While this time of year is typically not when we spend a lot of time outside working in our gardens, it is the time of year many of us fight back against the cold by planning our gardens for the year. And there’s not a better way to plan your garden than shopping online from the comfort of your home (nothing against our wonder local plant vendors).

If there were only a website where you could shop from 248 varieties of plants that have been selected just for our gardens here in northeast Oklahoma. Well there is such a place and it’s the website for the Tulsa Master Gardeners annual plant sale/fundraiser.

Last year the Tulsa Master Gardeners a total of over 350 Tulsa Master Gardeners donated over 43,000 hours in service to our community through our various horticultural activities. We teach elementary school students about the importance of healthy soil, insects, worms, pollinator insects, and a variety of other topics to between 16,000 to 18,000 students in an average year. We landscape the newly built Habitat for Humanity homes along with maintaining those beautiful planters in the Brookside area. We maintain a demonstration garden that surrounds our office on 15^th street and then there’s our Seed to Supper Farm where we grow produce to donate to area food pantries. Last year we grew and donated over 11,000 pounds of produce. And, about 4000 of you reach out each year to our diagnostic center to get your garden questions answered.

As you can imagine, it takes money to accomplish all of these worthy causes, so each year we conduct a plant sale/fundraiser to raise the funds necessary to accomplish all these and other projects.

One of the questions we get quite often at our Diagnostic Center and personally when someone finds out we are Master Gardeners is - what plant would you suggest I plant in this particular location. So, one way to look at this plant sale is that it’s 250 plants and products we recommend for your garden.

One of the great things about the online format is that you can peruse all of the selections to not only see what they look like, but what you can expect size-wise as well as blooming habits etc. Then we also have them sorted by a variety of categories so you can better zero in on exactly what you are looking for… and probably some things you weren’t looking for (if we are doing our job right)! As such, you find these plants sorted into the following categories: annuals, perennials, herbs, milkweeds, ornamental grasses, fruits and vegetables, garden supplies, native plants, plants for pollinators, sun, part sun, shade, and Oklahoma Proven.

In the annuals category you’ll be able to shop for flats containing 36 plants, 4” pots, and 4.5” deep pots. Perennials and ornamental grasses come in quart pots while most everything else is in 4” pots.

As gardeners are learning more about the importance of native plants in our landscapes, we have a selection of 26 native plants for you to choose from. Typically, most gardens have a ratio of about 20% natives to 80% cultivars in their garden. A better ratio to shoot for is 80% natives and 20% cultivars.

There’s also a selection of plants that are supportive of pollinating insects. In this category we have over 100 plants to choose from. From my point of view, if you are going to plant a flower, it might as well be one that is going to become a destination for local pollinating insects since without them, we don’t eat…for the most part.

Speaking of pollinating insects, let’s not forget the endangered monarch. As monarch populations continue to decline, one thing we can do is to plant milkweed plants in our garden. Milkweed plants are the plants preferred by monarchs on which to deposit their eggs. When the eggs hatch, they begin to devour the milkweed in preparation of becoming adult butterflies. No milkweed, no baby monarchs. So, it’s always great fun to have a few milkweed plants in your garden and then watch the visiting monarchs and see their cocoons.

We’ve talked about starting seeds for your vegetable garden, but not everyone likes to engage in that endeavor. So, for the rest of you, we have a selection of 29 different fruits and vegetables. One of my favorites is the yellow pear tomato. These plants are prolific producers, to the point at our farm, we get tired of them. But for the home gardener, with a couple of these, you’ll be pretty much guaranteed all the little salad tomatoes you can eat. We also have strawberry and watermelon plants. Last year I purchased some strawberry plants and spent the year taking care of them. Since my granddaughters love strawberries, I look forward to letting them pick and eat fresh strawberries fresh off the vine. The did that this year with cherry tomatoes. They love them both.

In addition, you’ll be able to get worm castings and GP Soil’s Seed Starter Base Soil. GP makes a great garden soil and worm castings are a perfect way to provide nutrient packed, organic matter for your garden. The worm casting come from a local producer as well. For those that don’t know, worm castings are worm poop. Now there’s a word I don’t get to use in these articles very often.

The online sale starts February 1^st and continues through March 16^th. Plant pick up day will be on Thursday April 17^th, right about the time we should be warm enough to get the plants into the ground. The pick-up is a drive through pick-up where Master Gardeners load your selections into your trunk and off you go. Plant shopping doesn’t get much easier than that. So, check out our website (www.tulsamastergardeners.org) starting on February 1^st and get shopping. Quantities are limited on some of the selections. 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