The spring fling is in the morning, I'm excited. I know I'm new to the forum and to starting my own gardens but I'm still excited about the gathering and getting to meet so many new people. I haven't really introduced myself, so I'll give a small bio. My name is Rachel,I'm 23 years old and I live NE OK, near Tulsa. I'm originally from CA but my father was in the army when I was younger, and well...this is where we ended up. I've been with the same wonderful man for the last five years and we plan to get married. We bought a house, a fixer upper, this past fall and the front and back yards are in desperate need of plants, lol. I grew up with a wonderful mother, who loves plants and gardening, so Im really excited about fixing up my yards. Also, I work at a Lowes, in the outside lawn and garden, so I spend just about everyday taking care of plants and helping people select the right plants. I was going to bring a painting and a stuffed owl for door prizes, but my friend really wanted the painting so I'll try to find something else. Also, I found the seeds that I collected from my mothers garden, from this past fall. I'll bring them incase someone wants some. That way I'll have something to trade, and won't feel like such a mooch if someone gives me something. : ) I hope everyone sleeps good tonight and I can't wait to meet all of you. -Rachel

George just emailed me a massive list of seeds he is sending. I hope they get here on time! Cross your fingers. Now, I don't know how you all would like to deal with this. I can list the seeds here and we can have members speak up for what they would like to have. OR, we can split the packets into a few door prizes. It's up to you all! Seeds George is Sending to GW Spring Fling 2013 Empereur Alexandre Cuke, Baker Creek Delicious 51, Baker Creek ��" cantaloupe Collective Farm Woman, Cantaloupe ��" Baker Creek Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin ��" 2009 seed Organic Multicolor Popcorn ��" probably Baker Creek Squash: Black Futsui ��" Baker Creek Crystal Apple Cucumber ��" Sustainable Seed Company Pipian from Tuxpan ��" c. argyrosperma grown for its seed. (Baker Creek) Angled Luffa ��" 2009 (one pkt) Evans Sweet Cantaloupe ��" green fleshed, developed in Oklahoma by Dr. John Wyche. Two packets. Black Jungle Butterbean ��" 2009 (1 pkt) http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/legumes/msg051013024705.html http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/legumes/msg0516190620005.html Kentucky Red Cowpea 2011 seed ��" 1 large pkt. Received at Gardenweb, Oklahoma forum spring fling in 2008, from Pauline Kincaid. Seed is brick red and flattened, much like a very small lima bean. Plants are vigorous, but not too inclined to climb. Pods are thick. White Cushaw 2012 seed ��" Rampant vines, very heat and drought resistant. Large, 20 lb. crook necked, fruit Moon & Stars Watermelon (white seeded) 2006 seed. ��" Should still grow. Extremely rare heirloom. Mesquakie Indian Corn ��" mix of 2007-2012 seed, Very colorful, hardy corn. Quite well adapted to our Oklahoma conditions. A dent corn, tending toward flint. Good for cornmeal. Woods Mountain Crazy Bean 2011 seed ��" Bush bean. Very well adapted to our hot conditions. Heirloom from the Fayetteville, AR area. Pods have strings, but are quite tender. High producer. There are NO commercial sources for this valuable seed. Georgia Long Cowpea 2007 seed ��" Yardlong. Heat resistant. Good for snaps. Needs poles as it has very long vines. I’ve had this seed germinate after over 10 years in an unrefrigerated jar. I received my seed in the 1980s from Virgil and Hazel Johnson of Liberty, MO; who in turn received their seed from Faxon Stinnet of Vian Oklahoma. Cooper’s Running Snap 2009 seed ��" pole bean. Heat resistant. Similar to Rattlesnake. Should be given 1’ space between plants. Heavy producer. Not a stringed bean. Similar to Kentucky Wonder in pod quality. Okra: Heavy Hitter 2012 seed (3 pkts) ��" New variety developed by Ron Cook of Moodys, OK. This is a branching okra, similar to Stewarts Zeebest, but with pods more like Clemson Spineless. Calico Willow leaf Pole Lima Jo

Wayne, While deer can eat persimmons and usually do, the coyotes get hungrier earlier and eat them off the lower limbs long before the deer do. I know this because every day while walking my dogs since 1999, I have observed both deer scat and coyote scat and know that the coyote scat is full of persimmon seeds months before I see any at all in deer scat. That is what I have observed in my specific area. On the other hand, deer will visit my fruit trees often while they are in bloom and while they have small fruit, and show a definite preference for plum over peach, but I've never seen plum pits in coyote scat (though I suspect they eat wild plums) and I've never found coyote tracks in the soft sandy soil beneath my plum trees. That might happen solely because wild plums grow with abandon along fence lines and in pastures here, so the coyotes can eat all the wild plums they want without having to venture up close to our house to snatch plums off our cultivated varieties. The deer are not afraid of me because I feed them in winter and in drought, so they boldly walk up into the yard and snatch young plums (or even the blooms) off the trees while I'm working in the yard. They also visit the compost pile regularly to scavenge for appealing kitchen scraps and, in winter, when I am not feeding the compost pile enough to please the deer, they will stand by the pile and scream or call for me. Sometimes my husband will come indoors and say "the deer are calling you" and I go out, and they aren't even calling---they just stand by the compost pile and stare at the back door nonstop, as if willing me to walk out the door with a bucket of compost pile scraps for them to pick through. It is sort of comical, but sort of sad that they get so desperate for food. The coyotes wouldn't dare do that because we do nothing to encourage them. Nowadays I only plant fruit trees within an area with an 8' tall fence because otherwise I have to fight the deer for every plum, and sometimes for the other fruit as well. The squirrels largely ignore plums until they are ripe, but go after the peaches while they're still green. I learn a lot about wildlife by observing them here since we have so much wildlife. Birds seem to prefer peaches or cherries. Most of the wildlife leave the figs alone, and I think that's because figs are not common here so the wildlife don't realize what they are. I can watch for young rusty blackhaw viburnums to sprout in spring, but rarely see them because only one viburnum is on the edge of the woods near the house where I can see it from a spot outside the woods. All the others are buried deep in the woods, where I fear very large, old trees are slowly shading them out. Our climate has veered towards being both hotter and drier since we moved here in the 1990s, and I am seeing subtle changes in what grows well here as well as in what sprouts and what doesn't. Partly, I think, it is because our water table has changed. The spring that once fed our pond dried up, another spring that fed our swamp dried up, and the two springs that feed our creek barely run at all any more. Consequently, the swamp slowly died off and the plants that grew in it died as well. Now, just ordinary old woodland trees have taken over the once swampy spot, and trees grow where we once had a huge pond full of fish. I hardly ever see new viburnums or Mexican plum trees sprout and grow, and even the wild blackberries don't grow as abundantly as they once did. But then, on the other hand, I see more prickly pear cacti, even deep within the woods, than ever before. For years and years I spent a significant part of every winter clearing undergrowth in the woodland and removing invasive species of plants, but as we became more and more involved with our local VFD, I gave up time in the woodland because I was spending it at grassfires and wildfires instead. So, with less time spent in the woods, it is hard to know what's growing well. That situation became even dicier in the drought of 2008, when I had two encounters with a cougar. Ironically, in both cases the cougar came out of the woods directly adjacently to my garden, and wandered along beside the garden fence. So I actually had the encounters with the cougar in the yard/garden and not the woods, but because the cougar came out of the woodland, I stopped going into it alone and unarmed. We also have had feral pigs at the back of our property, roughly 1100' from the house, several times, which put a halt to me venturing back there (even in snake season) to pick wild plums. A couple of times the feral pigs have made it to within 200 or 250' of our house, so I have to be really careful any time I go outdoors. When we moved here, I hoped that when the wildlife adjusted to us being here on this property, they'd kind of move further away from the house. I was wrong about that. If anything, every year they become more abundant near the house. I blame some of that on too many years of recurring drought. When the greenest area and the spot with the most potential food sources is the acre or two around the house and outbuildings, then that is where the wildlife go. Now, I hate the highly invasive mulberry trees and don't want them anywhere near me. The birds plant them (and wild grapes) endlessly all along our fencelines, the garden fence (where I don't need anything invasive), ponds, etc. and they grow fast and spread and take over. We spend a couple of days every year in late summer taking out mulberries, hackberries, wild grapes and other wildlife-sown plants that easily invade and spread and get out of control. The wildlife can sow seeds of whatever they want in the woodland, but in the areas where I am trying to grow stuff for us, I want them to stay away and not fill my gardens with stuff I don't want. Every year the squirrels plant about 10,000 pecans and acorns in my fenced veggie garden space, and every spring I yank out all those young seedlings. Mulberries, wild grapes, native pecans and oaks have their place, but it isn't in my garden. I don't plant much of anything in our landscape that cannot tolerate being eaten by wildlife, and I don't plant anything that needs a lot of water because most summers, rainfall is low to almost non-existent. Even the native plants that thrive in these conditions are less common than they were before 2011. In some cases, plants that were abundant before 2011 never really have recovered from that horrific drought, and in order cases, they have sprouted and grown and died in drought every year since then so that every attempt at a comeback largely fails. This means our natural landscape is changing and evolving to tolerate increasingly more common drought periods, and our native grasses and forbs continue to change and evolve as that occurs. We spend most of every year on the U. S. Drought Monitor classified as being "abnormally dry". Well, to me, if we are spending, let's say, 30 weeks a year being "abnormally dry", then to me it isn't abnormal any more----it is the new normal. The weather and drought agencies won't recognize it as the new normal for us, though, until we have seen it seriously affect our 30-year-averages from which they derive the norms. Native milkweeds ebb and flow a lot around here where they have to survive only on rainfall. Some years they are plentiful, and some years they are sparse. This year they are very, very sparse. The one I see most often is green milkweed, but this year we only have had maybe a half-dozen of them grow and bloom. Most years we have dozens, or even hundreds. This trend doesn't bother me as much as you'd think because I still see plenty of them nearby on property that has sandy soil. We mostly have clay with only a couple of bands of sandy soil running through it, so we've never had milkweed that is as abundant as those sandier areas have. I've never seen the milkweed vine here, so suspect it doesn't like our recurring droughts, or our highly alkaline soil and highly alkaline water. Every now and then I'll see a showy milkweed and we had swamp milkweed back when we had a swamp. Now? Nope. Bon, The birds plant sumac for us, so maybe they'll plant some for you. Carol, I agree with you on the redbuds. I'd never plant one on purpose because they look pretty crappy for most of the growing season. They seem prone to every kind of foliar leaf spot a person could dream up. I do love them when they're in bloom, and we have several dozen of them scattered around our woodland so I enjoy seeing them. When they're out of bloom? I don't even notice them until they start looking especially ugly. Dawn

Amy, It was great but we missed you and wished you had been there with us. Jen, I would hope so! If you didn't take home enough plants to keep your busy, then cleary that means you must take home a lot more next year. Mia, They both do vine and do best on a trellis. However, you could let them sprawl if you want. With the Armenian cukes, I grow them both ways....letting each plant climb or spray as it prefers, and get a great harvest either way. With the summer squash plants that are C. moschata, they vine wildly and will do so whether on the ground or climbing something. I find them easier to control on a trellis. In lieu of a trellis, how about an extra large bamboo teepee for each plant? I can just picture a certain little Sprout playing inside each teepee this summer. Dawn