Oklahoma Gardening Resources

Perhaps you've been an avid gardener for years, or coming back to the fold after an absence, or like me, an experienced gardener in another climate/zone-whatever the case, there are plenty of resources available for every level of Oklahoma gardeners.

"Oklahoma Gardening": This is both a television show on the OETA television station and a website offered by the Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Department of Oklahoma State University(OSU). The T.V. Show is broadcast 11 AM on Saturdays and 3:30 PM on Sundays. Not new to the business of gardening or broadcasting, OSU has been bringing the program to Oklahoma viewers for more than 30 years.

A visit to the website allows visitors to obtain notes from the television shows on a monthly basis for the previous 12 month period. These will open in Adobe reader, which the viewer can then save and/or print the desired material if they wish. There is a podcast/dvd link on the site's home page, although currently that area is under construction-but something which will make a nice addition to the site.

The home page also contains a link to the studio gardens which are listed as these theme gardens: Patriotic; Morning, Noon, and Evening Too; Patio; Romantic; and Cut Flower as well as Design Demonstration Gardens and the Vegetable Garden (www.oklahomagardening.okstate.edu). Schematic designs of the various gardens are only a click away. Once viewing each garden itself, a run of the mouse over the various plants provides each one's name.

The studio gardens may be visited M-T-Th-F from 8AM-5PM; the Botanical Gardens at OSU are open the same hours, though they are available for visitation Monday-Friday.

There's more information at the "Oklahoma Gardening" site than listed here. Why not visit for yourself and see what may be of interest to you?

Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service: One of the services accessible from the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources on the OSU Facts Sheet page. OSU Extension Fact Sheets, such as this one "provide research-based information on a wide variety of subjects in regard to agriculture, economic development, family and consumer sciences, and youth development" (osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/HomePage).

Links to other related resources are listed at the bottom of the OSU Facts Sheet page such as the Cooperative Extension Services offices, Oklahoma Agricultural Experimental Station and others.

Oklahoma Gardening Forum: If you have an interest in interacting with other Oklahomans in an online format, this forum provides a place to do so. In accessing the link, I found these topics, and many others, among those being discussed: "When does it actually turn spring in NE OK?"; "Starting seeds indoors"; "Fire Ant Quarantine, New Counties" (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/okgard/).

If you have expertise to offer or are looking for topic specific information, this gardening forum may be just the place to look.

Oklahoma Food Cooperative: Again, this is a website that offers a listing of multiple resources and articles with information on the site itself. Article titles include such topics as "9 Steps Toward Family Food Security" and "Growing a Beautiful Edible Landscape in an Urban Neighborhood" (www.oklahomafood.coop/growing/php). There's information on how to join the food co-op and what some of the reasons a person might want to do so.

There is a one-time fee of $51.75 to join the co-op and low income people can make application to a fund with money donated from co-op members that would assist or totally pay their fee. Site info states that the co-op had nearly 2000 members as of June 2008, with 125 of that number being food producers. The co-op has been self-sustaining from the initial joining fees and monthly income for the producers is between $60-65,000.00 (www.oklahomafood.coop/growing/php).

These websites represent just the tip of the iceberg (lettuce?) when it comes to information about Oklahoma gardening and related topics, but each website also lists additional resources to aid the viewer in finding the information they are seeking.

Sources: http://www.oklahomagardening.okstate.edu/

http://osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/HomePage

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/okgard/

http://www.oklahomafood.coop/growing.php