News

One of the most fun things to do in the garden is to share stories. One of the best ones I have heard and shared is about my search for the long-lost Long Beach Red radish.

Mississippi forage producers can grow a bountiful crop, but they are fighting wet weather and pests to harvest all of it.

Rocky Lemus, forage and grazing specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and researcher with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, said hay harvest is about 5% behind where it was this time last year.

The process of planting this year’s soybean crop in Mississippi has been anything but normal.

The only consistent variable has been rain, and a lot of it -- from an unusually wet winter and spring to the stormwater the state received from Hurricane Barry. Growers have done their best to plant in tight windows of time when both the clouds and the ground were dry. A long, stop-start planting season has been the result.

While Pride of Barbados thrives in deserts and the tropics, I believe we could also appreciate its beauty in Mississippi landscapes.

While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is closing the Bonnet Carré Spillway this week, economic impacts of its months-long opening are expected to be felt in the seafood industry for years to come.

I’m getting more questions about growing bananas, which means Mississippi gardeners are interested in creating a tropical feeling in our landscapes.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University Coastal Cleanup Program hosted its third annual Star-Spangled Cleanup event following Fourth of July activities, where over 100 volunteers participated in picking up trash from local beaches on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Let’s face it: We’re in the middle of the dog days of summer, and it’s not even August yet!

This is the time of year when my favorite Supertunias -- even my beloved Vista Bubblegum -- are starting to fade. 

All of Mississippi’s 2019 cotton crop has emerged, but it’s off to a slow start.

Of approximately 700,000 acres of cotton planted statewide this year, 57% is rated fair or worse by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as of July 8.

Turfgrass managers will soon have an opportunity to learn the latest research from Mississippi State University on landscape care.

Summer has hit us with a vengeance this year.

A horticulturist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service has received a national award for excellence in gardening communication.

The Alliance of Sustainable Farms will host a field day at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station July 19.

As my wife and I traveled around the Southeast last week visiting family and old friends, one stop was especially memorable.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The stage for 2019 floods was set by heavy snowfall in the upper Midwest, followed by excessive rainfall patterns in the Plains, Midwest and South, resulting in significant flooding all along the Mississippi River.

The spring and early summer of 2019 has been among the wettest on record for many states located along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

With so much unpleasantness associated with cockroaches, it may not be surprising that they are one of the most expensive pests to control in the state.

A new floral design course intended to enhance skills and inspire community volunteerism is now easily accessible to floral enthusiasts statewide.

This past week, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Washington, D.C., while I stayed in Alexandria, Virginia. I was in town because the American Horticultural Society selected me, the Southern Gardener, to receive the Great American Gardener B.Y. Morrison Communication Award.

I grew up horticulturally deficient, so being named a Great American Gardener is extremely humbling. I truly enjoy promoting plants and ways to find gardening success to Mississippi and beyond.

Registration is open through July 31 for enrollment in the second class of Mississippi’s premier agricultural leadership program.

The story goes something like this: In his excitement to kill the rattlesnake that was making its escape across the road, the man used the only thing he had available -- his thermos bottle. The next scene in this drama has the man in the hospital receiving antivenom to treat a snake bite.