Search
| Associate Extension Agent | |
| Tangipahoa Parish | |
| MHFerguson@agcenter.lsu.edu | |
| 21549 Old Covington Highway Hammond, LA 70403 |
|
| 985-277-1850 | |
| 985-543-4136 |
A number of evergreen plants provide options for screening, depending on the desired height and width, how sunny or shady the site is, and how wet the area is.
If you’re going to use an herbicide, it’s important to do it while weeds are small.
Muscadines fruit on shoots that come from the previous season’s growth.
A primary criterion for choosing pecan varieties for yards and home orchards is resistance to pecan scab.
The sweet potato production cycle begins when sweet potatoes from the previous harvest season are planted in the spring, to produce “slips” for transplanting.
Composting is a way to take yard, garden, and kitchen “waste” and turn it into something useful.
Plants not suited to wet conditions often develop root rot or just don’t grow well in wet areas. Thankfully, we have options for wet spots.
Pears can be grown here, but selecting an appropriate variety is really important.
Each year, we face situations during which some of our plants could be injured by cold weather.
Mushrooms of Armillaria and Desarmillaria fungi, which cause root rot on a number of woody plants, often appear in the fall.
One way to add cheer to winter and early spring landscapes is to plant cool-season flowering plants.
Green, snow, and sugar snap peas can be planted between mid-September and January.
Muscadines are well-adapted to our climate.
It’s nice to have variety sometimes.
While native persimmons are astringent until ripe, some oriental persimmons are considered non-astringent and can be eaten while still fairly firm.
If you want long-term control of fire ants but also need to get rid of them quickly in one or more spots, you can take a two-step approach.
Staking is sometimes necessary but needs to be done appropriately to avoid injuring trees or predisposing them to breakage or windthrow later in life.
Fall is a good time to plant most trees and shrubs in Louisiana. It’s a good idea to soil test before making large investments in landscape plantings.
The second half of October is a good time to plant strawberries in our area.
Start watching for leaffooted bugs in August and keep a lookout for them as fruit ripens.
Figs are one of our more easy-to-grow fruit plants, although at this time of year, leaf diseases are often observed.
Roughly 99% of insects are not “pests.”
Few questions come up as frequently as those about lichens.
Sooty mold grows where insects have secreted a sugary substance called honeydew.
Scale insects can easily be mistaken for something else.
Most of our blackberry and blueberry plants have finished fruiting, so it’s time to think about pruning them and making a final fertilizer application.
There are still quite a few vegetables that can be planted now and in the coming weeks
Several types of insects make highly noticeable webs in trees.
Most herbs require minimal maintenance, and many are perennials that can produce for a number of years.
Here are some reasons fruit or nut trees may fail to produce, or produce less than expected.
There's a variety of reasons that this can occur.
Besides diseases that kill tomato plants outright, there are leaf spot diseases that can reduce plants’ productivity and sometimes infect fruit.
Wilting tomatoes are a common complaint. There are several possible causes.
Fall, winter, and early spring are recommended times for planting most trees and shrubs, but palms are different.
Just about any vegetable can be grown in some type of container.
There are websites that can help you find local produce.
It’s important to start spraying for Virginia buttonweed during the spring, since this is when the weed is more tender and susceptible to herbicides.
Mulching is one of the best tools in the toolbox for managing weeds in landscape beds.
Centipedegrass is one of the most popular turfgrasses in this area. It requires a smaller amount of fertilizer and less frequent mowing than some other grasses.
I want to share some resources that you might find useful for vegetable gardening, in general, and for gardening with kids, specifically.
Many people find St. Augustinegrass to be attractive, and it’s one of the best turfgrasses for shady areas.
Ornamental plants that bloom in late winter and early spring generally bloom on shoots that grew in a previous season. These should be pruned after flowering.
If you want to support pollinators, there are many options, including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.
Matching the plant to the site can improve plant performance and reduce time and money spent on maintaining and replacing plants.
Choosing resistant plants is a way to avoid disease problems.
Let's start by talking about something that encompasses much of what people need to know about gardening: the “right plant, right place” principle.
Volunteers with the Louisiana Master Gardener program have spruced up the landscape in front of the LSU AgCenter office in Amite. Plants are now labeled.
Composting turns "waste" into something useful.
Raised beds are often the best option for growing vegetables at home.
Site conditions include the amount of sun an area gets, how well drained it is, and whether the site gets more or less effective rainfall than the open yard.
Topics will include fruits and nuts; vegetables and herbs; ornamental landscape plants; soils, fertilizers, and plant nutrition; and pest management.
Making good plant choices is one of the most important aspects of gardening and landscaping.
Choosing disease resistant varieties is a way to save time and money, reduce pesticide use, and increase your enjoyment of the garden.
Choosing disease-resistant varieties is a way to avoid many plant disease problems.
The LSU AgCenter has a lot of resources that address a variety of topics.
Removing blackberry floricanes soon after harvest reduces the chance for certain diseases to spread from floricanes to primocanes.
Our growing season is long enough that we can prune blueberries soon after harvest, and the plants will have time to set flower buds for the next year.
There are several simple practices that can help you avoid leaf spot diseases.
Southern bacterial wilt and southern blight are two of the most common causes of wilting tomatoes in our area.
There are a variety of ways in which trees can be damaged during construction.
