Landscaping in Brandon, Mississippi

LCN Landscaping runs weekly routes through Brandon, Mississippi, from Crossgates and the historic district around the courthouse to the newer subdivisions along Highway 25 and toward the Reservoir. Lawn care, landscape design and planting, paver patios, retaining walls for the sloped lots Brandon is known for, drainage, tree work and cleanups, from a crew based in Madison that treats Rankin County as home turf. Call (601) 994-3380 for a free written estimate.

A little about Brandon

Brandon is the county seat of Rankin County and sits about twelve miles east of Jackson. It was incorporated on December 19, 1831 and named for Gerard Brandon, an early Mississippi governor. For its first century it was a small courthouse town; in 1900 it had 775 people, six churches, a couple of hotels and fifteen or twenty stores. Then Jackson's growth spilled east across the Pearl River, and after 1980 Brandon grew by more than 250 percent. The 2020 census counted 25,138 residents, 96 percent of them in the urban part of the city, with a median age just under 40. The Rankin County Courthouse and the Downtown Brandon Historic District anchor the old center; the Black Rose Theatre sits a block away.

The city calls itself part of the Red Hills, and the name is accurate. Brandon sits at about 480 feet of elevation on rolling terrain, higher and hillier than Madison or Flowood, with reddish clay-loam ridges cut by creeks that drain toward the Pearl River and the Ross Barnett Reservoir to the north. Neighborhoods like Crossgates, Shiloh, Castlewoods on the Flowood line, and the subdivisions off Highway 25, Highway 471 and Greenfield Road are built on those slopes. Brandon High School and the Rankin County School District serve the city, and the ZIP codes are 39042, 39043 and 39047.

What Brandon yards deal with

Slope is the defining feature. A lot in Brandon almost always has grade to deal with: a back yard that drops off toward a creek, a side yard that funnels the uphill neighbor's runoff at the foundation, or a front bed that washes out in every heavy rain. That makes retaining walls, terraced beds, dry creek beds and proper drainage a larger share of our work here than anywhere else in the metro. The red clay compacts as hard as the gray Yazoo clay to the west, and it erodes faster once it is exposed, so new construction lots along Highway 25 need grading fixed and sod established quickly.

Brandon also has a lot of mature pine and hardwood. Pine straw is everywhere and it is the natural bed cover, but pine roots and pine shade make Bermuda lawns thin, and pines are the trees most likely to come down in a summer storm.

Weekly lawn care in Brandon

Same day every week, all year: mowing at the right height for Bermuda, Zoysia or centipede, edging every hard surface, trimming around the pines, blowing the drive and walks, and a walk of the property each visit. Fertilization and pre-emergent on the warm-season calendar, aeration for the compacted red clay in late spring and early fall, overseeding of thin spots while the soil is warm, and scheduled leaf and pine-needle cleanup from October through the holidays. For the shaded lots, we will tell you honestly when a section should become a bed instead of a losing fight with the grass.

Landscape design and beds in Brandon

Terraced beds that hold on a slope, foundation plantings that survive full sun on a south-facing ridge, and privacy screens along the property lines that Brandon's larger lots tend to need. Hollies, crape myrtles, loropetalum, boxwood and ornamental grasses do the work; pine straw finishes it. Landscape lighting on a hillside home, with path lights on the steps and up-lights on the trees, is one of the more dramatic upgrades in the city because of the elevation changes.

Retaining walls, patios and drainage in Brandon

This is where Brandon differs from the rest of our service area. Segmental block and natural-stone retaining walls with a gravel base, drain pipe behind the wall and geogrid on taller runs turn an unusable slope into a flat back yard. Paver patios on a compacted base with the pitch designed for the grade. French drains and catch basins where the hill sends water at the house, underground downspout routing, swales rebuilt between lots, and dry creek beds that carry the volume a Brandon storm produces. Every project starts with where the water goes, because on a Red Hills lot it is going somewhere fast.

Trees and cleanup in Brandon

Pine removal and thinning, oak and hardwood trimming for clearance and light, sectional takedowns near houses, stump grinding, and storm cleanup after the summer systems. Brandon's tree cover is a big part of why the neighborhoods look the way they do, and keeping it healthy and away from the roof is ongoing work.

Commercial landscaping in Brandon

Churches, medical and professional offices along Highway 80 and Highway 25, HOA entrances in Crossgates and Shiloh, and retail centers. Scheduled visits, seasonal color, pine straw rotation, irrigation checks, monthly invoicing and an insured crew.

Neighborhoods we serve in Brandon

Crossgates, Shiloh, the Downtown Brandon Historic District, the Highway 25 corridor, Highway 471, Greenfield Road, the Castlewoods side toward Flowood, and the acreage lots toward Pelahatchie and the Reservoir. ZIP codes 39042, 39043 and 39047. Landmarks near our routes: the Rankin County Courthouse, Downtown Brandon Historic District, Black Rose Theatre, Brandon High School, Shiloh Park and the Brandon Amphitheater.

A year of landscaping in Brandon

January and February are for the work you cannot see in summer: pre-emergent goes down before soil temperatures climb through the mid-fifties, ornamental grasses and liriope get cut back, crape myrtles get a light structural prune and not a topping, and dormant-season tree and shrub planting gets the roots established before the heat. March and April are green-up. Lawns in Crossgates and Shiloh come out of dormancy, the first mow is set high and lowered over three weeks, beds get their spring pine straw or mulch, and irrigation is turned on and audited head by head. May through August is maintenance season: weekly mowing, feeding on the warm-season schedule, spot weed control, deck height raised in the heat, and a close eye on fungus when the humidity settles in. Late summer is when the pines and hardwoods on the Red Hills ridges start showing dead wood, which is the time to trim it before a storm does. September and October are the most important months of the year for a Brandon lawn: fall fertilization before dormancy, aeration and overseeding while the soil is still warm, and bed refresh before the leaves come down. November and December are leaf removal, the pre-freeze irrigation check, and the cleanups that get the property looking finished for the holidays. Commercial properties along the Highway 25 corridor run the same calendar with seasonal color changes at the entrances in spring and fall. If you only do two things a year, do the fall feeding and the fall aeration; they decide what the yard looks like in April.

Questions from Brandon homeowners

My back yard is a hill. Can you make it usable? Yes. A retaining wall or two terraces with drainage behind them is the standard Brandon fix, and we do a lot of them.

Water runs from the neighbor's yard into mine. What can you do? Rebuild the swale, add a catch basin or French drain along the line, and route it to a legal outlet. We will show you the plan on the walk-through.

Do pine needles hurt the lawn? Left thick, yes. Scheduled cleanup and using the straw in beds instead solves it.

Do you work in Crossgates and Shiloh? Every week.

How fast can you start? Written estimates go out the same week; weekly service usually starts the following week.

Get a free estimate — (601) 994-3380

Call or text (601) 994-3380 for a free written estimate. LCN Landscaping is licensed and insured.

Services in Brandon: Hardscape and retaining walls · Drainage and trees · Lawn care · Landscape design. Nearby: Flowood · Ridgeland · Madison