Landscaping in Mississippi is ditches, tight soil, and trees that sit on the roof, before it is a greener yard. Delta rain has nowhere to go if the ditch is full. Prairie clay will not take water quickly, so a bed against the slab stays wet and then heaves. Pine straw piled on siding keeps the wall damp. Start with where the rain sits.
Flat yards pond under piers and sour the lattice. A swale graded toward the porch becomes a mosquito pond by early summer. Gutters that discharge at the foundation undermine brick piers and paint a fan of silt on the skirt. Pecan and water oak roots heave walks and find old sewer lines. Shade kills a lawn that was chosen for an open lot, and the mud that replaces it stains brick and tracks into the crawl.
Watering is not innocent on clay. A bed kept soaked against a slab can swell the soil and stick doors, then a drought month pulls the soil back and opens stair-step cracks in the brick. That is a yard problem tied to the foundation, and it shows up from Jackson prairie through the blackland pockets. Sandy pine-belt lots drain faster and instead wash mulch onto the walk. Say which soil you are standing on.
Centipede and other warm-season grasses fail under a full canopy and in soil that stays sour. Fire ants take the sunny open ground and the air-conditioner pad. Algae on a north wall means the bed is too wet and too close. A leaning fence in gumbo is soil movement, not a bad gate latch. Retaining edges on the Natchez side of the state weep if the water has no way out.
When you call, describe the rain in one breath. It stands under the house, it runs to the slab, or it cuts a gully in sand. Name the trees on the roof and the beds touching brick. Mention a sour pier, a heaved walk, or doors that change with wet and dry weather. The job is to get water away from wood and to stop fighting the clay. Plants can wait until the house is no longer sitting in the rain. Call the number on this page.