Christmas Trees
Now that we have survived Thanksgiving, we now find ourselves in the midst of holiday season and for a lot of us, that means decorations. And one of those main decorations is a Christmas tree. Some of us lean into artificial trees but for the rest of us who think there’s nothing better than a freshly cut tree as the centerpiece of our holiday decorations, here’s some tips on selecting and caring for your tree.
First of all, before you go tree shopping, decide on the size of the tree you need....
Planning Your 2026 Garden
I was out at our Seed to Supper Farm early last week for what was likely our final harvest of the season and was able to harvest some beautiful Chinese cabbage. For those that aren’t aware, we have about a 3-acre farm in Bixby at one of the Research Stations OSU operates throughout the state. At this farm, we grow a variety of crops to donate to area food pantries. This is the fourth year of our little farm, and we learn something every year.
In our first year we donated about 5000 pounds of...
Preventing Southwest Tree Injury
We’ve talked about how fall is the best time to plant most trees with a few exceptions (crape myrtles for example). But with colder temperatures now on the horizon, followed by freezing temperatures at some point, let’s talk about how you can give those newly planted trees their best chance at success.
First of all is water. Mother Nature does a pretty good job of providing water for our plants during the winter, but not always. Just know that our trees and shrubs need water in the winter. They...
Managing Fall Leaves
Now that we’ve had our first good freeze of the season, we know the leaves on our trees will soon begin to fall, if they haven’t already. Last weekend, my wife and I took a drive down to Talimena State Part in search of fall foliage. We couldn’t decide if we were too early or too late since a lot of the leaves were brown. Either way, we had a great time taking in part of the countryside that non-Oklahomans likely would never imagine exists in Oklahoma. I mean, let’s face it. We have a desert in...
Fireplace Ashes
It’s finally cooling down and for a lot of us, this marks the beginning of one of our favorite seasons - fireplace season. Yes, there’s not much better than a warm fire on a cool night. This is also the time of year we see some terrible advice floating around social media suggesting that gardeners should place fireplace ashes in their garden because those ashes contain potassium. As with most garden myths, there’s a sliver of truth in there, but let’s talk about this seasonal garden myth.
Potassium...
Overwintering Plants
Well, are the cooler temperatures here to stay? Seems like it. I guess we’ll find out. But one thing we know for sure is that the cooler temperatures are going to affect our plants. Some of our plants will just go dormant for the winter but for others, the colder temperatures will signal us that they are approaching the end of their lifespan. So, we have some decisions to make.
The decisions we have to make at least partially revolve around the preferred growing zone for those plants. For some...
Planting Bulbs
We’ve been talking about fall garden activities recently. Some of those activities involve growing garlic, planting trees and shrubs, and getting our pansies and mums. But there’s another fall activity that will pay off with beautiful flowers in the spring and that is planting bulbs.
Planting and growing bulbs is one of the easiest things gardeners can do. All you need are some bulbs and a trowel. They make bulb planting tools which work great but are not required.
Planting time for bulbs...
Fall Soil Sample
We know that the warm weather garden season is going to come to a close at some point. The question is just a matter of when. Three years ago, we had our first freeze on October 18th. If we were to repeat that year, the summer growing season would have been over yesterday. Last year, our first freeze date was November 22nd. So, the timing varies, but we know it’s coming. We also know it’s coming if we look around our gardens. Our annuals look tired, kind of like we feel. At this point we are just...
Mums
Last week we talked about one of our favorite fall flowers - pansies. Today let’s talk about another one - mums.
Mum is a shortened version of their original name - chrysanthemum. Let’s just call them mums. Mums are technically perennial plants in Zones 5-9, we’re in Zone 7b. However, most of the mums we purchase in the fall, are grown to have a beautiful burst of flowers right about now. In contrast to a lot of perennials, they have been grown for this beautiful show of flowers rather than...