It varies a lot here because there are so many different microclimates in the area. For permanent landscape plants, you can plan on a range from zones 5 to 7 depending on where you're located, aspect, slope, wind exposure, etc. Most of the nurseries (the local ones, not the big box stores) stock plants that tend to do well, if you plant them in the right location. For example, I've seen many plants that are marginal for zone 7 do well here in a sheltered area where the winter lows are mitigated somewhat. When in doubt, ask. They ought to be able to tell you more. The sunset western garden book is a good place to start, but it doesn't hurt to walk around your neighborhood and notice what plants are doing well and where. Also take a stroll through the arboretum for inspiration. The UNR cooperative extension (http://www.unce.unr.edu/) has loads of searchable publications on landscaping, gardening (including vegetable gardening), and agriculture in general. They also host the Master Gardeners, who can help you diagnose and advise you how to treat plant problems.

Hi Shannyn, Welcome to Oklahoma! Also, welcome to the Oklahoma Forum. I am going to guess that our weather and soil are going to make you feel like you've moved halfway across the world instead of halfway across the country. I believe you will love it here once you adjust to our very erratic weather and learn that staying indoors during the "hot part" of the July and August days makes summer almost bearable. During those months I try to finish my gardening tasks by 10 a.m. or at least no later than noon, and don't go back outside until 5 or 6 p.m. Working outside in the heat of the day with our heat and humidity can be dangerous, so pace yourself. VEGETABLES: I am going to assume you're talking about heirloom vegetables. (If you're talking about heirloom flowers, we can go back and talk about them later in the thread.) COOL-SEASON VS. WARM-SEASON: Many newcomers to Oklahoma think that we have one long growing season here because we are frost-free from roughly April through November in much of the state, and even from March-December in the southern part of the state in a very warm year. However, we have very distinct mini-seasons within that long frost-free period in which different crops must be planted so they can grow at the right times. COOL-SEASON CROPS: Beginning as early as January in far southern OK where I live, you can put onions (short-day, intermediate-day or day-neutral types, but not long-day types like they grow up north) in the ground, although most people in the rest of the state will plant them in February. Potatoes go in next, either in Feb.-Mar. and most other cool-season crops can be planted in Feb.-Mar., including peas, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, spinach and other greens, etc. Brussels Sprouts do better as a fall crop because it gets too hot too early here for them to form many sprouts before the heat ruins their flavor and makes them too bitter to eat. Most of these crops will be "finished" sometime in June, or even in May in far southern OK. The nice thing about Oklahoma is that you can plant a second round of cool-season crops in late summer for harvest in autumn. WARM-SEASON CROPS: Most warm-season crops can go into the ground in mid- to late-March in southern Oklahoma, and in April in the rest of the state. I'll link the OSU vegetable planting guide below for you and think that, since you are in Moore, you generally could plant right in the mid-point of the range of dates they show. You also can grow some true heat-lovers here that might not have done well for you in NY if you tried to grow them there. These include melons of all types, sweet potatoes, southern peas (crowder peas, cream peas, black-eyed peas, etc.), and sweet potatoes. They all go in later than most other warm-season crops because they like really warm soil. HEIRLOOM VARIETIES: Many heirloom varieties do well here. I'll try to list a few or, if I've found all the heirlooms do equally well, I'll say that. ASPARAGUS: Most people here grow the newer all-male types due to their higher productivity so I won't even try to list any heirloom varieties. However, I've never seen a variety of asparagus, new or old, that doesn't produce well here if properly maintained. BEANS: All pole and bush types do well here except for the runner beans and some of the half-runners, and their problem is that they don't produce well in our heat. I especially like the following (but like I said previously, all but the runners do well here): McCaslan, Lazy Housewife, Black Valentine, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Tendergreen Improved, Jacob's Cattle, Kentucky Wonder, Rattlesnake, Henderson Bush Lima and Christmas Lima. BEETS: They all seem to do well here although slow to germinate in cold soil. BROCCOLI: I grow the heirloom sprouting types in the fall (any and all do equally well) but grow hybrids with short days-to-maturity in the spring because that's the only way to get a harvest. From a March planting, you can harvest in May thru early June and then the heat both causes the plants to flower and ruins the flavor. A couple of quick-maturing varieties we grow in spring include Premium Crop, Packman and Small Miracle. Waltham and the sprouting types can be grown in the fall. BRUSSELS SPROUTS: In the fall, you can get a good harvest from Falstaff or Jade Cross if planted in mid-July through mid-August for a harvest from mid-October through November. CABBAGE: Any type I've tried does well here as a spring-planted crop harvested in early summer or a mid- to late-summer planting harvested in late fall. CARROTS: Any and all do well here and I like growing a rainbow of carrots in different colors. If you have heavy clay soil you'll have to stick with some of the shorter ones like Little Fingers, Parmex and Thumbelina. CAULIFLOWER: Any cauliflower I've planted has grown just fine in spring, including Early Snowball and the colored ones like Graffiti, Cheddar and Green Harmoney. CELERY: Very, very iffy here but can be grown with great attention to planting times and creating the perfect microlimate for it. CHARD: All varieties grow well here including Fordhook, Five-Color Silverbeet and Rhubarb Chard, and the newer hybrids like Neon Lights and Bright Lights. The chards produe all summer long and look striking in the garden. You do have to keep them picking while the leaves are fairly small in the hottest part of the summer or the leaves get too tough. CORN: I grow mostly sweet corns, and our all-time favorite is Country Gentleman (shoepeg) although we also grow and like Golden Bantam and Texas Honey June (seed for it is available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange). I grow hybrids as well, and am especially partial to Serendipity. We also have grown and liked Silver Queen and Merit for many years. CUCUMBERS: If there is a cuke that won't grow and produce here, I haven't found it. I like Chicago Pickling, but also grow some of the bush-type picklers like Spacemaster and Picklebush so I can cram more plants into the ground. Lemon Cucumber is an heirloom that thrives in the heat, but be sure you harvest it while it is smaller and no darker than lemon yellow. EGGPLANT: They all do well here but often have issues with flea beetles if planted too early. If you wait until May to plant them, the flea beetles usually aren't much of an issue by then (at least here in southern OK). I think the smaller ones in the fascinating range of whites, lavenders, etc. taste better than the older, larger dark purple ones Pingtung Long Ichiban Rosa Biana GREENS: Collard greens, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, etc. all do well as cool-season crops but finish up pretty early here.....by the end of May or earliest June in southern OK. LETTUCE: Any and all do well here and are surprisingly disease-free. However, they are strictly cool-season crops and cannot take our June, July and August heat here in southern OK. Folks in central and northern OK may be able to keep them going into June in a good rainfall year. When you see a variety described as "heat-tolerant" or "produces all summer" or whatever, just remember that although that statement might apply in cooler parts of the country, it doesn't apply here. Lettuce just melts away in our heat. Black-seeded Simpson and Bloomsdale Longstanding are more heat-tolerant than most. MELONS: Most of them do well here although some do better than others. Some of the heirlooms we like are listed below and the list includes true cantaloupes, muskmelons, crenshaw and casaba types, etc. Pike Collective Farm Woman Noir des Carmes Rocky Fore Old-Time Tennessee Ha'Ogen Cochiti Pueblo Schoon's Hard Shell Hollybrook Luscious Piel de Sapo (aka Frogskin Melon) Crane Eden's Gem Early Frame Prescott Prescott Fond Blanc Orange-fleshed Honeydew Christmas Canary Petit Gris de Rennes OKRA: They all grow well here. We like Hill Country Red, Clemson Spineless, and Cowhorn. ONIONS: Any short-day, intermediate day and day-neutral types will grow here. George grows Yellow of Parma. I grow modern-day onions, not hybrids, and get great harvests from Texas Supersweet (aka Texas 1015Y), Candy, Contessa, Super Star, Yellow Granex, Southern Red Belle, etc. A lot of us are trying Red Candy Apple this year, and it is a red version of the very popular sweet onion Candy. In the south, the sweet onions grow better than the hotter long-storage onions which tend to be long-day types that don't bulb up here. PEAS: I can't say much about green peas because I don't grow them here in extreme southcentral OK since we get too hot too early here for them. Mulberryknob (Dorothy) can tell you about peas and so can some of our gardeners from northeastern OK. PEPPERS: I've never met a pepper, heirloom or hybrid, that isn't happy here in our heat. Be careful not to plant them too soon or they'll sulk and be unproductive all year. I plant them 2 or 3 weeks after my last spring tomatoes go in because they need warmer soil. Other than avoiding early planting, any hot or sweet pepper you want to grow will do just fine here RADISHES: All do well here as early cool-season crops. SOUTHERN PEAS: Pennyrile Red Ripper Pinkeye Purple Hull Cream Mississippi Zipper SUMMER SQUASH: Any and all do well here, including Yellow Straightneck, Yellow Crookneck and all the patty pan types. In the zucchini world, we are partial to Costata Romanesco and Cocozelle. In our heat, they get really big really fast, so harvest every day or two before they turn into huge monsters. WINTER SQUASH/PUMPKINS: We have an extensive thread on these that has been around a couple of months now so I won't repeat what is in it. Squash vine borers and disease are hard on certain types and not quite as hard on others. The most disease-resistant one I grow is the heirloom Seminole pumpkin and the best-tasting one for pies is Winter Luxury Pie. If you can't find the old thread via a search of the back pages of this forum, let me know and I'll try to find it. TOMATOES: I hardly know where to start. Many of the ones you are used to growing will not set many if any fruit here. Brandywine is a good example. Excellent flavor, as I am sure you know, but you're lucky to get 6 fruit from a plant in our heat. There are a few of the large-fruited heirlooms that produce well and I'll include them on the lists. Oxheart types do not produce many, if any, fruit in our heat and are a huge disappointment here. CHERRY, GRAPE, CURRANT AND PEAR TYPES: Pretty much all of these grow well here, so you can let your taste buds be your guide. I grow tons of these and dehydrate thousands of the tiny fruit to eat all winter long. Here's a list of some of the ones (both hybrid and heirloom) we like: Black Cherry SunGold SunSugar Lime Green Salad Dr. Carolyn Riesentraube Grape Coyote Tess's Land Race Currant Red Currant Fargo Golden Gem Snow White Super Snow White Orange Santa Ildi Galina's Cuban Yellow grape Yellow Currant Rosalita Red Pear Yellow Pear Sweet Chelsea Sweet Million Isis Candy Bi-Color Cherry PASTE TYPES: Opalka Polish Linguisa Martino's Roma Amish Paste San Marzano Redorta Grandma Mary's Paste Jersey Devil Viva Italia SLICERS: EARLY: Sophie's Choice Glacier Bush Early Girl New Big Dwarf Better Bush Mountain Princess MAIN SEASON: True Black Brandywine Brandywine Sudduth's (better producer than all other BWs here except TBB) Black Krim Ananas Noir Cherokee Purple, Green or Chocolate Indian Stripe Black From Tula Carbon Black Pear Black Plum Chocolate Stripes Paul Robeson Better Boy VFN Druzba Nepal Mule Team Jet Star VF Box Car Willie Aunt Ginny's Purple Aunt Gertie's Gold Dr. Wyche's Yellow (an Oklahoma heirloom from the Hugo area) Dixie Golden Giant Janue Flammee' Persimmon Russian Persimmon Azoychka Livingston's Golden Queen Livingston's Gold Ball Lemon Boy Jubilee (aka Golden Jubilee) Zogola Tangerine Porter Porter Improved (aka Porter's Pride) Black Prince Aunt Ruby's German Green Green Giant German Johnson German Giant German Queen Tennessee Britches Valena Pink Big Rainbow Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Estler's Mortgage Lifter Stump of the World Goliath Momotaro Earl's Faux Pruden's Purple Marianna's Peace Rutgers Sioux Super Sioux Eva Purple Ball Homestead 24 Caspian Pink Coustralee Livingtons's Paragon Livingston's Favorite Livingston's Magnus Livingston's Perfection Liningston's Main Crop Pink Tiffen Mennonite Tappy's Heritage Ramapo Moreton Supersonic Primetime Brandy Boy LONG-KEEPING VARIETIES: Burpee's Red October Burpee's Longkeeper Yellow Out, Red In Old-fashioned Garden Peach Winterkeeper Green Thumb TURNIPS: All do fine here and we like Purple Top White Globe. WATERMELONS: All do fine here as long as they are in full sun and well-drained soil and get lots of moisture. Our all-time favorite is Blacktail Mountain and we grow other smaller ones including Yellow Doll, Bush Sugar Baby, Sugar Baby and Jurasik. Others that have done well (but take up lots of space) include Ali Baba, Moon and Stars, Chriss Cross, Rattlesnake, Crimson Sweet, and many others. FOR FALL TOMATOES: I usally plant a lot of the Livingston varieties and some of the longkeepers plus whatever looked good enough in July that it was allowed to go on into fall. One key to remember is that our summer heat shuts down tomato pollination/fertilization very early so you have to plant your tomato plants as early as you dare and be prepared to cover them up on an occasional "late" cold night. By about the third or fourth week of June most years, the temperatures are high enough that most of the larger tomatoes (not including the small cherry, currant, grape, pear and plum shaped ones) won't set new fruit until the temps drop again, so early planting pays off and late planting means not many tomatoes will be harvested until fall. Some crops you grew in NY cannot handle the heat and do not do well here in general, although some people have managed to create just the right microclimate for them. (That is rare, though.) Rhubarb and raspberries are incredibly hard to grow here as they do not like our heat. Apples and pears can be iffy as the apples often fall victim to cedar-apple rust and they both tend to get fireblight about the time they start bearing crops. Stone fruits like peaches, pears, plums, apricots and almonds grow pretty well here but bloom too early some years and lose the crop to a late frost. Many heirlooms do well here, but it takes trial-and-error to discover which ones can handle the heat. I have found, though, that almost all of them produce pretty well if planted at the appropriate time. Many of them have adequate disease resistance too. I know you'll have many questions as you adapt to our climate and soil. Don't worry. We're right here to help you adjust. Dawn

I'm new to this thread but feel like this crowd might have the answers I'm looking for. I've got a 1918 Craftsman in Oakland, CA with virgin gumwood throughout the living and dining areas. I've spent the last 2 years stripping it (I've got little kids and a full time job). I was able to use denatured alcohol in only a couple of places, got fed up with CitrusStrip and settled on 3M safestrip but needed to strip each area twice to really get it clean. I'm just beginning to sand and realize I want to completely finish the window casings before we hit (hopefully) a rainy season. I've searched all over the web and keep finding partial comments on varnish, shellac, and poly. I'm very comfortable with poly from past smaller projects (mostly furniture). I like the idea of staying true to the original install and going with shellac except that I absolutely need better moisture protection than it will offer. Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't use poly? Can anyone point me to soup to nuts instructions on how to go from raw wood to finished product? Do I need to use anything like a primer? Help! I'm ready to roll but just have so little confidence in creating a plan.

Depending on what zone map you check, you are either in zone 8b or 9. All that reflects is average minimum winter temperatures, indicating any plants with a zone 9 designation or lower will be winter hardy for you. It really has nothing to do with how well fruit trees will perform as that depends on both chill hours and heat units. Different varieties of fruit trees are suitable to different locations/regions of the country based on the chill hours and heat units they require for good production. Your local extension service should be able to recommend suitable varieties for your specific locale. However, if periodic flooding as depicted in the photos is a routine occurrence, choice of suitable fruit trees is a bit moot.........I can't think of any that will tolerate that situation for any longer than a day or so at a time at most. And not recurring events either.