The Warren County office of the Mississippi State University Extension Service is implementing a special program funded through the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area to show area historic home and bed and breakfast owners how to use landscaping to bring more tourists to the area.

The project, called “Know Your Roots,” is funded through a $10,000 Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area grant. The Delta National Heritage Area is a partnership between the people of the Delta and the National Park Service. It is one of 49 National Heritage Areas in the United States designated by Congress to highlight the nation’s diverse heritage using community-based partnerships and local cooperation.

“The focus of the project is to teach some of our historic property owners and our B and B owners across the state how they can utilize landscapes and local and community gardens to increase business revenue,” Warren County extension agent Anna McCain said.

She said the project will include a series of short courses June 13 to show historic property owners how they can use landscaping to enhance their properties and attract more visitors.

“We want to show the historic property owners how they can use landscaping to provide attractions like having a small garden on their property and have garden tours or just as a place where people can walk and look at plants,” McCain said, “Or maybe a vegetable garden where guests can pick vegetables and they are prepared for a meal.”

Besides funding the June 13 program, she said, money from the grant will also be used to make improvements at the extension service’s Heritage Garden in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

“I think we have an opportunity for Vicksburg to really kind of lead the way how we can use agritourism through our historic properties and maybe eventually move into an area where we can take some of our tourists and our visitors to Vicksburg out to our agricultural fields and tell them the story of the history of our agriculture and how that’s shaped our community,” McCain said.

“The most important thing is these are opportunities for people to invest a little bit of time and not very much money to have a big impact, and it’s things we have available.”