If you are a gardener like me, this weather is really challenging. We know we are supposed to wait until mid-April to plant our warm season crops, but goodness gracious. As I write this, the predicted high temperature for today is over 80 degrees. And yes, this is still winter. What’s a gardener to do? If we have cash to potentially burn, we might want to just roll the dice and go ahead and plant, but what if we get 5 inches of snow in March. Those of us that have lived here in Oklahoma for any length of time, know that can happen if we plant before the average last freeze date of April 15^th.

You would be hard pressed to find a last freeze date in February. Just to reinforce this, let’s look at some historical data of last freeze dates for Tulsa according to the National Weather Service. 2023 - March 27^th, 2022 - April 9^th, 2021 - April 21^st, 2020 - April 18^th, 2019 - March 31^st, 2018 - April 16^th, 2017 - March 15^th. Hopefully, we see a pattern here and resist the urge to get planting early. But when it’s 80 degrees outside, the struggle is real.

So, what are we supposed to do in this time of waiting? There’re actually quite a few things we can do. One is, we can start our seeds for our warm season vegetables. We talked about this a few articles back. Warm season vegetables would include tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, etc. If we start our seeds now, they should be ready to get in the ground once we reach the “all clear” point as relates to potential freezes.

Another thing we can do is think about what we might want to do differently this year. For me, we have moved, so I get to do a lot of things differently. Since we have a much smaller yard, I am in the process of going vertical and by going vertical I mean building or purchasing garden beds that that will condense as much garden space as possible into a small footprint with multi-tiered, raised beds like you see in the photo.

Beds like these allow you to get more growing space by going up basically. There are a lot of possible variations on this theme but all of them give you more growing space per square foot of landscape that if you just planted in the ground.

In addition, a trellis is another way of maximizing your garden space by growing up. We know trellises work great for tomatoes, but you can also use them for cucurbit crops like cucumbers. Once I tried growing cucumbers on a trellis and I never went back. Since cucumbers like to spread out, with a trellis you can have them spread “up” if you will, again getting the most bang for your buck in limited spaces.

Something else you can do is consider doing some container gardening. There are lots of different types of containers and most, if not all of them would be appropriate for growing vegetables. To start with, those utility buckets from the big box stores are inexpensive and work great with a variety of plants such as tomatoes and peppers. If this utilitarian look is not your thing, you can purchase ceramic or plastic plant containers and use them. There’s really nothing that says the container holding your tomato plant can’t be a beautiful ceramic pot. Just be sure it’s big enough to support your tomato plant and trellis plant without getting blown over.

Grow bags have come on in a big way in recent years. Grow bags are made of a felt-like material and are a good option for temporary growing locations. Grow bags work great for potatoes and potatoes are something that can be planted around mid-March or so…if not before. A few weeks ago, we talked about growing potatoes, so for more info, check out that article, or visit our website.

Something else to consider is introducing vegetables and herbs into your flower gardens. There’s nothing that says we have to segregate the flowers and the vegetables. In fact, I tend to make a habit of planting flowers around, in, or near my vegetable garden to serve as attractors for the pollinators. Not only do you get a more interesting garden, but you greatly increase the chances of your vegetable plants getting pollinated. That’s a win-win for everyone.

Another thing you can do during this time of waiting is to evaluate, repair, or upgrade your irrigation system. Being able to supplement the water for your plants is pretty much a necessity and there’s no reason that can’t be an easy chore rather than something you dread. It’s especially challenging to get excited about watering when it 100 degrees outside in August (or maybe May this year…who knows). There are a variety of automated systems to choose from that are guaranteed to make your life easier. So, if you spend some of time thinking and working on that now, it will pay dividends later in the season.

And, if you just can’t wait, you can always plant some onions. The stores have onion sets and if there is anything easier to grow than onions, I don’t know what it would be, except maybe radishes. In fact, last week at the Tulsa Master Gardener’s Seed to Supper Farm, we planted about 600 onion plants. Bottom line - it was great to be back digging in the soil. 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: Tom Ingram