Lee County Extension Office

05/27/2026

Dirt Daubers Camp registration is OPEN. Be sure to come by our office and secure your child's reservation!

05/22/2026

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day!

05/22/2026

Teacher Workshop opportunities are coming soon: art contests for youth with prizes and free CEUs for teachers, all to promote environmental sustainability. Call our office at 662--841-9000 to request a session. The potential dates for teacher workshops are June 5, June 25, June 29, July 9-10, July 16, and August 3-5.

05/22/2026

Congratulations to our own Lee County Master Gardener, Donna Tucker, on being featured in Extension Matters! Thank you for all you do for our community.

Extension Matters Volume 12 Number 1 Playing in the Dirt Donna Tucker, Lee County Master Gardener Longtime Master Gardener Uses Skills to Serve OthersStory by Nathan Gregory | Photos by Kevin HudsonLee County Master Gardener Donna Tucker remembers meeting a child who told her she had never played in...

05/13/2026

What a fun workshop with the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority “Soil Sisters”! We learned about thrillers, spillers , fillers, and how to grow and maintain grow bags. Thanks to Stacey Crowley for contacting MSU Lee County extension!

05/08/2026

Happy 112th Birthday to Mississippi State University Extension Service!

05/06/2026

Join Lee County and the Shumperts for a community event.

05/04/2026

Our Lee County Master Gardeners will be hosting Celebration of Gardens on Saturday, May 16th, 9-11 AM, at Spring Street Gardens in downtown Tupelo. You will want to be there!

04/29/2026

Lee Links May/June 2026 Newsletter - https://mailchi.mp/9e90a5aed45d/mayjune2026-12773565

04/29/2026

This is a friendly reminder on how to handle the ants in your vegetable garden.

DO NOT use fire ant mound treatments containing the active ingredient acephate in the vegetable garden! Acephate is commonly used to treat fire ant mounds in home lawns but must not be used around edible plants. Acephate is a systemic insecticide that is readily absorbed by plant roots and translocated to leaves and fruit of vegetables.

Some fire ant baits can be used in the garden and lawn. These include baits containing the active ingredients methoprene or spinosad. Baits containing spinosad are relatively fast-acting and this makes them a good choice for controlling mounds that occur in the garden itself, but it will still take a two or three weeks to see results.

Don’t wait until you have big mounds, go ahead and apply one of these baits as soon as you see fire ants moving into the garden. But don’t forget to treat the lawn area around the outside of the garden as well. Workers from mounds located just outside the garden will readily forage into the garden area.

Here's a great resource if you want to learn more about safely keeping fire ants out of your vegetable garden: https://extension.msstate.edu/insects/fire-ants/control-fire-ants-and-around-home-vegetable-gardens