Landscape Design and Management
Eudora Welty House, Jackson, MS
Careful landscape planning can increase your family's enjoyment of your property, save money, solve difficult site problems, and add significantly to the value and beauty of your home.
Successful landscapes happen from well thought out plans and designs of outdoor spaces. By carefully considering how you will place landscape elements on your property, you can avoid many costly mistakes that may need later correcting.
This Mississippi Landscapes Design and Management section is designed to provide homeowners with information and solutions for creating successful home environments.
Publications
News
Landscape design and natural landscape enthusiasts will gather at Mississippi State University to perfect their craft and learn from other experts, an annual event happening this year on Oct. 18. The 68th Edward C. Martin Landscape Symposium will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Bost Auditorium at MSU.
PICAYUNE, Miss. -- School groups, nature enthusiasts and the public can enjoy two fun-filled days of exciting, hands-on learning about the environment, ecosystems, wildlife and insects at the Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum in Picayune. BugFest offers insect-related displays, interactive exhibits, games and crafts. Biologists, naturalists, entomologists and other experts from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama will host booths and give presentations on butterflies, bats, caterpillars, beetles, crayfish, ladybugs, hissing cockroaches, dancing praying mantises, native and exotic arthropods and more.
Despite several recognized benefits of growing winter cover crops, this conservation system has limited acceptance, something Mississippi State University researchers are trying to change by identifying and better managing risks.
Among the significant benefits of planting a green crop on farmland otherwise exposed to winter elements are improved soil health, water quality and erosion control. But cover crops grow into the optimal spring planting times for summer crops. This complicates their use and can reduce productivity of the summer crop.
For the last several years, MSU research has addressed various aspects of this issue, primarily focusing on cover crop management and cover crop species.
Many plants are in bloom during June, including lantana. (Photo by Canva)
Summertime is officially here! Kids are out of school, and many people are gearing up for summer adventures with the family.
Caring for your lawn can be a full-time job during the warmer months! (Photo by Canva Pro)
May is here and you know what that means, it’s go time!
Success Stories
Mississippi State University and partners have been awarded a grant of nearly $6.6 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation for shoreline restoration work on the Gulf Coast.
Sledge Taylor is no stranger to cover crops —he first planted vetch on 100 acres of his Panola County farmland in 1979—but he has ramped up his cover crop usage and added other sustainable agricultural practices over the past 15 years.
Brian Andrus irrigated exactly zero times on his Sunflower County farm in 2021. He didn’t even turn on his well.
Engineer designs sub-irrigated planter
The answer would have discouraged most people when Mike Boyles asked Mississippi State University Extension Service agent Jim McAdory about building a permanent, subirrigated planter on a concrete slab.
See What’s New in Extension: Extension Supports University's Community Garden, Extension Appoints New 4-H Staff, Extension Landscape Symposium Honors Professor Emeritus, and Extension's Southern Gardener Opens Little Free Garden
