Welcome! I think you are actually close to garlic planting time, maybe it's a fall thing? I don't know, I kind of make it up as I go along and in June I harvested my "all forgotten/missed garlic" and have tons. So even when you're not trying, evidently garlic doesn't care. I did cut off all the garlic "heads" and put them in a plastic cup in my garage, and when I start feeling fall-ish (or whenever I remember) I will put them in the ground and see what happens!

There is a fall garden planner at the link below if you decide not to just "wing it" - oh, look at that, garlic Sept 1. Leaf lettuce Aug 1-15. You are right on track! You'd never know I've had that link open on my browser for at least two weeks with the best of intentions to follow it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fall planting guide

Hi Amanda,

Welcome to the forum.

Fall is the perfect time to plant garlic.

If you cover up your lettuce on particularly cold nights, you can grow it from fall through spring most years. I grow it in containers in winter so I can set the containers on a table in the yard that is high enough above ground that the cottontail rabbits cannot reach the lettuce. I've also raised lettuce in a cattle trough (bought just for gardening and never used by cattle, lol) that sets on legs above the reach of the rabbits. In that same planter I've raised kale, green onions, mesclun mix, radishes, carrots, winter flowers like violas and pansies, and Swiss chard....all at the same time. Container gardening is a great way to grow a few things in winter without fighting the endless winter mud.

You also can raise lettuce and other greens in containers indoors under a shop light, in the garage under a shop light, or in a greenhouse or cold frame. Lettuce grows best here in OK from Sept. through about May, or maybe June in cool springs, because summer heat tends to make it bitter and make it bolt (i.e. flower and go to seed). So, it seems to me that your plan to start now with garlic and lettuce is just perfect.

Fall is a great time to plan your beds for next year and build them so they will be ready to plant in spring. The more prep work you do in the fall, the easier the process will be when spring planting time rolls around. FYI--spring planting of cool-season crops can begin in January and February, depending on what you're planting and what your weather is doing in any given year, so planting time will be here before you know it.

We look forward to tagging along with you on your gardening adventures!

Dawn

Welcome, Amanda. You've come to the right place to learn and be inspired/encouraged/enabled. (Somebody will offer you seeds before too long.) Spinach is also a great fall crop. In years past I have had fall planted spinach, well-mulched with oak leaves survive 0 F and go on to produce quite a bit in spring before it bolted. Dorothy

Welcome! We look forward to getting to know you!

Hi Amanda!

Hi Amanda!

Welcome! I'm pretty new at all this too, and really appreciate having a place to go to read about the gardening adventures/ challenges of other people in our area, and to get advice!

Flis

Amanda, great to have you aboard!

George
Tahlequah, OK

Amanda, it is great to have you join us, we have a great time and maybe even grow a few veggies. If you are wanting to get your hands in the dirt you may have to wait a few days, I think many of us have mud to work with now, which is a welcome sight because most of us have to deal with a dry hot summer.

Larry

Hello and welcome. I"m new to gardening in Ok.(came here from Colo.) so we will learn together!! Very helpful folks here.

Mia, I actually copied that list down in my notebook and am using it to make plans! Thank you for making sure I knew about it.

Dawn, my wishlist for next year is pretty long. It boils down to if I eat it I want to try to grow it :-) We have a great co-op in OKC but when its your primary source instead of a supplement it gets very expensive very quickly. Thank you for the encouragement.

Dorthy, that is fantastic! Thanks for the advice on the lettuce and the heads up on the group.

Same here Lisa!

Chicken Coupe would it be appropriate to ask you questions about my little flock? I have six hens all of whom are laying well and happy as can be, but I am sure there will be some bumps in the road.

Thanks George! Its good to be here.

Lol Larry, that is very true! Although, my yard seems to drain well, even with the bit of rain we got this morning I was able to walk through the yard without lots of mud. (This may be an issue come summer when we have very little rain) I feel like I missed the golden summer to set up rain barrels this year!

Sorie, what part of CO? I am an Okie through and through, but one of my closest friends lives in the Springs and it is absolutely beautiful.

Welcome, Amanda! I am sure you will find lots of great advice here, everyone is so helpful, even (especially!) to us newbies.

Charlotte

We lived in Arvada. a burb of Denver. DD lives in the Springs. Yes Colo. is beautiful but so is Ok. I'm loving it here and it's better for DH health.

I am originally from Colorado. East of Aurora. But I have livesd here longer than there now!

I am originally from Colorado. East of Aurora. But I have lived here longer than there now!

This post was edited by lisa_h on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 10:43

Welcome, Amanda. It is a great time to begin getting your beds ready for spring. If you lay them out now, put some cardboard on them, cover it with grass clippings & when the leaves start falling, cover that with chopped leaves & then leave it till spring (unless you can manage to get more layers on there altho I wouldn't do cardboard again) you will be glad that your beds are ready to plant with very little digging.
People on this board are so helpful, it is amazing. Sometimes I don't know how they have time to work in their gardens, they spend so much time answering questions etc. Glad you found it.

pattiokie can I use the grass cuttings from bermuda? I'm so afraid they will just root in the flower bed. I want to do what you suggested too! Also I wonder where I can get leaves as I have no trees. Noone in this developement has very big ones! Thanks.

Sorie, I don't shy away from Bermuda, I don't like it, I just deal with it. With all the rain we have had in the past several days I had to mow a very wet lawn with tons of Bermuda seed heads sticking up over the grass. If it ever dries enough to rake it I will have it piled beside my garden for use next year. I had rather have wheat straw but my lawn does not grow wheat straw, it grows Bermuda grass, so that is what I work with, plus any other organic matter I can get.

We live in Bermuda country, it was here before we got here, and it will be here after we are dead and gone.

Amanda, you can use Bermuda for your layering since it is cut. I have had problems with the Bermuda sneaking into my garden, but not from the layering. That grass is dead when you use it.

You might look on the Soil forum here. They are a lot of help. (except around Halloween when they get crazy & try to figure out how long it would take to compost a dead body, etc. LOL)

When leaves start to fall I have been known to drive into other neighborhoods the evening before trash pick-up & load the back of my car up with bags of leaves people have set out. You can recognize them by the smooth bags. If there is someone around I ask, but I don't think anybody minds.

I mulch my entire garden with grass clippings, including raised beds gulls of veggies, herbs and flowers, and garden pathways as welI. I even mulch plants in containers with grass clippings. We use not only the Bermuda grass clippings but also the grass clippings from a couple of acres of fallow pastures that are a mix of native grasses and wildflowers. The clippings do not give us any more weeds than we'd have anyway from weed and grass seeds washing into those areas when it rains or blowing in every time the wind blows. My clippings decompose and feed the soil and the plants. If you are worried about Bermuda grass seed, just be sure you mow before the grass forms seed heads. (In rainy years, it can be hard to do that.) I put down landscape cloth in the pathways so nothing can sprout there from the clippings. In garden beds I put down cardboard or multiple layers of newspaper and pile clippings on top some years, and use clippings with nothing underneath them in other years. It just depends on how busy I am.

The Bermuda grass that drives me crazy is the stuff growing outside the garden that perpetually tries to grow through the fence and sneak into the garden. The grass clippings are no problem. If you are pulling up long Bermuda grass runners, those are not the same as clippings and I wouldn't mulch with them because they will root and grow.

Dawn