- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today we're back with part two of our youth gardening contests that will feature four additional impressive young people who have a passion for gardening.

For gardening.

Then we'll wrap up the show with a tasty recipe from Christie and Shape Your Future Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma Green and growing Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Shape your future, provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice, the easy choice.

Oklahoma Gardening 50th anniversary.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

- People in Oklahoma love their gardens.

- I feel like this is the People's Show.

We all know we're working towards the common goal, and that's to produce the best quality television and information for our audience.

In celebration of our 50th anniversary, we didn't wanna just look back, we wanted to look towards the future and you guys answered the call for our youth gardening contest.

So we're so excited with the number of entries that we have today.

We're bringing you the second round of Youth Gardening Contest winners.

We are here in Guthrie, Oklahoma, and joining one of our youth contest winners, Michael Reinert.

Michael, you started this garden about four years ago?

- Yes.

It's got everything from onions to potatoes and tomatoes.

Everything - You're, you're growing all the traditional, but you got some unusual stuff like celery back there too.

- Yes.

- Celery, kohlrabi, things like that.

- Yeah.

- How, how are you doing with growing some of these - With celery?

It's, eh, kind of, it gets Sun scald very easily.

Kohl Robbie though it very vigorous.

- Tell me a little bit about how you got started into gardening.

- Well, we've always had a family garden.

One year we had a neighbor who sold stuff at the Farmer's Market at Tractor Supply.

And one year I was just kind of like, well, why can't I do that too?

So I sold some stuff from our family garden.

The first year I used that money to buy seeds for my garden.

- Okay.

And so are you still selling at the Farmer's market?

- Yes, every Saturday.

- All right.

So how, how is that experience taking it from the garden to the business side of things?

- Well, it's interesting 'cause Gardening's pretty straightforward.

The business can get more complicated, but it's still easy.

- Do, do you like the engagement with the customers and are they enjoying your produce?

- I think so, yes.

It getting me a lot of new people.

- Okay.

Well, I know you're active in the 4H Club, the Logan County four H. Tell me a little bit about, are there other Young 4Hers that are looking up to you as a gardener?

- I don't know about looking up to me specifically, but yes, there are lots of others who are into gardening.

- Okay.

And And is this part of your 4H project?

- Yes, it's a big part of my 4H.

- Very good.

And I know you got some siblings though, looking up to you.

Yes.

Tell me about that, what - They're doing.

My sister, she has a garden and it's her first year doing it, so it's still in the new phases.

And my brother has a garden just out of pots.

It's got radishes and beans.

- So what advice do you give your siblings or any other 4Hers or young kids out there about gardening?

- Stay on top of it because if you like it out of hand, you'll never get it back.

- Yeah.

So let's talk a little bit about your garden here.

How do you plan it, organize it, and from year to year, change it?

- Well, planning it, I usually start the year with an idea in my head.

I write down everything in a notebook.

It never turns out the way I write it down, but for changing it year to year, some years last year I had watermelon.

This year I don't have very much watermelon.

I've never grown celery or kohlerabie before it.

That's a new experience, just changes.

- What, what's your favorite thing to grow?

- Tomatoes.

- Tomatoes.

Why is that personal interest or you actually like the plant growing it?

- Both.

They're fun to grow and they grow very well in Oklahoma.

- Yeah.

What is one of the things that you've really learned through this process of gardening and, and wanted to achieve as you continue?

- Well, be careful.

Don't do too much.

Don't buy off more than you can chew - Because those plants grow, right?

Yes.

It takes a lot to manage it.

I can see.

And you're managing it very well.

I like the stra straw mulch that you've put down.

- Yes.

We get a hay bale from our uncle.

They're cattle farmers, so we get hay bale from them and we use the mulch - Very good.

It helps a little bit with those weeds.

Yeah.

And And fortunately this spring you haven't had to worry about watering too much.

- Yeah.

- Well, Michael, thank you so much for sharing your garden with us and we wanna congratulate you on being selected.

We've got some riversport passes thanks to Shape Your Future and also one of our Oklahoma gardening ESMO Jo shirt.

So thank you.

- Thank you.

- We are here in Alva, Oklahoma to visit Zane Reem, who is in the four H Club here in Woods County.

And Zane, you've got a kind of an interesting garden that you're doing.

It's not in your backyard.

Tell me a little bit about this community garden.

- This is the Alva 4H community garden.

- And who all's involved with it?

You're kind of representing the 4H Club, right?

Yes, ma'am.

How many, how many kids are in your group?

10 to 15.

10 to 15.

And and you come out here regularly, how often and what do you do when you're out here?

- Once to twice every week-ish, maybe.

- Okay.

So what's all involved with maintaining a, I mean, it's beautiful, you're doing something right.

Tell me a little bit about what you do when you come out - Here.

We water.

We check to see how some plants thrive with others.

If those don't work, we move 'em around a little bit.

- So Zane, can you tell me a little bit about what all the plants are?

You're growing?

- We grow marigold, zucchini.

Cantaloupe.

- Is there a special reason you're growing the marigolds?

- To help keep the bugs away.

- Oh, okay.

All right.

But yet you also have a lot of pollinator plants too, right?

- Yes, ma'am.

- So have you learned a little bit through gardening, kind of about ecology and that role of pollinators?

Can you share with me what you've learned?

- The pollinators kind of help the plant flowers thrive - And eventually you get some fruit.

What's, what's your favorite thing to harvest and - Probably strawberries to see how much they've grown and haven't.

- Yeah.

So I heard you just recently harvested some potatoes.

- Yes, ma'am.

- And you're incorporating that in your breakfast cooking as well.

Tell me a little bit about what you - Made.

So in, we haven't made quite a bit yet in cooking class, but we took the potatoes, we made our own little box gardens and took those home.

And some have harvest, I don't think everybody's has yet.

Okay.

But just like I had for breakfast, I had a potato breakfast burrito.

- Excellent.

So you're getting to read the rewards of that hard labor, huh?

Well, and I know we're just outside of a, a independent living retirement village here, and you've got some other volunteers that also help.

Can you tell me about that community involvement?

- One of the people who work here has a coworker that comes and helps mow around and helps weed eat.

- You have somebody that comes pretty regularly and waters too?

- Oh, yes.

In the mornings - Because it takes a lot of work.

And I know you're busy with school and things like that.

And a few other 4H projects, - Horse club, shooting sports and cooking class.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, the garden doesn't have irrigation, so somebody's gotta be out here watering it all the time.

Right.

What, what is your favorite job when you guys come here to do - Mowing.

- Mowing.

And, and why is that your favorite?

- It's just getting to walk around and look at all the plants while you're doing jo work.

- So what is it about gardening that really, it's very different than horse and shooting sports, right?

Yes.

So tell me what, what it is you like about gardening?

- Seeing all the different plants and all the colors and how beautiful it looks.

- Yeah.

Yep.

Well, I can't disagree with you there, Zane, thank you so much for sharing your garden with us today.

You're welcome.

We're here in Glenpool, Oklahoma, visiting Gordon Bryan in his chaos garden.

And Gordon, tell me a little bit about how you got into gardening.

Your mom's, kind of your inspiration, right?

- Yeah.

I just followed her around a lot.

And sometimes we go to Southwood and look at plants to buy.

- Yeah.

So you've got a little bit of a vegetable garden, but you really like ornamentals.

- Yeah.

- Tell me what it is that you like about ornamental plants.

- I just like how they look.

- So what is a chaos garden as far as your definition?

- It's, there's a lot of plants.

Not really in any order.

- Yeah, I, I see that.

And you got a lot of plants that will reseed and just kind of spread a little bit.

And I gotta tell you, one of my favorite parts is right here behind me here.

You have taken what is essentially not even a one foot strip, maybe 40 feet runs along your fence here and turned it into a beautiful way station.

Tell me about that.

- So that used to just be grass, but my mom planted a couple sunflowers there and they just spread along it.

And she started planting like milkweed and other flowers along there.

- Yeah.

A lot of 'em have taken off and they're thriving in that kind of small area.

And even maybe jumping across the sidewalk now it looks like.

So you really are into pollinators and, and insects.

Tell me a little bit about what you like about that.

- I like to watch them grow.

- Yeah.

- Like sometimes I'll take a chrysalis and like put it in a jar to watch it.

- So what kind of things have you incorporated in your garden to help and pro promote?

Promote that - There's a lot of sticks around and milkweed and other flowers.

- So you got your nectar plants for 'em, you've got your forage plants for 'em, for 'em to grow as caterpillars too.

- Yeah.

- And And it looks like maybe you turn those sticks into a little habitat for you too.

Is that a cool fort you have over there?

- Yeah.

- That's pretty neat.

So a lot of these plants are spreading and I've heard you sort of turn this into a business.

- Yeah, I have a plant sale every year, probably around the middle of May.

- Yeah.

So you dig some of them up and sell those to neighbors and stuff.

They're a dollar each.

Excellent.

All right.

Well my, my might buy some before I leave here, if that's okay.

So you also, or in 4H, tell me a little bit about how you've incorporated - That.

So in 4H for the fair, I'll make herbarium cards with the flower presses and leaf presses.

- How many do you have in your collection now?

- Probably at least 20 or 30.

- Okay.

So you really have gotta be able to identify those plants and look all that information up.

- Yeah.

- How, how have you done at the fair with it?

- Usually they get to the state Fair.

- Excellent.

Well congratulations and Gordon, thank you for sharing this beautiful garden with us.

I know you've really expanded and it looks like it's still growing.

So congratulations on being one of our youth garden contest winners.

And we've got a little prize for you too.

So thank you so much.

We're here in Fairview, Oklahoma at the home of Macy Roberts who entered our youth garden contest.

And Macy, thanks for entering 'cause I love your garden.

Tell me a little bit about how you got into gardening.

- Well, my dad works for the NRCS, so he works with plants and the soil.

And both my parents grew up on a farm and they had gardens.

- Okay, so you kind of got the bug from them, huh?

Yes.

So it looks like you got quite the vegetable garden started already.

I know it's fairly new, right?

You just, - Yes, we just moved.

So we didn't really, we weren't gonna have a garden - And then - We decided we don't have that much grass so we can just put 'em in the ground.

- Go ahead and do it.

You don't have to compete with Bermuda grass, right?

- Yes.

- So what all you have growing here?

Tell me a little bit about it.

- We have okra, eggplants, tomatoes, banana peppers, hot peppers.

What's your favorite?

The okra.

The - Okra.

Do you like eating it?

How do you like to eat it?

I like to eat it raw.

Just straight out of the garden, right?

Yes.

Very good.

Well, you got quite a, a few peppers there and a few tomatoes.

Yeah.

But you also have some fruits.

Tell me about those.

- We have cherry bushes and we have an elderberry.

And we have a grapevine.

- Okay.

All right.

And I know you've expanded not only from your backyard here, but even outside the fence kind of in the alley.

Yes.

Tell me about that.

- So we put native plants out there 'cause we like the butterflies and we live in town so there's not as much room, so - Right.

You might as well, you had to mow it, right?

Yeah.

So now you don't have to mow it, you can make use of it.

Yeah.

That's fantastic.

Well, since your dad's in the NRCS, you know a little bit about soil, what did you first do before you put this garden in?

- We took a soil test.

- Okay.

- And we sent it in and it came back a four.

Okay.

And our other garden was a 20.

- All right.

And that's on the Haney test, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

- So it had enough nutrients and stuff.

It was just really sandy and didn't have enough like organic.

- Okay.

So that straw that you've put on here is gonna help with that, but also it's serving a purpose right now.

Can you tell me what that's doing?

- It's keeping the weeds down, - Right?

Yeah.

Very good.

Well, tell me a little bit about, 'cause you have rabbits, you have chickens, and you've kind of integrated the whole system with your compost also.

- Yes.

So we have a compost, and in our compost it gets really good, like organic, and we just take kitchen scraps and we roll 'em in there and it becomes healthy soil.

- Yeah.

- And our chickens and bunnies, they're litter.

It fertilizes the soil very well.

- Excellent.

Well, it looks like your plants are enjoying that.

And you also have a bit of a kind of a kitchen herb garden.

- Yes.

We have an herb garden and we like to make sun tea and we like to put our mitts in it.

Oh, - Okay.

And you know, to put 'em in containers, right?

- Yes.

We put 'em in a container so they don't spread.

- Exactly.

They can be problematic.

But I know that you're involved in the 4H here.

Tell me a little bit about how you use this project with 4H.

- I like to enter stuff in the fair, and one of my favorite garden entries to enter is the vegetable basket.

And it's where you put in a bunch of vegetables, a bunch of different kinds.

- Yeah.

- And do you have any luck with that?

Yes, I've won grand prize one time with that.

- Excellent.

So you're preparing for this fall?

Yes.

For your next free fair that you have.

Excellent.

Well, Macy, thank you so much for sharing this with us and with our viewers also.

Thank you, Kelsey.

How impressive were those gardens?

Absolutely.

They were incredible.

It, it is always amazing to see what young people are doing.

And I know it can be intimidating if your child's wanting to start something.

So shape your future has a lot of resources, not only for kids, but for the parents too.

- Yeah.

We do so at Shape Your FutureOk.com.

We have a lot of different resources for families, for kids, for adults.

Maybe like you said, the parents that might not know how to get into gardening, especially if you have a small space.

We have tips and tools for that.

We have ideas on how to get started, what to grow, and just anything that you need is all on our website.

- Well, thank you so much for partnering with us on our youth - Gardening contest.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

- Today we're making spaghetti with a veggie loaded sauce.

And joining me in the kitchen today is Julie Biby, executive director of Tea Set.

Julie, thank you for joining me in the kitchen today.

Yes, - Thank you for having me.

- Yeah.

So today we're gonna make a, our spaghetti with veggie loaded sauce and our veggies that we're gonna load the sauce with, we're using one chopped up zucchini.

- Okay.

- And then we're using one carrot and onion and four ounces of chopped mushroom.

Excellent.

And then over here we've got some chopped spinach.

So we've got a lot of vegetables that we're gonna be adding.

And one of the great things that I like about this recipe is that our vegetables are chopped fine or you know, smaller pieces.

Yes.

So that it makes it a little bit easier to hide in your sauce Of course.

So if you have picky eaters, they can kind of blend or camouflage in that sauce a little bit better, - Adding in extra servings without anyone - Knowing.

Without knowing.

Yes.

That's - Excellent.

- Now to start this recipe, we need to heat one tablespoon of olive oil into our pan.

Okay.

And then our pasta that we're using for this recipe, we're using 12 ounces of a whole wheat pasta.

- Okay.

- And now any pasta, any shape of pasta will would be fine for this.

I do recommend though a whole wheat pasta because that does give it a little bit more fiber.

It makes it a little bit healthier.

- Absolutely.

- And for the pasta, we're just gonna cook that according to the packaged directions.

- Okay, - Great.

So now that our oil is heated, if you wouldn't mind handing me the carrots.

Okay.

And I'll go ahead and get those added to the pan.

Great, thank you.

Okay.

And now the onions, thank you.

- And you're sauteing them so that they're tender, crisp, or, - Yeah, we want them to be tender.

You know, they're gonna be mixed in with the sauce and we want them to be nice and tender, but not, not too mushy.

- Okay.

- Okay.

And then if you wouldn't mind getting a spatula and just kind of coat those around in the oil.

- Okay.

- But we do need to add about a half of a teaspoon of salt.

Okay.

To the vegetables.

We want the, the vegetables to cook about seven to eight minutes.

- Okay.

- In a separate skillet, I'm gonna go ahead and add one pound of ground Turkey.

And now you could use like ground beef or ground pork, you know, you could use another meat, but I do think that ground Turkey works well for this recipe.

- You're adding a lot of extra flavor too with the vegetables, the onions, looks like you've got some fresh basil.

- Yeah.

Makes it a really flavorful.

And then we're adding a half of a teaspoon of ground pepper and about a half a teaspoon of salt.

Great.

And then as the turkey cooks, I'm just going to use, just use a spatula to kind of break it.

We want it to be crumbly.

- Right, right.

- Okay.

Now that our vegetables have cooked about seven to eight minutes, I'm gonna go ahead and add, add the garlic, if you wouldn't mind stirring it.

- Yep.

- Well now our, our gr our ground Turkey, I'm gonna, it looks like it's done, it's no longer pink, but I'm gonna go ahead and check the temperature just to make sure.

And for the ground, ground meat like this, the crumbles, we just wanna put the thermometer down the center without touching the bottom of the pan.

Okay.

Just to make sure that it's at at least 165 degrees.

And that is, so I'm gonna go ahead now and we will transfer the turkey to our vegetables.

Okay.

Now, at this point, you know, if you were using something like a ground beef or a sausage, you'd want, you know, to drain the, drain the fat off at this point.

But our Turkey is really lean, - Very lean.

- Yeah.

So there's not really anything to drain off of that.

So yeah, if you give a, give it a stir there, - It's very colorful.

- Yeah.

Okay.

Now we need to add the marinara sauce.

- Okay.

- Thank you.

Okay.

And then we will add the one teaspoon of oregano.

- Thank - You.

Okay.

And then we'll give that one good stir around.

- So this recipe and many others can be found on Shapeyourfuture Ok.com and Shape Your Future is a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment trust.

That's really helping the provide resources to family for healthy eating, ways to be active, ways to sneak vegetables in, maybe you have a picky eater, things like that.

So that we are helping Oklahomans live healthier lives.

- Yeah.

And this recipe is a great one to try, especially if you have picky eaters.

I like the idea of adding the different vegetables and the vegetables we use.

You can use other vegetables too.

Yeah.

Like you, you know, I think like red bell peppers would be a great option to add.

Oh yes.

Yeah.

Just depending I guess what you have available.

But now we'll go ahead and add two cups of chopped spinach to our sauce.

- Okay.

And you're adding the spinach towards the end when you did the other vegetables.

Why is that?

- We just want the spinach and the basil to cook until they're wilted.

If we were to add 'em earlier, they would get really soggy, like overcooked.

- Okay.

- And a lot of times with vegetables that when people don't like their vegetables, it's because they've cooked them too long and they're overcooked.

So now we're gonna drain our pasta.

When we're drain it, we're gonna drain it over another pan.

That way we can reserve the pasta water.

That way if our sauce ends up being a little too thick, we can thin it out with our reserved pasta water.

And now that our pasta is drained, we can go ahead and plate it.

And now for this, we can either add the pasta, like layer it, you know, and add the sauce on top.

Or if you wanted to, you could mix it all together and then plate it.

And we're gonna go ahead and just add it, the, the pasta and then the sauce on top.

- Okay.

Lots of vegetables - In there.

Lots of vegetables, really pretty.

And I'm just gonna go ahead and add a little bit of Parmesan cheese on top and a spr of parsley.

And there's our dish.

It's the, it is our spaghetti with veggie loaded sauce.

- Excellent.

- Thank you again, Julie, for joining me in the kitchen today.

Thank you for having me.

- For more information about Shape Your Future, visit their website or scan this QR code.

There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week for another great episode of Oklahoma Gardening.

- I, that was - Not good.

Don't say thank you for letting us, that was weird.

Just say Absolutely.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thanks.

- To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices.

Be sure to visit our website at Oklahoma gardening dot OK state.edu.

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You can find this entire show and other recent shows as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune in to our okay Gardening classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater Gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.