Okay, I let Lisa and Sharon talk me into joining! From what I'm seeing on the FB group, it appears there are other experimenters out there, running through some the same gamut I've been doing. Should be interesting!

Okoutdrsman is a member of several other forums, admin. of one...but he's finally found the best :-)

So...welcome! Hope it's worth the visit - let us know (here) what sort of gardening you enjoy, general area of the state where you live, etc....we're glad to have you!

Sharon

Welcome, Okoutdoorsman! We're so happy to have you here.

Dawn

Just wanted to say hi to any new members. Welcome to this great group.
Also I thought it would good to link the OSU fact sheets website for anyone interested. I read these a ton and they have been so helpful for me.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: OSU fact sheets.

Welcome outdoorsman and everybody!

I've been a member a short while and have mostly been lurking. I came late to gardening, but have found I absolutely have been missing out on the best of all times! There's so much to learn and you all seem to know so much. So glad I found you!

(The other) Dawn

Hi Dawn!

Welcome, new members. We hope you will be regular visiters--and not just to lurk.

Welcome, new members, and I will have to say experimenting is the best part of doing anything.

Sharon I just now saw your post about what kind of gardening I do. I put in a small greenhouse, last year for doing plant starts. A larger one is in the planning stage. It drives me absolutely insane to pay $3.75 a plant. And the time I spend in there is relaxing.
I currently have 3 garden sites that total around 10,000 sg ft. About a third of it won't be planted this year. Finally going to attempt to amend the heavy clay areas. Right now I'm trying to decide on whether to just pile on the wood chips or try and work a layer in and then put another layer on top.
This year I'll be growing tomatoes, peppers, squash/zuchinni, a few potatoes, lots of onions, okra, sweet corn, romaine lettuce, radishes, mustard, and cucumbers.
I have rosemary and sage still growing from two years ago and I planted 3 types of basil and cilantro in pots in the greenhouse. I have a small but healthy row of asparagus. This will be the second year of harvesting it.
My water well is pretty weak, so last year I put together an automatic watering system set up in 4 zones that greatly reduces load on the well. Using drip line and emitters, I am able to water in shorter spans with rest cycles between zones on a daily basis or as needed. I'm thinking about buying a rain sensor to keep from having to manually activate the rain delay feature.

This post was edited by okoutdrsman on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 10:36

I built a bed using wood chips over my old lawn. I mixed in coffee grounds and some compost and let it sit over the winter. That spring I made "dirt pockets" and planted in them. I'm wondering if you could do that and plant squash in that bed. Squash takes up so much room, it would be free space.

Not sure how big your bed is, but I would have to think it would make a great place to plant squash. There are some bush varieties that aren't supposed to take up as much space. I just haven't messed with them, so I can't make recommendations.
Squash and Zuchinni are big ticket items for our bunch. I normally plant 10-12 of each. After a mediocre spring/summer crop, I experimented with an early August planting of yellow squash. We had fresh squash clear up into Nov.
This year the plan is around 8 each and then do another round of about the same about after I harvest onions.
I had a little better success with squash bug control and saw no evidence of borers. Hopefully, I'll do the same this year.

I am also new to the forum but am not on facebook. I am new to Oklahoma gardening, having previously gardened mostly cacti, herbs, and hot peppers in Tucson.

I am trying to keep it small for now and have built two 4'x4' cedar raised beds and am building additional vegetable beds, one of which will be set aside for my kids. I am also trying to get blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, elderberries, and boysenberries established. My goal is to make an asthetically pleasing edible landscape as frugally as possible.

I have enjoyed reading the previous posts in this forum and have a lot to learn.

Nice to see a few new members! Stick with us, whether you're an Oklahoma native, or you've been here for a long time, or you're a brand-new transplant - there's always something to learn, something to try.

Okoutdrsman, have you tried zucchetta? Great squash to grow, virtually no disturbance by beetles...but it does take up a lot of space - trellising along a fenceline has worked well for Lisa.

MarsMars...glad to have you! Most of the activity you'll see on here, so don't worry about Facebook...good luck with your plots and berries this year - any berry growers out there want to chime in?

I'm looking forward to the end of our biPOLAR weather...and a decent spring!

Sharon

I just recently heard of zucchetta. When I started researching, I saw very mixed reviews on whether or not the squash bugs bother it or not. That in combination with it being tougher to obtain seed, I had basically discarded it for this year. After last year, my perimeter fences will be a no plant zone. I will be putting up a temporary 'fence' for my cucumbers and if something changes and I find seed, I may give it a try.
I did a rotation of spraying liquid sevin and then a soap mixture on squash bugs last year. It absolutely knocked the snot out of them, even the adults.

I got seeds from Pinetree...cheap :) I ordered some to bring to the fling...if you come, you are welcome to some. I sent seeds to a friend in Texas last year. She posted pics all summer of her monster vines :) meanwhile I had none! I am determined to grow them again this year. I think the cool wet summer last year rotted all my seeds.

This zuchetta thing is all Seedmama's fault. I hope she makes it to the fling this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pinetree Seeds

Welcome to new forum members, and new and experienced gardeners! I look forward to learning from and with you.

I am also a new member here, we moved to Oklahoma a little over a year ago. I feel more and more passionate about growing plants as I now have had occasional successes with some of my gardening efforts... I recently started reading this forum for tips and ideas and I received helpful advice to some of my gardening issues. I want to thank you all for being so helpful and making this forum such an awesome resource for Oklahoma gardening! I really appreaciate the effort of you experienced gardeners sharing your knowledge!

Howdy, Perennial!

Hi Lisa and everyone. I've lurked here for some time and finally got around to registering. There is a lot of wisdom here and I sure can use it and maybe add a little too!

Here is a link that might be useful: My welcome link

Welcome to PerennialK and to HarvestTime - great to see you! Hope to keep see you posting and planning to meet in person, come April and the Spring Fling!

Sharon

Woo-Hoo!!!! Welcome to all the new members here! I remember lurking....and then I signed up and asked more questions! And the rest is history....Glad to have you all! We'll have a sign up thread sometime this month for the Spring Fling on April 26 and look forward to meeting some if not all of you!

Paula

I just found this forum and have been reading some very good information.

We live in a small suburb of Tulsa and have a very small back yard. Last year I had two 2x8 raised beds and everything failed miserably for my first time gardening. The only thing I had any luck at all with were the green bell peppers. This year we are adding three 4x4 raised beds as soon as the material comes in. One of our problems is too much shade and can't do anything about it.

Looking forward to learning from the experienced gardeners here.

How much shade do your have? By that, I guess what I really mean is how many hours per day of sunlight do the raised beds get? They are several edible crops that can produce in partial shade. I grew all kinds of stuff in partial shade at our home in Fort Worth before we moved here. All the shade came from large and very mature trees in our neighbors' yards, so I couldn't do anything about reducing the shade. I just learned to work with it, and I squeezed sunloving plants into the sunniest available spaces.

Our problem is also the neighbors trees. Our beds get about 2-3 hours of sun in the morning.

Cool season crops should work, right, Dawn? No leaves on the trees right now, and the shade would help lengthen the season, I would think.

With 2-3 hours of morning sun you can expect to get a reasonable harvest from salad greens like lettuce, mesclun mix, Swiss chard, kale, spinach and maybe scallions (green onions) in the area where there's 3 hours of sunlight.

You also can grow all kinds of culinary herbs like basil, mint, oregano, parsley, garlic, chives,cilantro, chamomile, lemon balm and pretty much any other leafy herb.

A few fruiting plants will produce pretty well in morning sun and afternoon shade in our hot climate, but much depends on the kind of soil you have and its quality, as well as how much competition from tree roots there is. Our yard was heavily invaded by tree roots from the trees on neighboring property and I had to dig them out every year before I planted. I kept hoping that digging out all those roots might kill the trees, but it didn't. Blueberries, strawberries and blackberries all can produce with part sun, but 2-3 is sort of low even for them. I do have native blackberries that grow as understory plants in our woodland and they bloom and produce blackberries, but not nearly as much as the ones in more sun.

I planted a lot of my plants up against the wall of the house, garage or shed so that the white walls could reflect more light onto the plants.

You also can use metallic silver mulch (it is a flat plastic material) on the ground beneath the plants and it would direct more light up onto them. That might sound like it wouldn't help, but it does. In the old days before they made colored mulching materials to sell, you could use silver mylar wrapping paper or even heavy-duty aluminum foil on the ground beneath plants in shady spots to reflect more light up onto the plants.

With experimentation and trial-and-error, I believe you'll find what will grow well for you.

Hiya SSurban!

Dawn's the expert. I have had good luck removing individual tree limbs on older fast-growing trees nearby. I trim the poplar trees back in an awkward fashion when it shortens the length of my clothes-line with shade, too. Don't kill the trees, though.

Welcome everyone! If anyone would like to try Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, just let me know. I have nearly a "lifetime supply," as I grew it in isolation the last three years, and all the seed is pure. Contact me. All I ask is postage.

I also tried this one as a summer squash, and it's okay. The vines are exceedingly vigorous and wherever I grow a patch of it, Bermuda is puny the following season. It shades it!

George
Tahlequah, OK

Welcome again to our new members!

HI, everyone! I just moved into the Norman area and found out the true meaning of heavy clay! I've dug up an abandoned flower bed removing all of the concrete and at least the big rocks and have covered it all with a thick layer of cardboard and mulch to start improving the composition. If anyone knows where I can get aged manure or other compost, please let me know!

I joined last year, but have not done much posting. Just lurking. So...hello! I live outside of Stillwater, out in the country in a newly "developed" area. The bugs I battle are oh so fun.
I was just commenting on how this time last year My entire garden was already planted. I am feeling gun shy this year and am embarrassed to admit I haven't even planned what I am going to do. I tried zucchini for the first time last year. After the first bloom squash bugs killed it over night. I did grow black beans for the first time. They are very easy and you can let them dry on the vine, how cool is that?

Welcome LikesFerns and Abstastic!

LF: Paula may know where to get compost in Norman. I miss the FB functionality of tagging :) for this.

Abtastic: I sound like a resounding gong :) but try the zucchetta squash. The bugs didn't bother mine. They need something to climb on, though.

I haven't planted anything yet, although I have thrown some seeds around.

I've been hauling around potting soil in my car for a month with the good intentions of getting some of my seeds started!

Lisa

I'm new to the group and am also new to gardening. We have only been in Oklahoma for a year, so I'm a sponge trying to soak up Oklahoma gardening & landscaping info. I'm especially interested in dog-friendly plants.
I appreciate the opportunity to learn from many of you :)

The attached picture is of me and my whippet puppy, Stryder. Stryder is constantly eating my plants and digging in my garden. Hello, gardening challenge.

I'm new here. I am a life member of another gardening clubs forums. I grow mostly vegetables. I'm in Tulsa. I have a new garden area, 1500sq ft. I like canning. Gonna get a vacuum packer soon, to freeze vegies. And I ride a Harley Sportster.
Thank You.

Wow. This is awesome. Welcome to everybody!

Hello, newbies :)

I'm hoping to meet you all face-to-face at the Spring Fling...BE THERE! We have fun, food, a little frivolity, and much learning and plant swapping. Check out that particular page on the general OK forum.

LikesFerns...if Paula doesn't help you find compost, you might (might) check with any farms/ranches you drive by. If they generally just heap it up out in the pasture, then last year's stuff has probably already composted. Of course you'll need a truck and some shovels to bring it on home with, but...there you go; could be free!

KPlum...you have a beautiful dog there! The only thing I would caution against having for sure is cocoa mulch - we know about chocolate being poison to dogs, but tend to not think about that mulch also being an attractant and a poison as well.

Sharon

Sharon, THANK YOU for the wonderful tip. I am very wary when it comes to my backyard planting (I'm currently in the "planning" stage). We have our own two pups, and also foster greyhounds. I love both plants and animals, though combining the two can be tricky. I've started a pinterest page, logging all of my dog-safe, Oklahoma-loving plant finds.

I did some research last month on the very subject of mulch. My mother-in-law swears by cocoa mulch and tried to convince me that it wouldn't hurt the pups. Glad to hear that my findings were founded. I haven't started on any landscaping in the back, but currently have pecan shell mulch in the front.

Thank you for the warm welcome. Again, I look forward to learning more! :)