All the Dirt on Gardening

Here are a few reasons to mark your calendar, fellow gardeners, garden trekkers, bird lovers. Sat March 4 at 2:00 Monarchs and Pollinators: The Need for Habitat Restoration Chip Taylor, speaker, is founder and director of Monarch Watch FREE and open to the public Broken Arrow High School Media Center 1901 East Albany St. Broken Arrow April 15 Jenks Herb and Plant Festival/Sale Downtown Main Street http://www.jenksgardenclub.com/ 918.299.2311 and 918.446.2488 April 22 from 9-4 Sand Springs Herbal Affair 100 vendors http://www.sandspringsok.org/index.aspx?NID=118 Sat. & Sun. May 20-21 Wildlife Habitat Tour Audubon At Home: Gardening for Wildlife Tour home gardens and shop native plant vendors at each home johnkennington@gmail.com and 918.809.6325 Sat, June 10 Muskogee Garden Club Garden Tour Cheryl Thygesen sthygesen1@att.net 918.683.l0114

In our area, stones are a natural part of the landscape. In fact, it's impossible to plant anything here without removing rocks and stones of various shapes and sizes. On our slice of property in NE Oklahoma, we have made stacked walls, walkways and flower bed borders with the natural rocks we have unearthed and moved. There is a new, extremely worthwhile little book out called " The Spirit of Stone: 101 Practical and Creative Stonescaping Ideas for Your Garden " by Jan Johnsen. It's loaded with beautiful photographs will inspire your creative process. There are simple project designs that home owners can accomplish on their own or with friends and family pitching in In addition, Johnsen has plenty of more complex projects that you may want to hire a professional to do for your landscape. The photos include ideas you may want to use for a rock garden, steps, viewing spots, dry stream bed, walk, foundation, stacked rock art, edging, or art. There are char...

Seedy Saturday Seed Swap    Saturday February 25, 2017   Oklahoma Sustainable Gardening and Butterfly & Pollinator Conservation Association Saturday February 25, 2017 Tulsa OSU Extension office, 4116 E 15th St 10am till noon  (or later)..  Some  FAQ  I get are: 1.         (Q)  How do I bring seeds to seed swap:  (A) you can package in small envelopes or zip lock bags and write the name of the plant on the outside.  If you don’t have envelopes, not to worry.  I will bring a whole box of coin envelopes that you can use.  You can just bring your extra seed in bulk and put a pinch in an envelope and write the name on the outside. 2.         (Q) How do I trade or pass them out? (A) We will have tables set up and you can put them out for people to see and barter. 3.       ...

It's time to buy seeds for your 2017 garden. Here's a list of companies with their phone numbers and websites for your ordering pleasure. If your favorite is not listed, please share it in the comments. Whatever you imagine, online stores and mail order catalogs can help you plan and put it all together. Seeds of many native plants, perennials, wildflowers, herbs and cold weather vegetables can be started any time through February and be ready to plant out in the garden after the last freeze. When you know what will be on your list, check out a few vendors, their prices and shipping costs. Many offer free shipping for large orders. If you are avoiding GMOs, order open pollinated and heirloom varieties. Vegetables in particular, can be easier to grow if you choose the disease resistant varieties. Almost all the online and catalog stores have monthly email newsletters where they offer growing tips, sales and other useful information.  I set up a separate emai...

The Tulsa Area Daylily Society  Bob Scott owner of Bob Scott Nursery in Yukon, OK  March 2nd at Tulsa Garden Center 2435 South Peoria AV Snacks at 6:30; Meeting at 7. Mr Scott's nursery offers a great selection of speciality plants; hostas, helleborus, heucheras, ferns & peonies. He is well known in the daylily industry for his gorgeous daylilys. This is a rare opportunity to hear Mr Scott speak. Click over to http://www.bobscottnursery.com to see what Scott has to offer. Should be a good talk!

We love our cold-hardy Gardenias and worried that they wouldn't make it through the winter without cover. Home made plant protection For the past two winters, we've experimented with a cover of pine straw and soil but when we uncovered the shrubs in the spring, the leaves were still green but had fungal spots. This year a cover was constructed to protect them from the worst of the cold temperatures, while allowing rain and sun to penetrate. Wood frame wrapped with wire Corners were stapled together Here's how Jon did it. A wood frame was constructed with wood scraps, stapled with a staple gun. The frame was wrapped with chicken wire. The burlap was stapled to the wood frame and completely wrapped the wire frame. The plants still look good under there. Re-purposed coffee sacks were draped . The burlap was stapled to the wood

Ken Brunson The Kansas Native Plant Society is sponsoring a talk on Jan 31st at 6:30 , The l ocation is Dyck Arborteum, 177 W Hickory Street, Hesston KS, just north of Wichita. The speaker is Ken Brunson and his topic is Fire Recovery in the Hills. Ecologist and field manager Ken Brunson of the Nature Conservancy knows a lot about the Anderson Creek Wildfire of March 2016 that consumed about 390,000 acres of land in Oklahoma and Kansas.  By some estimates, this was the biggest private lands fire in the U.S. since records have been kept. Several hundred head of livestock were killed, thousands of miles of fence, and at least a dozen houses were destroyed. Positive and negative impacts to land and wildlife varies, and Ken will show photos as part of his presentation about this fascinating story. Come for supper at 6:00 p.m. or just the lecture at 6:30 p.m. ($2 for lecture, $7 for supper and lecture). Call 620-327-8127 by 4 p.m. on Friday before the Tuesday lecture for supp...