Cummings and Goings in Agriculture
Some Of The Best Crappie Fishing Upcoming
By Steve Cummings
Legend has it that the dogwoods will always be in bloom by Easter. This year they barely made it, although some of them would not be in full bloom. It is also thought that when the dogwoods are in bloom, the crappie are biting.
The next couple of weeks should be some of the best crappie fishing of the year. This should give all of you fisherman an opportunity to catch fish for the “Catch of the Day” fish hatchery tasting buffet.
The fish cooking contest will be May 30 at the North Mississippi Fish Hatchery Visitor Eduction Center at Enid Lake. Hopefully, all of you will have time to fish and practice those fish recipes and plan to enter the fish cooking contest.
The first Tri-Lakes judged horse show will be this Saturday, April 10. The trail classes start at 2 p.m. and the remainder of the show starts at 3 p.m. The timed event classes start no earlier than 8 p.m. Tri-Lakes has the best pleasure and gaited horses around, so come watch the horses perform.
A “lunch-and-learn” program will be held at noon Thursday, April 15, at the Yalobusha County Multi-Purpose Building. It will be a floral design workshop, live from the University Florist. Lynette McDougald, an instructor of Floral Management at Mississippi State University and manager of The University Florist on the MSU campus, will commentate from the workroom.
She will show you how to make the most of plantings and collections from your very own garden.
If you are interested in this program, please join us. For additional information, call the Extension office at 675-2730.
Shopping for Perennials
Garden centers and nurseries are full of plants right now. To help you in your perennial plant selections, follow the suggestions below.
These are purchased for their longevity in the garden and their season of attractiveness, whether that is foliage color or blooms. Since these plants will be residing in your garden for years to come, selection of well-rooted plants with a good rosette of healthy foliage is important.
Most perennials will not be flowering in the pot so you should be familiar with the mature height, width, bloom color and other characteristics of the plant before you make your selection.
Sometimes, this is all on the label, most times, it is a good idea to talk to the nurseryman or garden center help who can answer questions as to how these plants will perform here.
You may ask their permission to pop the plant out of the pot to examine the roots, or ask them to do it for you. The roots should be a light tan or off white color and be plentiful, but not circling the root ball in a tight mat—this indicates the plant has been held to long in the pot and is pot bound.
If you purchase a pot bound plant, before you plant, cut away the circling roots and tease the root ball apart to encourage growth of the new roots outward.
For tips on selecting container shrubs and information on many more seasonal garden topics, check out the Gardening Through the Seasons videos at http://msucares.com/gardenvideos on the Mississippi State University Extension Service website.
Environment Friendly Lawns
Most of us have become more environmentally conscious and are willing to “pitch in” to help the environment by recycling our aluminum cans, plastic containers, used motor oils and perhaps purchasing more energy-efficient appliances. You can become an even greater environmental steward by properly maintaining your home lawn and landscape. Here in the U.S. there are more than 31 million acres of grass and our home lawns are often overlooked as major environmental helpers.
Grass conserves water and cleans the air. The next time it rains, notice where the water comes from that fills the street gutters and storm drains. Not from our lawns because dense, healthy turf is superb in trapping precipitation and reducing soil erosion. A healthy lawn of about ten thousand square feet can absorb over six thousand gallons of rainwater without noticeable runoff. This water then becomes a valuable resource in nourishing the lawn, trees and shrubs while soaking through the topsoil and replenishing groundwater reserves. Your lawn contains millions of individual grass plants serving as primary collectors of dust, dirt, and air pollutants while producing oxygen vital to our survival.
Lawns provide energy conservation and comfort. A well-maintained lawn could keep your home cooler on hot days by reducing surface temperatures as much as 30 to 40 degrees compared to bare soil and asphalt. Your lawn most likely has more air conditioning capacity than your home’s central air conditioning unit.
Lawns improve soil quality. Grass plants are continually building new topsoil from decomposing roots, stems and leaves. A typical lawn will produce 233 pounds of grass clippings per 1,000 square feet during each growing season; therefore, cycling grass clippings back on the lawn definitely helps the environment and reduces landfill waste.
