learned over the last couple of months, I think South Carolina has reached a point where we have to ask ourselves a real question: What do we actually want this state to become?

Across the country, something huge is happening:
Millions of acres of farmland are changing hands — the biggest land transfer in modern American history.

Why?
Because 40% of U.S. farmland is owned by people over 65, and as they retire, most of that land isn’t staying in farming. It’s being sold, inherited, or converted. And the buyers aren’t young farmers — they’re developers, corporations, and investment groups.

Here’s what that means for communities like ours:

🟠 1. Farmland is disappearing fast

When land becomes more valuable as subdivisions than as farms, the outcome is predictable: fields turn into rooftops.
That’s not “growth.” That’s replacement — and once farmland is gone, it doesn’t come back.

🟠 2. Sprawl accelerates

Counties that refuse reasonable density inside existing infrastructure push development outward.
Outward means rural land.
Rural land means farmland.
It’s a domino effect — and we’re watching it in real time.

🟠 3. Environmental impacts multiply

Clear‑cutting, runoff, erosion, flooding — the exact issues many of us are already dealing with.
When you replace permeable farmland with hard surfaces, the water has nowhere to go.
We pay the price.

🟠 4. Locals get priced out

As farmland becomes an investment commodity, land prices skyrocket.
Developers can afford it.
Out‑of‑state buyers can afford it.
Local families? Not so much.

🟠 5. The contradiction no one wants to talk about

People say they want farmland preserved.
People also say they want low‑density housing everywhere.
Those two things cannot coexist.
If demand isn’t absorbed in already‑developed areas, farmland gets eaten alive. Period.

---

🔍 So what’s really happening?

We’re living through a generational turnover of land ownership — the largest in decades.
And unless communities speak up, the future of rural America will be decided by whoever can write the biggest check.

This isn’t just a farming story.
It’s a housing story.
A development story.
A local‑government‑decision story.
And it’s happening right here in South Carolina.
What direction do you want South Carolina to move in?

08/26/2026

📚 Sprouts is back from summer break and ready to kick off the new school year! 📚

August’s feature book, “It’s Corn Picking Time,” is on its way to our Sprout’s Monthly Book subscribers. Hop in the tractor and ride along with a corn farmer in this rhyming read-aloud full of things that clack, whoosh, and roll! Corn-picking time is a favorite season on author Jill Esbaum’s family farm, and the joy is sure to be shared by young lovers of tractors, trucks, and all manner of machines.

We’re excited to add more books to our resource library. Each book comes with a lesson plan and ready-to-use Google slides. Purchase your copy, access the free lesson plan, or subscribe to Sprouts' Monthly Book on our website: https://www.scfb.org/monthlybook

🌽🚜

08/25/2026