Ask a Master Gardener
The Problem with Bradford Pears
Last year on Facebook, we made a tongue in cheek post about Bradford Pear trees, suggesting the proper way to prune a Bradford was to get your chainsaw and make a horizontal cut, flush with the ground. We must have touched a nerve because that post got over 4 million views. I guess we went viral.
Some people were all in favor of the advice, while others attempted to take us to task for dissing their favorite tree. So, let’s talk about the Bradford and what the problem is.
The Bradford Pear...
Hummingbirds
I never really thought about it much, but writing articles will (should) cause you to think about some things. One of those things popped up today – do I have a favorite bird? After a brief reflection it boiled down to two candidates: flamingos and hummingbirds. Then I realized that both of these birds are kind of outliers in the bird community. One is quite tall and pink while the other is a tiny little bird who can fly really fast. Since flamingos seem to have very little use in the garden unless...
Henbit and Dandelions
Today we’re going to talk about two plants that most people will refer to as a weed, but what is a weed other than a plant that exists somewhere we don’t want it to exist. There are fancier definitions, but they all say basically the same thing. Since these two are either about to pop up or about to pop up let’s talk about henbit and dandelion.
Henbit is technically called Lamium amplexicaule...kind of a fancy name for something most people just call that purple flowered weed. Henbit is actually...
Growing Herbs
As we are thinking about and getting ready for our summer vegetable garden, consider planting some herbs. Herbs are pretty easy to grow, don’t have a lot of disease or pest problems, and are a great way to supply you with fresh herbs for meals. So, let’s talk about growing some herbs this year.
Interestingly, some of the earliest writings we have from ancient civilizations include information of herbs being used to treat wounds and illnesses in addition to being used as a way to add flavor to...
Reseeding Fescue
While the best time of year to reseed fescue lawns is in the fall, the second best time is now. So, if your best intentions to get that seed down last fall went unfulfilled, it’s time to get after it.
One question we get often is “why do I need to reseed my fescue lawn, the parts of my lawn that are Bermuda never need any reseeding?” Here’s why.
Fescue is often considered a grass for shadier areas which is kind of misleading. All turf grasses need sun. And, if you think about it, fescue...
Growing Strawberries
Who doesn’t like strawberries? And what’s especially nice about growing strawberries is that it’s a relatively low maintenance endeavor. Not many disease issues and not a big target for insects, although birds and squirrels may want to dine on these sweet treats. But with the recommended strawberry planting time of Feb. 1st through March 15th, let’s talk about growing strawberries.
While there are an abundance of strawberry varieties, the plants break down into two important groups: June bearing...
Oklahoma Proven Plants
As gardeners, let’s just admit it…it’s impossible to know everything we need to know about plant varieties, which ones do well here, and how to take care of all these plants. There’s just too much…even for those of us who are supposed to know about plants. And this is complicated by new cultivars being released each and every year.
Because of this, Oklahoma State University has a program they call Oklahoma Proven. The goal of Oklahoma Proven is to find and test plants that are not only tolerant...
Freeze Damage on Plants
With the freezing temperatures this week, there’s a strong likelihood that some of our plants might have been damaged. A few weeks ago we wrote about most of Tulsa County now being in USDA Growing Zone 7b. In growing zone 7b we should expect an average winter extreme low temperature of somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees. But just this week we found ourselves with temperatures down around 0 degrees. This is the type of winter extreme we would expect more or zone 7a to 6b. Because of this, some of...
Pollination
As gardeners, we talk about soil and seeds and seed starting and irrigation and different types of beds etc., etc., etc. But one thing we don’t talk about very much is something that is even more critical than any of the aforementioned things… pollination. Without pollination, we don’t eat. You might say “well we could eat meat without pollination.” The answer to that would be mostly “no.” Even the meat we eat tends to come from the animals that eat the green stuff that grows. Yes, there are exceptions,...
Rain Barrels
It’s still cold outside. Most of us probably have our vegetable seeds started, or we are about to start our seeds and we’re anxious to get back out in the garden. But what about all those things we thought about changing for this year, like our irrigation system. What about getting a rainwater collection system so we can save some money on our water bill? Well, now would be a perfect time to work on that rainwater collection system so it is ready when the time comes. So, what do we need to do?
If...