News

TUPELO – Those committed to the well-being of today’s families can expand their knowledge and share their expertise Oct. 12 at the 13th annual Families and Communities Together Conference in Tupelo.

The FACT conference is sponsored by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, Mississippi Department of Human Services, Mississippi School Attendance, Family Resource Center of Lee County and other family-assistance agencies. It is open to the public and will be held at the North Mississippi Medical Center on North Gloster Street.

We all know annuals such as petunia or million bells are great container garden plants, but have you ever tried including perennials in container gardens? This important group of plants can and should be an ingredient in every container recipe.

Many gardeners have a strict mindset about using annuals and perennials in container gardens: annuals are annuals and perennials are perennials, and never the twain shall meet. But if you base all your buying decisions on whether a plant will come back the next year, you will miss out on some beautiful flowers and foliage.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The lingering recession continues to impact Mississippi’s turfgrass industry with total sod acreage down as a portion has been switched to row crop production until the economy improves.

Wayne Wells, Mississippi State University Extension Service turf specialist, said the state has about 4,500 acres of turf and about 50 sod producers. The largest producers each have about 300 to 500 acres of turf production.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A passion for the environment is drawing students to a recently redesigned economics-based degree program at Mississippi State University.

The Environmental Economics and Management degree combines courses in environmental economics, natural resource economics, environmental policy, ecology and environmental law. The EEM major was formerly an environmental and resource economics concentration under the umbrella degree Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics.

By Rachel Jenkins
Southern Rural Development Center

MISSISSIPPI STATE – In its first year alone, Turning the Tide on Poverty launched 30 study circles with more than 250 participants across five southern states and now has additional funding to expand.

Turning the Tide on Poverty, a project of the Southern Rural Development Center hosted at Mississippi State University, works to find solutions to poverty through community study circles, gatherings where people create action plans for local change.

Liriope is an old standard when the Mississippi landscape calls for a groundcover. It is reliable in both full sun or shade, and as long as the soil is well drained, liriope will thrive in heat and drought.

Liriope is commonly known as monkeygrass or lilyturf. It is a versatile groundcover, effective under large trees where sunlight is limited or mass planted on slopes. It also creates soft borders for paved areas and foundations.

PICAYUNE – Music lovers are invited to relax and enjoy several bluegrass, country, blues and jazz performers in the Crosby Arboretum’s scenic outdoor setting.

The Crosby Arboretum in Picayune will host a six-part music series in fall 2010 and spring 2011. The fall lineup is as follows:

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A one-day workshop offered by Mississippi State University’s Franklin Furniture Institute will provide training on the properties of wood.

The Wood Properties and Frame Design workshop will take place from 8:30 a.m. until 3:45 p.m. Sept. 14 in the university’s Franklin Furniture Center.

The workshop costs $40 and is open to anyone interested in learning how to maximize the strength, durability and quality of wood products.

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

BILOXI – Shrimp landings may be way below average this season, but the quality of Gulf shrimp is still good.

Shrimping began on time when state waters opened on June 3. Because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, partial closures were implemented beginning on June 8. By July 1, state waters had completely closed.

By Alicia Barnes
Southern Rural Development Center

GULFPORT – Forty two Mississippi State University employees have trained and half have reported to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to transport birds and turtles impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In May, Elmo Collum, an Extension associate who coordinates disaster response, received a call from the Mississippi Animal Response Team requesting assistance from MSU’s Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Yellow jackets are most likely to attack in the fall, but these stinging wasps are a year-round threat, especially because they can be hard to detect until they are disturbed.

Yellow jackets are small wasps about 3/8 inch long. Their black and yellow-banded bodies have three segments. Each insect is equipped with a smooth stinger that can sting multiple times. In contrast, a honey bee has a barbed stinger that stays in the wound, limiting the bee to only one sting.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A department head in Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has been selected to review research grants for the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Stephen Pruett, head of CVM’s Department of Basic Sciences, is one of a select group of scientists serving as members of NIH’s Innate Immunity and Inflammation Study Section. Members are selected for their achievements in their discipline, research accomplishments and publications in scientific journals.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Families are invited to take a walk on the “wild side” at the Second Annual Wildlife Festival at Mississippi State University’s Coastal Plain Branch Experiment Station in Newton on Sept. 18.

The event will be held from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and will include falconry demonstrations by David Hall of the Wildlife Outreach Foundation and presentations on Mississippi wildlife by naturalist Joe McGee of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Sciences. Live snakes, alligators and turtles are some of the Mississippi wildlife that will be featured at the outdoor event.

BILOXI – The Mississippi State University Extension Service will host a workshop through the Sea Grants Program on Aug. 26 to help seafood dealers and processors instill consumer confidence in seafood harvested from Gulf waters.

The workshop will be from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the MSU Coastal Research & Extension Center in Biloxi. Personnel from seafood processing firms, regulatory agencies and marketing programs are encouraged to attend.

When we hear the word “daisy,” most of us think of the flower with white petals and a yellow center that we used as children to play the “loves me, loves me not” game.

Growing the Shasta daisy in your garden can bring back some of those old memories. Known botanically as Leucanthemum x superbum, Shasta daisy is a classic garden plant that is as at home in the modern landscape as it is in the cottage garden. It really shines in the garden.

OKOLONA -- Mississippi’s rivers and Gulf waters are popular fishing destinations, but most of the state’s anglers depend on ponds and lakes for their prized catches and quality time in the outdoors.

Unlike the larger bodies of water, ponds and lakes need a human touch to stock them and monitor environmental conditions for the best results.

Chickasaw County Extension director Scott Cagle said his office gets calls almost year-round from residents with farm-pond concerns.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Record-breaking heat is forcing Mississippi producers to manage crops more carefully than normal to bring what looks like successful yields to harvest.

Temperatures in the Delta, which is home to the majority of the state’s row crops, have set as many as five record highs during the first week of August.

Nancy Lopez, a physical scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Stoneville, said some daily records from Greenville to Vicksburg were broken consecutively in August. July also was unusually hot across most of the state.

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – While many people spent their summer vacations relaxing on the beach, a group of Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine students traveled to Central America to help animals in need.

In June, Katie Cooley, Brolin Evans, Brittany Fisher, Kellie Horton and Stephanie Starling, all second-year CVM students, participated in a Volunteers for Intercultural and Definitive Adventures, or VIDA, veterinary mission trip.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Chicken and nets may not seem high tech, but a Mississippi State University student finds them necessary tools for researching an important Gulf Coast resource.

MSU College of Forest Resources’ doctoral student Sarah Harrison is collecting data on the blue crab populations in the Pascagoula Estuary. She uses crab nets baited with raw chicken legs to pull the crustaceans from the shallow waters of the estuary. Avoiding their snapping claws, she weighs and measures the crabs before returning them to the water.

I spent last week in Palm Desert, Calif., where the daily temperatures were 110 degrees or more and the humidity was less than 20 percent.

The landscapes I saw there are completely foreign to our lush, green gardens. Yet the landscape was quite beautiful, not bleak as I had imagined. There were lots of flowering desert plants, and I quickly realized that one of the first things I needed to get was a desert plant guide.