News

From agricultural damage to financial challenges, the effects of a natural disaster can be physically and emotionally overwhelming for farmers and residents of an impacted region. As those in the Mississippi Delta and surrounding areas continue to cope and begin recovery from recent devastating floods, faculty and staff in Mississippi State’s Extension Service and Department of Psychology are extending reminders that can help.

In recent years, gardeners everywhere have seen quite a few plants that were once grown only in shady conditions come out into the sunshine. Sunpatiens were my first experience with these now sun lovers.

Mississippi’s 259 rice-producing farms rank the state No. 5 nationally in rice production, a fact highlighted in September when Mississippians are urged to “Think Rice.”

As fall and cooler weather are right around the corner, one of the most frequent questions I get from landowners related to protection of their property is, “Can I shoot a trespasser?”

The Mississippi State University Extension Service plans to ease the transition to school for families with young children through a new Head Start program on the Gulf Coast.

Between her job and her home, Tracey Porter has not had a break from dealing with flooding in the last six months.

Porter is the deputy director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, and her husband, Rodney, farms in the southern Mississippi Delta. Excessive rain last winter and spring kept 250,000 acres of farmland out of production this year. During the time when he would normally prepare for planting season, Rodney Porter was building sandbag levees to protect flood waters from invading their home. She helped him when she was not on the clock assisting other affected people in her community.

The late summer garden and landscape in Mississippi can be a tough place. Extreme heat and humidity result in heat index numbers that keep me, like many other gardeners, indoors enjoying the air conditioning.

But, I can take solace in knowing that, while many of my flowering summer annuals are starting to succumb to the heat, my ornamental peppers will be growing strong. What a great selection for any later summer garden!

Floral enthusiasts and other interested individuals can attend a luncheon event that showcases holiday and seasonal-themed floral arrangements.

Controller’s Generation II and Controller’s Generation III 4-H club members in Oktibbeha County pick produce from a community garden in Maben, Mississippi, on August 6, 2019.

The next Alliance of Sustainable Farms field day will feature a roundtable discussion on farm management and tour of Yokna Bottoms Farm.

People can learn about timely topics related to muscadine vines during the 2019 Muscadine Field Day Aug. 29 in Carriere.

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.