News

Those of you who keep up with Southern Gardening know that I’m a real fan of salvias.

One reason I like them is there are so many different types to choose from. I particularly like salvia farinacea, commonly called mealy cup sage or blue sage, for its landscape performance. These are tough plants, perfect for our Mississippi landscapes.

Thinning timber, prescribed fire and planting wildlife food plots are the most common tools in wildlife management, but there is another, often overlooked practice: using light disking to disturb the soil.

Summer weather allowed Mississippi pumpkin growers to have a good harvest, but there still are not enough pumpkins grown in the state to meet fall demand for this colorful crop.

Forty-three Mississippi State University Extension Service 4-H members were recognized recently during the annual Mississippi Congressional Award ceremony for their self-development accomplishments.

Extra sweets around the house for Halloween can haunt anyone’s good intentions, but a few healthy tricks can make this holiday fun for everyone.

Plant diversity is critical to the health of an ecosystem, but a single landscape can significantly enhance biodiversity.

The 40th Fall Flower and Garden Fest at the Mississippi State University Truck Crops Branch Station in Crystal Springs is behind us, and I have to say that it was one of the best I’ve ever attended.

Mississippi sweet potato fields that missed needed rains in June and July are experiencing favorable harvest conditions in October.

Jamie Earp, president of the Mississippi Sweet Potato Council, said yields are “fair, at best” at the halfway point in the 2018 harvest season.

Fall is a great time to walk in the woods and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the season. Leaves will soon change to their vivid fall colors, and deer, turkeys, squirrels and birds are stirring as the air gets cool and crisp.

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Community engagement and its role in higher education was the focus of a Mississippi State keynote and workshop this week by one of the nation’s leading authorities on engaged scholarship.

Elizabeth Gregory North, head of the Mississippi State University Extension Service Office of Agricultural Communications, is the newest member of the Southern Public Relations Federation’s Hall of Fame.

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State is supporting students from areas impacted by Hurricane Michael and urging them to make safety their top priority – especially regarding travel decisions during the university’s upcoming fall break Thursday and Friday [Oct. 11-12].

Finally, we’re going to start enjoying some cooler weather, and just in time. I’ve wanted to start writing about the fantastic cool-season color, but I’ve had to wait until the summertime heat starts to cool.

Mississippi producers can learn how to serve the farm-to-school market at an Alliance of Sustainable Farms event Oct 19.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service has received national recognition for a Healthy Homes Initiative marketing campaign.

The National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences presented Extension with the first-place Marketing Package Award for its Healthy Homes Initiative promotional efforts.

If you own one of the 160,000 ponds in Mississippi, chances are you have invested tremendous amounts of cash and time in this resource. Building a pond can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and fish stocking, liming, fertilization and weed control are not cheap either.

Most of Mississippi’s corn and rice crops had been harvested when prolonged, late-September rains soaked much of the state, but the wet weather could not have come at a worse time for soybeans and cotton.

Five landscape specialists will offer new ideas on permaculture at an Oct. 17 symposium at Mississippi State University.

This summer has seemed endless: hot, humid and just miserable. As a gardener, I know, or maybe hope, relief will soon be on the way.

As farmers head out to their fields, locating underground utility lines may not be at the top of their safety checklists.

But this knowledge should be a top priority, said Leslie Woolington, a risk management specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.