So many plants…so little time. It feels that way sometimes, doesn’t it? We visit one of our local nurseries, see all the beautiful plants, and we want them all. There are several problems with that strategy. First of all, we don’t likely have the financial wherewithal or the landscape space to make that happen. And, even if we did, that probably wouldn’t be a good idea since each plant does best in an appropriate planting space. And we don’t have appropriate spaces for everything. So, what do we do?

We buy that plant anyway, full knowing we don’t have a great space for it, but we want it. Then it doesn’t do well where we plant it, and we start to think maybe we don’t know what we are doing. These little failures are typically opportunities for us to learn, or opportunities for us to go get another one and show mother nature who’s the boss. Please note: this strategy usually doesn’t work out well. But what are our alternatives?

First of all, a lot can be learned by visiting gardens around town in hopes of gleaning some ideas. Fortunately, we have a variety of gardens where we can walk amongst various plants and get a chance to see what does well in certain areas. But what if you had the opportunity to walk around a garden and talk to the people that planted those plants and take care of those plants? That would be great wouldn’t it. Enter the Tulsa Master Gardener annual garden tour.

Yes, the TMG Garden Tour is one of our yearly fundraisers, but it’s also a great opportunity to visit beautiful gardens and come away with some ideas you can bring home to your own landscape.

During our garden tour, Tulsa Master Gardeners open up their landscapes so you can have a look. This isn’t just a spectator kind of look, but a look with the opportunity to potentially talk not only to the creator of the garden but also with other Master Gardeners who are on site to answer any questions you may have about the tour garden or perhaps issues you are having with your home garden.

This year’s theme is Urban Oasis which sums up what many of us try to do with our landscapes - create a little oasis in the midst of urban development. On the tour this year we will have 4 Master Gardener homes plus our TMG Demo Garden. The homes for this year’s tour are in the mid-town area as is our demo garden. Each of the landscapes are beautiful in their own right, but one particular standout is a home landscape that contains over 50 hydrangeas and 80 rose bushes.

In addition to the 4 homes on the tour, our Tulsa Master Gardener Demo Garden is included on this year’s tour. As you may or may not know, the building where our office is housed is surrounded by gardens. Master Gardeners work on these spaces almost all year long to provide you with a great place to visit and learn about plants.

During the garden tour, Master Gardeners will be on site at the Demo Garden to talk about not only the flowers, but also composting, irrigation, and pond maintenance. In addition, we will be offering small garden tool sharpening at this location…donations accepted.

Just like our yearly plant sale, this fundraiser helps us raise the funds to accomplish the work we do throughout Tulsa County such as landscaping the Habitat for Humanity homes, maintaining the planters in Brookside, growing vegetables for food pantries at our Seed to Supper Farm, and teaching elementary school kids about worms and pollinators, and seeds, etc. Our efforts in these and other activities around the county totaled up last year to about 43,000 volunteer hours. That’s a lot, but we love it.

This year’s Urban Oasis Garden Tour is on Saturday June 7^th (9:00 am – 5:00 pm) and Sunday June 8^th(noon – 5:00 pm). Advance tickets for this year’s tour are $10 with $15 tickets available during the tour. You can purchase your tickets at our website (www.tulsamastergardeners.org) or if you are averse to online purchases, you can drop by the office and purchase tickets there. This is a rain or shine event. The addresses for the tour homes will be on your ticket and we will post them to our website on the Friday before the tour, so if at the last minute you find out you are available, you can just pick up a ticket at one of the locations. Either way, we look forward to meeting you on the garden tour. Thank you Tulsa! See you in the gardens!

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