Lafayette County Master Gardeners Offer Spring Planting Tips, Host Public Lecture

Dr. Chris Cooper brought an unusual detective metaphor to the Dotsy A. Fitts Auditorium earlier this month when he delivered "PSI: Plant Scene Investigation" as the featured speaker for the Lafayette County Master Gardeners' annual Spring Lecture Series at the Oxford & Lafayette Public Library, 401 Bramlett Boulevard.

The lecture was one half of a two-part push from the organization this April; the other is a practical month-by-month garden calendar aimed squarely at North Mississippi growers who need to know what to do in their yards right now, as the window for frost-sensitive planting opens.

With overnight freeze risk receding, the calendar clears warm-season vegetables for planting: okra, melons, peas, corn, beans, eggplant, cucumbers and tomatoes. Summer annuals including marigolds, petunias and impatiens can go in the ground as well. Trees and shrubs can be set out this month, and perennials such as Shasta daisies and liriope are ready to be divided.

That last point doubles as the month's best money-saving move: dividing established liriope or Shasta daisies produces free transplants instead of a nursery bill, and April is precisely the right time to do it in Lafayette County.

The calendar also calls for weekly sprays on rose foliage to prevent black spot on new leaves, fertilization of vegetables and shrubs on a consistent schedule, and light shaping of formal hedges. For mulch, the guidance specifies 2 to 3 inches of depth, kept back from trunk bark to prevent rot.

The Master Gardeners connect their seasonal guidance to Mississippi State University Extension resources, including materials on attracting hummingbirds and plant selection and care. The MSU Extension office in Lafayette County serves as the organizational home for anyone looking to learn more or volunteer with the program.

The lecture series and the calendar together reflect the group's dual role: practical education for gardeners working kitchen plots, pollinator beds and beautification projects across Oxford and the surrounding county, and a direct volunteer pathway for civic engagement in the community.