Ask a Master Gardener
Monarch Butterflies
In the United States, we have two monarch butterfly population groups with the Rocky Mountains serving as the dividing line. First, we have a group known as Western monarchs. These butterflies consider the west coast their home. During the summer they live in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, sometimes even venturing as far north as Vancouver, Canada. These Western monarchs overwinter in coastal areas of Southern California.
The monarch butterflies we see here in northeast Oklahoma...
Growing Sunflowers
On Tuesday we talked about gardening for birds and today let’s talk about one of our feathered friend’s favorites - sunflowers.
More often than not, when we purchase bird seed from the store, that seed mix contains sunflower seeds. But there’s no reason why you can grow your own sunflowers to provide seeds for the birds. Plus, you’ll get the extra bonus of these giant, beautiful flowers. I say flowers, but those giant flowers at the top of the stalks are actually a grouping of hundreds of tiny...
Gardening for Birds
Most of us approach our garden purchases with one criterion… that’s pretty, I want one, or two, or more. While this is an approach that satisfies our inner gardener, what if we were to be more deliberate in our purchases? What if we had a plan to purchase plants that are not only beautiful, but also help provide a natural habitat for pollinator insects or perhaps birds. Pollinating insects get a lot of attention but sometimes I feel like gardening to provide for our local bird population gets overlooked....
Winter Damage on Plants
Now that the trees and shrubs are greening up, what do you do if you have a plant that isn’t greening up like it used to? What if part of it looks dead but other parts don’t? Let’s talk about how to tell if you plant was damaged from the cold during the winter and what to do about it.
It seems like every year now; we are seeing more and more winter damage on our plants. Part of the reason for that would obviously be the colder than normal temperatures we experience during the winter, but another...
Growing Tomatoes
Hands down, the most popular vegetable (technically a fruit) for urban gardeners has to be the tomato. One of the primary reasons is that home grown tomatoes just taste so much better than store bought tomatoes. No disrespect meant to grocery stores. It’s just next to impossible to pick, transport across the country, and sell a tomato that tastes as good as one freshly plucked from the vine. But to get that home-grown tomato taste, you’re probably going to want to grow your own. So, let’s talk...
Hardening Off Your Plants
If you’ve been babying your vegetable transplants for the past few weeks in anticipation of getting them out in the garden to officially start your garden season, aren’t you glad you didn’t jump the gun and plant a couple of weeks ago.
Spring weather can be deceiving, especially when we were in the 70s and 80s. But, as usual, we had a few more cold days that could have beat down our little veggie plants if we had put them in the ground early. It’s just always a good idea to wait until that average...
Growing Tomatoes
Hands down, the most popular vegetable (technically a fruit) for urban gardeners has to be the tomato. One of the primary reasons is that home grown tomatoes just taste so much better than store bought tomatoes. No disrespect meant to grocery stores. It’s just next to impossible to pick, transport across the country, and sell a tomato that tastes as good as one freshly plucked from the vine. But to get that home-grown tomato taste, you’re probably going to want to grow your own. So, let’s talk...
The Problem with Bradford Pears
Last week on Facebook, we posted what we thought was a kind of funny post about pruning Bradford pears. It contained a photo of a Bradford pear and the following commentary: “Just a reminder that it’s Bradford Pear pruning season. To prune your Bradford pear, grab your best power saw and make a horizontal cut, just above ground level.” We must have struck a nerve because that post had almost 4 million views…that’s right 4 million views. It even attracted the attention of one of our local television...
Hummingbirds in the Garden
Who doesn’t like hummingbirds? And according to the hummingbird migration map from hummingbirdcentral.com, they are just starting to enter Oklahoma on their way north. So, let’s talk a little bit about hummingbirds and what we can do to encourage them to visit our homes.
As the smallest of the North American native birds, hummingbirds only weigh about ¼ of an ounce and grow to about 3.5 inches in length. As you are probably aware, the buzzing sound we here when they are around is being generated...