If you look closely at the photo I've attached you'll see the new bud growth (4) at the bases of two of the three remaining branches. Because of a lack of proper sun light I've acquired a grow lamp that could be contributing to this new bud growth but I alse have to thank moochinka for the advise to cut back on some of the branches.These are the three remaining branches. They seem to be getting longer and longer, but on a positive note though there is the (4) new bud growth. Is there a safe way to control the growth length of these three remaining branches without damaging the tree? It just seems so stringly and spindly at this stage! Is there any way I can promote more new budding at the bases of the limbs? The orphan and its companions are thriving thanks to the knowledge I've acquired on the forum. Thanks bonsaiprice

Actually, that was the side I didn't do anything to other than cut a few of the larger berry bushes at the bottom of the hill. That birch is in rough shape and without staking it up and waiting several years, it won't survive. I would just assume take it down since it's not really in a great location anyway. I hate to do it since they are becoming relatively scarce due to disease and insects. This picture http://minus.com/lbx4OfKnwRF4xc shows what are definitely blackberry/raspberry bushes. I wouldn't mind having them, in fact I would welcome having a ton more, just not here. Being on the slope they will not be easy to get to when the mature and have fruit. If there was a way to transplant them or something I would love to hear it. I had tried it in the past, but the only way I have ever seen them grow was by accident and negligence. Based on the size of a few of the lower bushes, I would bet they may produce a limited amount of fruit. The smaller ones at the top of the hill however are definitely not mature enough from my experience. Going off on a tangent... I loved having berry bushes growing up and we had a large sandy area on my parent's property that they grew like crazy in. They eventually began to die off and my dad chopped them all down. The began to come back by the time I went to college, but it took a while to get any amount of fruit from them. My last year at college I rented a small cottage on a back road that had the biggest patch of black raspberries I had ever seen. I started picking as soon as they began to ripen and then ever couple days for the next 3 weeks. I stopped for lack of room in the freezer for 1gal ziplock bags. I made at least a dozen pint jars of jam and a few quarts. I gave a bunch away but i'm hoarding the last few of the "good" batch for myself. :) So in other words, I would love to have berry bushes, just not where they are. A lot of what you see on the ground on the left side (looking from the house) is debris and not much in the way of live plants other than some weeds. Obviously it is still very early here and not much has come up yet though. The tree shown in the background of this picture http://minus.com/lbwhVJrx76OE9d appears to be planted from what is left of the mulch/preparation around the base. This shot http://minus.com/lvFny84VUSjeW shows a rock swail that comes down from what is left of the last owners fish pond sort of thing. There is a reddish low lying plant growing on either side that I failed to get a close up picture of. It appears that it will look nice later in the spring but needs some weeding and/or mulching. I will take your advice and try posting some pictures on the "name that plant" forum. In the meantime, would I benefit from getting some sort of tall meadow grass mix to put down in a few weeks? *whoops, I wrote a book

Hi Ilene, Welcome to the Oklahoma Gardening Forum. Thanks for sharing your ideas. I think you will find us to be a friendly, congenial group. :) SOIL, PH, ORGANIC MATERIAL: With regards to your question about soil pH, have you ever had your soil tested? If you have had a soil test and know the pH of your soil, then working to raise the pH is a fairly simple thing. If you haven't had a soil test, you might be wasting your time and money adding amendments that are not precisely what you need. For example, the soil in my county averages out at a pH of 5.9, but my soil stays closer to 7.0. So, I base my soil amendments on what I know is going on with my soil. If I had tried to amend my soil based on the average for my county, though, I could have created additional problems for myself. When you have a soil test done, they will tell what amendments to add and at what rate to apply them. For a home gardener, they usually tell you how much to add for how many square feet of garden or lawn space. For a commercial grower, they will express it in how many pounds (or whatever) to add per acre. If your tomato crop was fine 2 years ago but did not do all that well last year, it is probably more related to the drought than to your soil. On the other hand, if your tomato crop yield has been less and less each year for a few years, then you probably have some sort of deficiency in your soil. Last year was a very hard year for home vegetable gardeners and their tomatoes, not just in Oklahoma, but in many parts of the country. I have the hard, red clay soil that dries and cracks badly in the heat and then turns into sticky, mucky stuff when it rains. I have been working to improve this soil since moving here in 1999. Over the course of the years, I have added the following at various times: compost (every year), greensand and lava sand, composted cow manure (both from local cows and from bags purchased at Lowe's), lime, fireplace ashes, shredded leaves, grass clippings (added as mulch to top of beds where it eventually decomposes and enriches the soil), old half-decomposed hay and/or straw, composted chicken manure from my own chickens, peat moss, rabbit manure (both purchased commercially in bags and our own rabbit manure composted here in our pile), leaf mold, bone meal, blood meal and finely shredded bark mulch. Yes, I have seen great improvement in the soil and in the yield of my garden crops. It is a long, continuing process that will never end. Having said that, I don't have to do nearly as much amending as I used to. The absolute most important thing you can do for your soil is to give it lots and lots of organic material. Soil that has a good amount of organic material usually doesn't have pH problems. Many of the Oklahoma soils that have pH problems are commercially farmed soils that have been farmed for years and years. Every year, the crop that is planted removes some of the cations (nutrients) from the soil. Every year the amount of organic material in the soil will decrease naturally as those cations are used up. Soil that is plowed or tilled repeatedly will lose organic material at a quicker rate than soil that is not plowed/tilled. The combination of using up the cations quickly, not adding much if any organic material back to the soil, and continual plowing/tilling are part of the reasons that agricultural soil tests at a lower and lower pH over time. When the state does the soil tests for each county that they use to track soil fertility, including pH, I believe they do NOT include samples taken from residential lawns and gardens in the county-wide and state-wide averages that they prepare. The reason is that residential lawns and gardens are maintained differently from the commercially cropped areas, and the main goal of the county-wide and state-wide averages is to let commercial growers know what they need to do to their county's soil to keep it in good shape for commercial crops. ANTS: Ants can be annoying, but I try to tolerate them as I think every insect has a role to fulfill in the food chain. One method of getting the ants to go away is to spray the ground with a mixture of water and peppermint soap or peppermint essential oils. I use Dr. Bronner's pepppermint castille soap which I buy at a health food store. I add a tablespoon or two to a sprayer full of water, mix it up, and spray the ground where the ants are. The ants don't like the scent of the peppermint so they pack up and move away. I especially like to use this to change the path they follow as they travel around the yard. For example, for a while the big red ants liked to follow a path that led them right by the outside water faucet. If I happed to stop near that faucer to turn the water on or off or to hook up a hose, the red ants were pretty quick to climb up on me and sting me. One spraying of the soap solution made them change their path. TOMATOES: Sometime, when you are't too busy, post us your list of tomato varieties that you are growing this year. I grow mostly heirloom, open-pollinated ones too, and raise my own from seed. This year I have 95 varieties. Of those, about 80 different varieties and 120 plants are already in the ground. We were just talking about Darrell Merrell, the tomato man, the other day. It is our understanding that he is ill and that his daughters are now running the business. I don't know of a specific list that details which kinds of plants prefer acidic soil over alkaline or neutral soil or vice versa, although I suspect such lists could be found by googling. Dawn

I would think salvia and lantana would look good together. However, some salvias are perennial and others are annual, and some of the annuals reseed - prolifically. Also, sometimes lantana is borderline here, meaning it might winter over if we have a mild winter, or it might be winter killed. It would be good to get perennial salvia if you want it to come back next year. If you get the blues or purples, you might want something like a yellow coneflower or yellow achillea to go with it, instead of lantana, unless you don't mind the possibility of losing the lantana. Both of these pretty much bloom all summer. If you lived close to OKC, I'd be happy to share some divisions of plants with you, like the yellow achillea (Coronation Gold). I don't have any blue or purple salvia right now, but I have tall blue balloon flower, which is a perennial and very pretty, too. I also have some Speedwell which is bluish/purple, a perennial, too. All of these plants are pretty compatible as to watering, sun, soil, and other needs. If you buy plants, make sure you check the plant heights for the purpose you have in mind. As to tilling, I don't till. Tilling tends to bring up more dormant weed seeds. Weed seeds can lie dormant for years. You might want to check out lasagna gardening. It is layering. First layer is newspaper or cardbord. Second, is loam, top soil, whatever. Third layer, is compost or manure. Last, but not least, is mulch. You just plant right into it. You can google "lasagna gardening" and get lots of tips. These are just my experiences and suggestions, and I wish you good luck. Congratulations on your new first home! Susan