Yes, we are still in the midst of winter, but have hope, spring begins on March 19th this year and that is only 49 days away. This gets us all the closer to our traditional final freeze day of April 15th, and everyone knows what we get to do around April 15th…no, not do our taxes… get ready to plant our flowers and summer vegetable gardens.

As the name implies, those of us in the Tulsa Master Gardeners are all about the garden. We love to experiment with new varieties, but we also love our native plants. However, finding and selecting what to get for our landscapes can be difficult. There are so many choices. How are you supposed to know if this or that plant will do well in your landscape? As usual, the Tulsa Master Gardeners are here to help.

It’s hard to believe it but this year is the 31st year for Annual Plant Sale/Fundraiser. It’s changed quite a bit since those early days, but if covid taught us anything, it’s that ordering online and drive through pick-up are wonderful ways for us to offer great plants for your garden in this fundraiser.

Here’s what you are supporting when you purchase plants at our plant sale.

1) First is our Diagnostic Center where Master Gardeners make themselves available to answer your questions and help solve your diagnostic dilemmas. The office is staffed Monday – Friday between 9:00 and 4:00. You can call, email, or just drop by.

2) Surrounding our office your will find our beautiful Demonstration Garden. Master Gardeners work year-round to keep this space full of beautiful plants. Right now, we are in the midst of a serious renovation to these gardens so once spring gets here, you’ll need to drop by and check it out.

3) Next, our School Program we call MaGIC (Master Gardener In the Classroom) in which we teach classes on worms, pollinating insects, soil, seeds, and a variety of other topics. Typically, we are in front of about 18,000 elementary school students each year. This is a huge undertaking by the Master Gardeners and these classes require the purchase of supplies (including worms) so proceeds from this sale help make this financially possible.

4) And then there’s our Exploring Insects event each year for area 3rd graders. Each year around 1000 3rd graders come to the fairgrounds on a very special day to learn about insects in a variety of hands-on activities. There are exhibits on ticks, composting, butterflies, bees, and they even have the opportunity to taste fried mealworms as well as make art with maggots. Yes, a good time is had by all.

5) Did you know that Tulsa Master Gardeners landscape all the homes for Habitat for Humanity in Tulsa? We do, and this year we are planning on landscaping over 50 of these homes. It’s a big task but we love helping turn the houses for these new homeowners into homes.

6) Have you driven through Brookside in the last few years? If you have, you have likely noticed the large quantity of planters containing beautiful flowers. Those are the work of the Tulsa Master Gardeners. We have volunteers that are down there each week, watering and maintaining those plants for the sole purpose of helping to make our city just that more beautiful. This year we purchased an ATV to help move the water from place to place and your participation in our plant sale helped make that happen.

7) Let’s not forget our yearly Garden Tour. Each year, Tulsa Master Gardeners put countless hours into making the tour homes something amazing to see. The gardens are beautiful and everyone that goes on the tour, walks away with new ideas on how they could make their home gardens more beautiful.

8) We also produce a monthly eNewsletter with timely information for your garden as well as maintain an active presence on Facebook and Instagram. You can always connect with these sources of information for insights into how to better care for your garden.

9) Let’s not forget the educational classes we conduct each year. During the course of the year, we will teach classes on growing vegetables, composting, vermin-composting and a variety of other topics. We are currently planning a monthly class to be taught at our office on a variety of topics to help you in the garden. We tentatively have this planned to begin in March but stay tuned. These classes will be free, and we are calling them Garden Talk with the Tulsa Master Gardeners.

10) And last but not least, we have our new Seed to Supper Farm. The farm is about 2 acres in size and in it we learn how to grow vegetables. All the produce we grow is then donated to area food pantries. Last year we donated about 15,000 pounds and this year we are planning on more. We even hosted some of the boys from the Tulsa Boy’s Home for a visit in which they got to pick their own corn and then we cooked the corn so they could eat corn as fresh as it gets. They can eat some corn.

But about that plant sale… In our online sale, you can shop from 252 different items of not only plants but also garden soil and worm castings. Plants include annuals, perennials, herbs, grasses, accents and greenery, fruits, and vegetables. Some are available in 36 plant flats while others are offered in a variety of sized containers.

Some of the favorites in our plant sale are always the milkweeds and native plants. As you know milkweeds are the preferred food source for monarch butterflies while native plants are those plants that are from where we live. Native plants have learned how to thrive in our oftentimes challenging Oklahoma weather (I’m still learning) and are always great additions to your garden.

The sale begins February 1st and ends on March 17th. Plants will be available for pick-up on April 18th at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds. To start shopping and showing your support, just go to our website (www.tulsamastergardeners.org) and click on the Plant Sale icon. But don’t delay, some of our plants are only available in limited quantities and it seems like they always go fast. Thanks for supporting your Tulsa Master Gardeners and as always, we’ll see you in the garden.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Steven Hall