Ask a Master Gardener
Planting Crapemyrtles
The general rule for planting trees and shrubs is that fall is the best time to plant. We say fall is the best because we like to plant those trees and shrubs at a time of year when they have a few months to work on developing a good root system before needing to work to supply the nutrient needs of the plant during the summer. However, there’s one big exception to this rule and since crapemyrtles do best when planted in the summer.
In Oklahoma, we love our crapemyrtles. Driving around town...
Environmental Tomato Problems
Since most every home gardener grows tomatoes, let’s talk about little bit about some environmental challenges we face with tomatoes. When I say environmental, I’m not talking about diseases or pest, just problems we might face while growing tomatoes that can be attributed to natural things occurring in the garden.
Since we have transitioned to the thick of our Oklahoma summer, first up is an environmental issue in tomatoes caused by heat. One of the primary heat related challenges with tomatoes...
Bagworms
While we aren’t seeing bagworms to the degree we have seen them in pas years, we know they are out there. Bagworms are the creatures that live inside those likely familiar little bag-like structures we find hanging out on some of our plants. And typically, inside those bags, there are small insects in their larval stage of life.
Bagworms go through 4 distinct stages of life: egg, larvae, pupae, adult. They overwinter as eggs in these familiar bags to hatch sometime in April or early May. Since...
Mulberryweed
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve talked about this particularly weed, and some of you may ask “why do you single out this weed to talk about when there are so many others?” Well, part of the reason is that I am not so bothered by weeds in my lawn. As long as it’s green, I don’t really worry about it. This may come with some amount of dismay from my neighbors, but when it comes to my lawn… if it’s green, it gets to stay.
But (and I know this isn’t entirely rational) when it comes to our...
Fungal Disease in Tomatoes
Maybe monsoon season is over and maybe not, but one thing we know for sure… with all this water and heat, we will be in the midst of a perfect storm for fungal diseases on our plants, this is especially true with tomatoes. .
Fungal diseases are one of the primary problems with growing tomatoes. Of course there are insects, four-legged furry tree rats, and birds that like to dine on our tomatoes, but a fungal disease will take down the entire plant rather than attacking just a few of the fruits....
Too Much Water
So much water…am I right? Oklahoma is full of so many contradictions, not the least of which is our weather. Sometimes it can almost seem like we are not wanted here. The winters aren’t too bad, but every once in a while, it tries to freeze us out. Then we have a couple of beautiful days before monsoon and tornado season, which is quickly followed by what we call summer…the months we could not likely survive without air conditioning. This is followed by football season which begins in the sweltering...
Garden Tour
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...
Poison Hemlock
This is about the time of year we begin to see some rather alarming posts on social media that sound like we are being invaded and attacked by a poisonous plant. They usually get a lot of shares which is oftentimes more to the point of the post rather that the sharing of an actual threat. The topic of these posts is poison hemlock. Yes, poison hemlock can be found in the wild, along streams and ditches. So let’s talk about poison hemlock.
This is the time of year we start to see Queen Anne’s...
Growing Okra
As most of us are either planting or have already planted our warm season vegetables, if you haven’t used all you space up yet and you would like an easy plant to grow that is a big producer, give okra a try. Now I know there are typically two camps of people when it comes to okra. There are those who love okra and those who want nothing to do with okra. And, in most couples, I’m guessing you have one of each of those. At least that’s the way it is in my family. But, if you like okra, it’s easy...
Growing Beans
We just purchased a new seeder for our Tulsa Master Gardener Seed to Supper Farm…and so far, it’s great. It’s a device called a Poly Planter Jr. At our farm we grow food to donate to area food pantries and we typically grow green beans.
For us, growing green beans at scale comes with a few challenges. First of all, we typically plant our warm season crops in plastic mulch, so when planting green beans, we need to make a hole in the plastic, did a small hole, place the seed, cover it up, and...