Smart Landscapes
Smart Landscapes
A Mississippi Smart Landscape is not just a good-looking and low maintenance yard, it's an environment that encourages wildlife, uses water wisely, lowers our energy costs, and benefits both our home and our neighborhood. A Mississippi Smart Landscape uses tried and trusted methods with a little artistic flair to create an attractive and ecologically sound garden that will complement your home and neighborhood.
If you wish to create a Smart Landscape, you must first decide whether you're designing on a small budget or hiring a professional.
Study your site, making note of good features and problem areas, and make a plan for your landscape based on your notes.
Use this directory of information to help form a Mississippi Smart Landscape plan.
MSU Extension Service Publications
Home Landscape Design
A well-designed and functional home landscape can add to your family’s joy and increase the value of your property. Modern landscapes are meant to be beautiful and useful. A well-planned landscape provides your family with recreation, privacy, and pleasure. Conscientious homeowners know that the landscape should also have a positive environmental impact.
Developing a Home Landscape Plan
A well-designed landscape can provide years of enjoyment for your family and significantly add to your home's value. This publication will help you understand the steps to the residential design process and allow you to develop a landscape plan.
Designing with Native Plants and Naturalistic Landscapes
Gardens that celebrate and fit the natural Mississippi landscape are a desire of many homeowners and educators. When you use native species in the landscape, these plants will easily adapt to local soil and climate conditions, provide food and shelter for local wildlife, sustain local flora types, and create an atmosphere unique to our state. Just as there are many plant species that are native to our region, there are many approaches to incorporating native plants into private and public gardens.
Planting Design Fundamentals
The types of plants that we choose and how we arrange them in our gardens must satisfy functional needs, as well as to be able to fulfill our design intent. Achieving harmony is the ultimate goal of combining plants in the garden successfully. Plants should harmonize with the unique qualities of the site, with the building elements and materials, and with other plants in a complementary way. With a good planting design, plants should appear as if they belong in the design. Because of the possibility of changing, adding, or removing plants, a good planting design is never finished.
Selecting Landscape trees
Trees are among the most beautiful, useful, and permanent products of nature. Selecting the right tree or trees for the home landscape is an important decision. Your choice will impact not only you, but also those who inherit or buy your property in the years to come. Because trees are considered to be a more permanent part of the landscape and can take years to achieve the desired effect, planting trees is one of the first priorities when installing a new landscape or renovating an old one.
Foundation Plantings
The foundation planting in today’s landscaping world has evolved from its original function. In the past, most homes had unsightly foundation walls or were built on stone or blocks with open areas under the house. This publication will help you design a foundation planting to hide foundation walls or conceal open areas underneath houses.
Additional Resources
Right Plant, Right Place
The Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Handbook
http://www.floridayards.org/landscape/The_Florida_Yards_and_Neighborhoods_Handbook_Web.pdf
Chapter 1 page 5
Landscape Planning Worksheet
The Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Handbook
http://www.floridayards.org/landscape/The_Florida_Yards_and_Neighborhoods_Handbook_Web.pdf
Chapter 1 page 15-16
Publications
News
Participants in a Mississippi State University landscape symposium learned tips for preserving the life in their own backyards and contributing positively to the larger, regional ecosystem. The 66th Edward C. Martin Landscape Symposium was held Oct. 20 at MSU.
BILOXI, Miss. -- Coastal restoration has been a hot topic along the Gulf of Mexico coast for many years now.
One clear aspect of coastal restoration is that it’s a team effort that requires not only the coast, but entire watersheds. From reducing excess fertilizer usage and litter to increasing low-effort natural landscaping and pervious surfaces, there are many actions we can take anywhere to help restoration of coastal ecosystems.
An annual Mississippi State University landscape symposium promotes the idea that landscapes can be both pretty and sustainable, beautifying the environment while protecting ecosystems.
If there’s one thing all Mississippians can agree on, it’s that the summer sun can be brutal. I enjoy spending time on my back patio, but it’s hard to enjoy without shade. I’ve noticed several restaurants, parks, and pools have installed shade sails to provide shade to visitors. Why not install one in your own back yard?
The Mississippi State University Extension Service is leading a research project aimed at enhancing pollinator habitat in managed turfgrass of the Southeast.
Success Stories
See what's new in Extension: a new monarch garden, a storytelling series will begin, the Garden Expo highlights Extension education, and Keep America Beautiful recognizes MSU Extension.
