I live "in town" and have a relatively small yard this time. I will see, what all comes up this year, since I ripped most of the English Ivy out in about one quarter of the yard.

I am still digging out bermuda (story of my life, LOL) and planting stuff here and there, as I get spots ready.

My passion is to eradicate all the bermuda and have a no mow yard.

Moni

oklamoni, I'm in the bermuda digging club too! I got two beds cleared out over spring break, have 2 to go, and am still trying to reclaim an area that got bermuda in it a couple of years ago. No way I can get rid of all of it, but the desired bermuda-free-zone gets bigger all the time.

hmmm. My garden passion...I am in my first full year of gardening the same space my dad gardened for 50 years, and so I know every plant and tree, including a Queen Elizabeth rose that is older than me, so my passion is taking good care of my most meaningful old parts, but putting our own stamp on it too. I mean, I've gardened it for awhile now, but this is the first year it really feels like my space. (We moved out for awhile to totally remodel the house)

I'm a lifelong gardener and I don't know how to answer this question because I grow everything. Obviously, my favorite plant to grow is the tomato plant. I'm trying to cut back to 100 plants this year, but think I'll end up with more than that.

I love growing veggies and I love being able to feed our family healthy, wholesome, organically-grown food straight from our own garden. I don't grow a lot of cool-season veggies because our 'cool season' here in far southern OK ends very early. I do have potatoes, garlic, onions, broccoli, carrots, spinach, mesclun mix and lettuce in for our cool-season crops. For warm-season crops, I grow tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet), sweet corn, pumpkins and winter squash, beans, black-eyed peas, okra, summer squash, muskmelons and cantaloupe, cucumbers, watermelon, sweet potatoes, swiss chard and other odds and ends (whatever strikes my fancy).

In the herb area, it varies from year to year, but always several kinds of basil and parsley, fennel, lemon balm, borage, chamomile, mint, sage, rosemary, catmint, chives, garlic chives, dill and lemon verbena....and catnip for the cats.

For flowers, I have had to experiment a lot to find which ones are low-maintenance, can handle our red clay soil, can tolerate very rainy, "soggy" years as well as drought, and aren't too terribly attractive to the deer and rabbits. The flowers I have every year are cannas, four o'clocks, irises, daffodils, dutch hyacinths, various amaranths and celosias, verbena bonariensis, malva "Zebrina", Texas Hummingbird Sage, several perennial salvias, hollyhocks (fenced to the deer can't get them), poppies, nicotiana, gomphrena, yarrow, veronica, dianthus, zinnias, dusty miller, daturas and brugmansias, larkspur, a few roses, Laura Bush Pink and Laura Bush Purple (native) petunias, Mexican petunias, sunflowers, Mexican sunflowers, cleome, Texas red star hibiscus, the common swamp mallow, crinum lilies, and a whole host of wildflowers (not planted by me) and some wildflowers planted by me (Texas Bluebonnets and "Alamo Fire" red-flowered Texas Bluebonnets). I grow lots of annual flowering vines, including purple hyacinth bean, morning glories, moonvine flowers, black-eyed susan vine, cypress vine, cardinal climber and mina lobata.

In the water garden I have red, pink, white and yellow water lilies, yellow-flowered lotus, and pickerel weed.

We have fruit trees and blackberries. We have landscape plants too, although I don't talk about them a lot. : ) My favorite trees and shrubs are planted closest to the house....Southern Wax Myrtles, Chaste Tree (Vitex Agnus-Catus), Desert Willow (LOL--not a willow and not a desert plant either), Dwarf Burford Holly, native Oaks, native Persimmons, and Purple Wintercreeper as a ground cover on the north and northeast sides of the house. For landscape vines, we have Virginia Creeper (native in our woods, and transplanted to landscape areas near the house), yellow-flowered and orange-flowered trumpet creeper, wisteria, and American Cross Vine.

We have native woodlands and my favorite of the undergrowth plants is the American Beautyberry, of which there are dozens. We have native praire-type pastures which include a lovely assortment of native grasses and forbs, but unfortunately include Johnson Grass.

I spend way too much time fighting Bermuda grass but am slowly winning that war, with a combination of digging it out and replacing it with desirable plants and also shading it out as the trees, shrubs and groundcovers grow.

I grow a little of everything as you can see, and a lot of veggies. Unfortunately, way too much of my warm-season time is taken up by mowing and weed-eating our large property. I try to leave the pastures tall and just cut 8' pathways in them so we can walk through them without stepping on snakes, but during drought years we have to cut them short to reduce the fuel load if there are a lot of fires.

My favorite native flowering trees are redbuds (we have dozens) and Mexican plums (we have a dozen or two) for the flowers, and possumhaw holly for the delightful scent of the tiny flowers.

We have dogs and cats, chickens and guineas, tropical fish in the house and assorted fish in the lily pond, every kind of wildlife you can imagine (and some, like ring-tailed cats, that most people have never heard of) and (most years) tons of butterflies and moths, wild birds including hummers and purple martins, and one young pet ferret.

Because I am not as young as I used to be, I am trying really hard over time to make the place low-maintenance....looking down the road to our "golden years" and hoping that, by then, most of the grass will have been replaced by other plants and we won't have to mow bermuda grass forever. It is a slow process though, although the tiny trees we planted a decade ago are beginning to get large enough to shade out the bermuda in some places.

And, even though I always try to discourage people from planting quick-growing "trash trees", I have planted two here myself.....a Chinaberry tree between the back porch and lily pond because I love its leaves and the tiny purple flowers and a mimosa tree near the veggie garden for both the hummers and us. I LOVE mimosa trees. I think that, if you have enough space, you can indulge yourself and plant a "trash tree" or two knowing that they are likely to be fairly short-lived. We had mimosa and chinaberry when I was a kid, so having them here makes me feel like I brought a piece of "home" with me to Oklahoma.

Dawn

This is the first time in quite a few years that I have a place for a large vegetable garden. Last year was the first year for the garden. I manage a campground and the owners were nice enough to let me put in a garden. We have nothing but woods everywhere. We found an open area that gets lots of sun that determined where the garden would go. Fortunately it is close to my trailer so it is easier for me to care for.
Last year I put in tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, and collard greens. This year I am adding potatoes, asparagus, brussel sprouts, mustard greens, corn, zucchini, 2 winter squash(I've not decided which ones yet, too many choices)and lots of flowers and herbs.
Last year it was about 16' x 32'. This year I'm adding another section about that size. That will be all we can do. The open area for sun ends there.
I have raised beds with fencing around because of the deer, racoon, rabbits, and possums we have here. So far it has been effective. I don't know if it will keep the deer out when we plant corn.
Of course even in the woods bermuda grass becomes a continual problem as soon as you clear a space for a garden. I don't remember ever seeing any grass there before we cleared.
I have small flower beds by my trailer. I'm hoping to put in a larger one near the vegetables. I also have lots of daffodils, tulips and irises planted out among the trees. I wanted to keep the natural woods appearance rather than a planned garden look so planted them to look like they grew wild among trees and leaves. Thanks to Brian in Tulsa for all the irises he gave me.
Thank you to all of you for the wonderful information you give. I am continually learning new things.

You're more than welcome in regard to the iris ... I still have a couple hundred more should you feel a desire to plant more :-) I've even talked my aunt in Minnesota into taking some ... as long as I pay the shipping LOL.

I've drastically scaled back my yard plans for this year ... my job is killing my free time ... but at least I have a job so I'm not going to complain.

The iris, which I'd planned to get rid of except for maybe 20 plants, are safe for another year. The backyard where the fish pond is (which is coming out due to the pump system dying) is going to be left alone due to the time constraints. Instead I'll be concentrating on getting my raised veggie beds built/planted, a largish flower bed established in front of the house, the area immediately arond the house cleared out and leveled and last, but not least, getting fruit trees planted where I took out the 20 crepe myrtles.

I'm being experimental when it comes to fruit trees so I'll post success/failures once I get a feel for how the different varieties respond to life in Tulsa. I'll include the nursuries I got them from as far as quality/size condition and customer service once they've all arrived. I know I go by personal recommendations (as well as the Garden Watchdog site ratings) when I order things.

Brian

Bluebeeok,

I have a problem with deer getting into the garden but "our" deer have never bothered the corn, so may be yours won't either. Even when the deer have gotten into the garden (before we raised the fence to a height of 7'), they've eaten many other plants (okra, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, sunflowers, green beans, etc.) but they've never touched the cornstalks or the ears of corn. Of course, your results may vary.

Brian,

I have a lily pond with no pump or filtering system and it is not a problem for us. The water stays clear, the fish are happy and the water lilies and other plants are too gorgeous. The pond is a great source of enjoyment as it always has frogs, fish, dragonflies, etc. It is an earth bottom pond and gets virtually zero maintenance and is the one feature in our garden that everyone universally loves. Even the people who tell me they love our veggie garden but wouldn't have one themselves because it is "too much work" just adore the water garden.

I do hope you'll keep us posted on your fruit trees. I want to plant more here, but will have to fence the area where they'll be because the deer will destroy them otherwise.

Dawn

Hey Dawn ... earth bottom pond? How on earth (no pun intended) does the water not seep out ... especially since you're in such a severe drought?

brian

I have been a Daylily nut with over 300 types trying to breed, Roses out my ears and topicals everywhere. I am now in Oklahoma and I am in love with the old flowers - Iris, roses, and annuals my grandmother grew. I am a huge veggie gardener and I love to grow things from seed.

I have been growing things from the time I was two - so about 27 years of growing experience and still have sooo much to learn. I still try to garden the way my grandparents and great grandparents did - and I am slowly relearning all of that again.

Okie:

Anyone who likes mimosa trees is okay by me....but, I second Brian's question, how do you keep your earth bottom pond filled? I have one, too, but it goes dry. I've considered lining it with bentonite but haven't. Also, I've considered a pond liner, but hey, that would cost several thousand dollars to do.

Also, if I wanted to spend several thousand dollars I could drill another water well and keep it filled that way, but it seems such a waste to destroy the aquifer for a trivial pleasure like a water lily pond....

All right, you guys, keeping the water in the clay soil is easier than it seems......I HAVE CLAY SOIL. Heavy, red, thick, mucky, yucky, impossible-to-drain-when-it-is-wet and impossible-to-wet-when-it-is-dry clay soil. The issue for us, therefore, is not how to hold the water, but how to get the water to drain. So, the pond was impossibly easy to build.

Our backhoe guy, Elvis, was here in the late spring of 2000 digging a hole in which to place our 6' x 8' pre-fab tornado shelter. I asked him how much more it would cost to get him to dig me a "little" pond for my water lilies and he told me that his hourly rate was the same no matter what he was digging. So, I asked him to dig me a more-or-less-round (but not perfectly round) pond about 15' in diameter, two feet deep, and with gently sloping sides (so turtles could wade in, etc.). It took him about 10 minutes! The dirt he removed was used to fill in a gully elsewhere on the property.

After he dug it, we filled it with the water hose and of course, the water was about the same color as what you see in the Red River (we are VERY close to the Red River so that is not surprising.) We put the water lilies (in pots) into the pond although they eventually outgrew their pots and rooted into the pond bottom. Over time we added other plants like saggitaria and pickerel rush. Native sedges and other water loving plants essentially appeared out of nowhere and began growing at the edge of the pond.

The first few months, it really wasn't 100% "waterproof" and there was some seepage. Over time, though, as decomposing plant material deposited on the bottom of the pond, it formed a layer (and that layer has a name and I remember seeing it in Tim Matson's book, but I don't remember what it is) that basically helped seal the pond. Once that happened, the water cleared up and has been pretty and clear ever since unless we dig and disturb the pond bottom. Even then, though, the water eventually clears on its own.

In a rainy year, the pond stays full all on its own. In a dry year, I add water a couple of times a month to make up for whatever is evaporating out.

The fish, frogs, turtles, dragonflies, water skimmers and other critters showed up on their own. I do think DS may have "saved" some small fish from the creek and put them in the pond during a drought year when the creek was drying up. Because the pond is close to the house, the wildlife don't bother it a lot although we'll see an occasional blue heron "fishing" in the pond, or find raccoon tracks, or (worst of all) see a water moccasin hanging out in the water.

Because of the lay of the land, if the pond is totally full, the excess water during a rainstorm runs downhill to the north so there isn't too much excessive puddling around the pond itself.

The thick, heavy, red, mucky clay is the reason we have five ponds. All you have to do is dig and wait for rainfall and you have a pond.

POND #1: The oldest pond is in clayey-sandy soil and is probably 65-80 years old--no one who lives here really remembers how old that one is. Because of root infiltration from nearby trees, it doesn't hold water all that well so it is essentially an overflow pond that holds runoff during the "rainy season" here, which is roughly from March or April through July or so, at least in a non-drought year. This pond is fairly well silted in but still about 5'-6' deep and is about a half acre. It catches runoff in general, and specifically catches excess water from Pond #2.

Pond #2 is the "old stock tank" that has been used to provide water for cattle on this land since about the 1940s or 1950s up until we built the house in 1998-99 an the cattle had to go. A lot of the locals here have told us stories of swimming as kids in that pond--it was a great place to cool off after a hard day's work. It is also pretty much silted in and is about 6' to 7' deep and, when very full, is about 3/4 of an acre. We have a fishing dock there, but it has dried up repeatedly since the drought of 2005-2006 and currently is empty. It will take a lot of rain to refill it.

POND #3 is the lily pond behind the house that Elvis dug for us in 2000.

POND #4 is the sewage lagoon, dug by Elvis and Ed early in 1999. When the perk test showed that we'd need hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of feet of lateral line to drain the water from the septic system, the DEQ guy recommended we put in a lagoon instead. So, it is about 150' from the house, has what is essentially sterile water by the time it reaches the lagoon and is a wildlife haven. All the wildlife prefer it. It never dries up but it almost did during the exceptional (D-4) drought of 2005-2006.

POND #5 sits at the northeast corner of my veggie garden. The veggie garden is on a slope and we had Elvis put in this small pond (about 5' deep and about 13' or 14' feet in diameter) to halt erosion. It is essentially a wildlife pond and is usually full of frogs and such. One of our dogs considers it his own personal swimming pool when it has water in it. It has been dry for over a year now because too little rain has fallen to refill it since the heavy rains stopped in July 2007. I think it probably dried up about Nov. or Dec. '07 and hasn't had any water in it since then except for temporary runoff that soaks into the pond bottom within a few hours of a heavy rain.

We also have springs in at least three areas, but none of those areas are suitable for a pond or we'd have put in a spring-fed pond. One spring does feed the swamp and the other two feeds the creeks. One dries up periodically and that creek has been empty for most of the last three years (since the 2005-2006 drought) but the other two have never dried up).

If y'all had my heavy red clay soil, you could have all the ponds you wanted. The larger issue is how to garden in that clay. In the veggie garden, I have build raised beds, for the most part, or at least have really, really improved the clay tremendously even where I didn't build a raised bed (the corn and pumpkin patch are not raised) and neither are the flower borders).

Around the house, it has taken tons of amending the soil just to be able to plant shrubs and trees that "tolerate" clay. I don't have anything in that area that "needs" good drainage.

On the east side of the house, the clay was truly impenetrable. Couldn't dig it. Couldn't rototill it. So, while Elvis was at the house putting in Pond #3 and Pond #5 and the storm cellar, he dug out the clay for the east-facing shrub bed, essentially leaving me a 12" deep bowl that held water just like a regular pond. How did we turn that into a well draining bed? It took six years of sheet composting.....putting every compostable material we could get our hands on into the bed and letting it do its' thing. We also added back a small amount of clay over time, and bagged potting soil and lots of bagged soil conditioner (a humus/pine bark fines mix). It was not terribly attractive, but every spring I planted annual flowers in there and mulched them and no one knew sheet composting was occurring there. Finally, between the sheet composting and the action of earthworms, the clay bowl stopped being a mini-pond and became a well-drained bed, but it took forever.

If our clay had refused to hold water (which I never thought was going to happen), we would have used betonite.

In the rare exceptionally rainy year (2004 and the first 6.5 months of 2007), we have standing water everywhere. Since a rainy year is fairly rare, we don't have that too often though. And because we're on a slope, it basically runs off.

Two books I read that I really enjoyed were Tim Matson's first book on building earth-bottom ponds and the late, great, Ardmoreite (that's a resident of Ardmore for all you new Oklahomans) Louise Riotte's pond book, which is called "Catfish Ponds and Lily Pads".

Dawn

My passions change from year to year. I used to live in the suburbs and had a very small yard by choice from having to do all the yardwork, alone, for years as I was having children and I could never sit down to rest. Now I have 1 1/2 acres and I still do all of it but the children are grown so mowing the lawn is my escape. I get alot of planning done when I'm out there mowing. It's a stress reliever.

I try to grow a new vegetable every year out in the flower bed. I always have cherry tomatoes and there's always basil with other herbs for cooking and fragrance as I'm out there working. I love fragrant plants.

Since we've been here, I've been trying to grow trees to create my own park with flowering trees and trees that have nice fall color.

I did make a pond when we moved here for the goldfish one of my sons had since he was young. The first summer, it was eaten by the neighborhood heron but we have replaced it and some kind of frog has made it's home out there. This pond is only a 6' diameter stock tank so it doesn't require much maintenance.

I tried roses but lost interest because of the blackspot and rose mosaic virus ,etc. They have to be babied too much.

This year my passion will be killing bermuda grass. I've been out there every day to remove more from the flower beds. I had a case of lazy last year and the bermuda got away from me so I'm a little more motivated to fight it back and gain some control.

Well ... I did take into consideration that you have red clay ... but apparently yours gives a whole new meaning to clay. I had red clay when I lived in the Atlanta metro area before being transferred here, but even that stuff drained eventually (2 to 3 days). You must have clay on steroids :-)

I have a fairly high water table on my place ... and a fair amount of clay (mine's black) and there were originally two ponds here when I bought the place. The smaller one was poorly done/designed so I pulled it out immediately (the pre-fab liners you buy at Lowe's). It had water sitting in the bottom initially but dried up within two weeks. I'm fairly sure that would happen to the larger pond I'm planning on taking out.

If I were to have a pond, and I do like them, I wouldn't bother with the small, pre-fab types that were installed here. The large pond was about 450 gallons ... and it was difficult keeping it even remotely clear.

Some day I may look at putting another one in ... but with the entire yard to be done, plus the total remodel the interior of the house requires, and just me to do all of it ... well, I think it'll be a while before a pond is a possibility.

Thanks for the info ... and the book references.

Brian

Brian,

The first 39 years of my life, I lived in Texas with what is affectionately known as "black gumbo clay", so I "thought" I understood clay. When we were searching for property in Oklahoma, I didn't even care if it was sandy soil or clay, as long as it wasn't rocky--I thought I knew how to deal with clay. I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Your description of our red clay as being clay on steroids is a great one. I've never seen anything like it. It holds water forever during the rainy season but then dries so hard that you can't break the surface with any tool. I have to add about 4 times as much in the way of amendments as I did to the black clay.

I suspect our red clay isn't really soil at all....it is really and truly the subsoil left after the Dust Bowl years blew away all the true soil.

One thing that helps me keep my sanity is that we have one narrow band of sandy soil where I can plant a few things that don't like clay. That band is roughly 40' wide and about 80' long. The main plant in that sand is a huge pecan tree, but parts of the sand run along the western edge of my veggie garden. I also have some fruit trees in the sandier area and in a sandy-clay transition zone. Without the band of sandy soil and the small pleasures it gives me (ooh--I can actually dig in it! LOL), there are times I think the clay would drive me stark raving mad. The combination of this red clay and bermuda.....well, it is just scarey.

Dawn

Garden passion... uhm. Well, let me give this a shot.

Jerreth and I love to be as self sufficient as we can, raising and producing as much of what we consume as we can. Together we do a lot of preserving, whether it be drying, freezing or canning. Both of us love to cook... and eat : )

I am personally very much into sustainability when it comes to what I grow. If I can't save seed or stock of some sort, and keep it going, I am not so very inclined to grow something. Hence, all our gardens are "designed" for seed production and isolation distances are pretty much observed for crops such as beans, peas, cowpeas, tomatoes, etc.

I really don't like to exercise, if exercise is the goal of the activity! But I do LOVE to work the land and care for our animals. We raise dairy goats, chickens, turkeys, (had ducks and hope to get more soon). We have horses. We have honey bees. We have a number of types of fruit. We also have a great spring fed pond, and try to get a meal out of it a week, during the warm months of the year.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Oh man, I love this thread and just got around to reading it!
Ok, for me, we just moved onto a city lot last fall. I have wanted for a long time to take a city lot and see how well I could make it an urban homestead. I am starting with a lot here in Moore that is 60' by 110', of course taking away the space occupied by our home (have to have somewhere to eat, sleep, etc.) which is about 25' x 40'.
I have worked up some curvy planting beds in front and planted 2 trees. I have started a veggie garden in the back that is about 30'x60' and am sheet composting to try to avoid tilling and smother out the grass (we shall see). I just put down seed potato on part of it and covered with some composted manure (real old stuff) but it looked like it had some grass roots (yikes). So if everying starts looking green in a month, I think I will cover the whole area with black plastic and let it cook this summer instead of battiling the grass.
I just love to grow things, whether its for eating or plants to enjoy looking at and perhaps smelling!
But I think my deal right now is seeing just what I can do with a normal city lot...without breaking the bank or my back!