MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi State University Extension Service has won a regional communication award for the television show Southern Gardening.

The two-minute episodes feature host Gary Bachman, an MSU Extension horticulturist at the Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi. The show won a Blue Ribbon Communication Award from the Southern Region of the American Society for Horticultural Science.

The Blue Ribbon award program began in 1987 to recognize outstanding contributions to horticultural education in written, video, audio or electronic form.

Southern Gardening Television is edited and produced by Extension media producers Tim Allison and Brian Utley and is seen on numerous television stations across the state. Bachman hosts a two-minute radio version of Southern Gardening, which is heard statewide.

Bachman also writes a weekly gardening column by the same name that appears in dozens of daily and weekly newspapers across Mississippi. Each of these media products is available online at http://www.msucares.com.

The communication award will be given at the association’s annual conference Feb. 4-7 in Birmingham.