Landscaping in Flowood, Mississippi

Flowood sits in Rankin County on the east bank of the Pearl River, across from Jackson and just south of the Ross Barnett Reservoir spillway. It grew after the Reservoir was finished in the 1960s and Lakeland Drive became the main road from Jackson to the lake.

Today Lakeland Drive is lined with hospitals and clinics, restaurants, hotels and the Dogwood Festival Market shopping area. Behind it are the established neighborhoods. Castlewoods is the largest, with its golf course and lakes. Then come the Old Fannin Road and Hugh Ward Boulevard areas toward the Reservoir, Grants Ferry Road, and the newer homes off Spillway Road and Flowood Drive.

The river shapes the land. Flowood's lower neighborhoods sit on Pearl River bottomland with sandier, wetter soil and a high water table. The higher ground toward Brandon is the same red clay as the rest of Rankin County. Humidity off the river and the Reservoir is noticeably heavier than in Madison, and the tree cover is thick: pines, oaks, sweetgums and the bald cypress along the water.

Water and shade. The bottomland lots hold water after storms, and the water table keeps the ground soft long after the rain stops. Drainage here has to work with the grade. A French drain with no outlet lower than the water table does nothing.

The humidity brings fungus to Bermuda and Zoysia lawns in late summer, and it shows up as brown patches that look like drought and aren't. Mature trees in Castlewoods and along Old Fannin shade out the turf and drop heavy leaves from October on.

On the commercial side, Lakeland Drive properties are seen every day by passing traffic and by patients walking in, so the grounds have to look right on a fixed schedule.

Same crew, same day every week, all year. We mow, edge, trim and blow, and we treat for fungus when the late-summer humidity calls for it. Feeding and pre-emergent stay on the warm-season calendar. We aerate in late spring and early fall, manage the shade where the trees have taken over, and run scheduled leaf removal through the holidays.

We refresh beds at the established homes in Castlewoods and off Old Fannin Road, and near the river we plant what tolerates wet feet. Azaleas, hydrangeas and camellias do well in the shade under all that tree cover. Pine straw and lighting finish it. For commercial properties along Lakeland Drive we design for easy upkeep: clean edges, seasonal color at the entrance, and irrigation checked on every visit.

We build paver patios and walkways on a compacted base, and retaining walls on the higher lots toward Brandon.

Drainage is the big one in Flowood: catch basins and solid-pipe runs to the street or the storm system for the bottomland lots, French drains where there is a legal low outlet, underground downspout routing, and regrading of side yards. We'll tell you what a drain can and can't do on a high water table, and we design around it.

We trim and remove pines and hardwoods, thin the canopy to save the lawn, grind stumps, remove leaves, and clean up after the summer storms that come up the Pearl River valley.

This is a large part of our Flowood work: medical offices and clinics along Lakeland Drive, hotels and restaurants near Dogwood, churches, HOA entrances, and retail centers.

Castlewoods, the Old Fannin Road area, Hugh Ward Boulevard, the Lakeland Drive corridor, Flowood Drive, Grants Ferry Road and Spillway Road. ZIP codes 39232 and 39208. Landmarks near our routes: Dogwood Festival Market, the Lakeland Drive medical corridor, Ross Barnett Reservoir, the Pearl River, Flowood Nature Park and Winners Circle Park.

Flowood's calendar follows the water. Winter is for pre-emergent, cutting back ornamental grasses and liriope, a light prune on the crape myrtles instead of a topping, and planting trees and shrubs while they're dormant. Lawns in Castlewoods and off Old Fannin Road green up in March and April.

The first mow is set high, beds get fresh pine straw or mulch, and the irrigation is turned on and checked head by head. The bottomland lots stay soft after spring storms, so we watch where the water sits. May through August is weekly mowing with the deck raised, feeding on the warm-season schedule and spot weed control.

Late-summer humidity off the river brings fungus, and we treat it when it shows. That's also when the pines, sweetgums and cypress along the Pearl show dead wood that should come out before a storm. September and October do the most for the lawn: fall fertilization, aeration and overseeding while the soil is warm, and a bed refresh.

November and December are heavy leaf removal and the pre-freeze irrigation check. Commercial properties along Lakeland Drive follow the same calendar, with seasonal color at the entrances in spring and fall.

For the medical and professional properties along Lakeland Drive we run the grounds early, before patients and staff arrive, and we keep a standing checklist: entrance beds and seasonal color, curb and island edging, parking-lot island health, irrigation heads that spray the sidewalk, and drainage at the building line after a storm. It's the same standard we hold on a Castlewoods home, applied on a commercial clock.