(gentle music) - [Announcer] Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today we visit the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, and tell you how you can visit for free.

We learn more about how the drought over the last year has impacted insects.

Then we head over to Tulsa, where we see, firsthand, how the master gardeners are not only learning, but giving back to the community.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

- So if you're looking for an easy, low maintenance perennial... (gentle orchestral music) You have two different types of flowers on one plant.

(gentle orchestral music) Capsaicin is what gives the pepper its heat.

(gentle orchestral music) Today we're here at the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, and joining me is Rebecca Snyder to talk about the pollinator garden.

Rebecca, it's grown a lot in the last few years, can you tell us a little bit more about it?

- Yes, well, we, of course, love this garden, it's one of our favorite gardens here at the zoo, because it's full of a variety of flowering plants that attracts a lot of our native pollinators, so it's a special place, for sure.

- It's early in the season, but I can see you've got a lot of flowers already coming on.

And the pollinators are finding it.

- [Rebecca] Yes, yeah, there's a lot of bumblebees in the garden this morning.

Always nice to see.

- So I know a lot of times people think pollinator gardens should be just overwhelming with flowers, but the grass is just as important, right?

- Absolutely, yes.

The grasses, some of our native grasses actually are host plants for native butterflies, so they're really important for attracting those species.

And the grasses are, you know, they're the foundation of the prairie, right.

So we're trying to recreate that kind of habitat.

It's really important to have those grasses in there.

They provide shelter and they are an important component.

- [Casey] Yeah, so, obviously, you guys initially seeded and planted this, but has it kind of just, allowed it to evolve, right?

It finds its own way.

- It does find its own way, and we let it do that, for the most part.

And it's interesting to see how things kind of migrate around in the garden over time.

So it's a surprise every year, kind of what it's gonna look like.

And that's fun.

- Yeah, well, you, you guys have had this as a dedicated space, but it's actually growing, right?

- So yes, this has been a cornerstone of the zoo's, you know, pollinator-friendly plants for many, many years, but for the last five or six years at least, we've been really trying to make sure that we have plants that are good for pollinators all over our garden, so it's a zoo and a botanical garden, and as we're putting in new landscape, or replacing things, we look for ways that we can incorporate native plants, and also just a diversity of flowering plants.

- And why is it so important we're doing this?

We hear a lot about it, but I think it's always important to reiterate the value of pollinators.

- Yes, absolutely.

So there's just a lot of people on the planet.

We take up a lot of space and a lot of resources, so I feel like wildlife kind of lives in the margins around us, and anytime that we can make those margins wider, so whether that be in our own yard at home, here at the zoo, anywhere we can, it's really important to try to create habitat that is good for our pollinators, because that's also good for us, of course, but also good for birds and all kinds of other native species.

So people can actually really, truly create habitat just by planting native plants.

- Right.

And are you noticing that people are more receptive to seeing bees and things like that around them?

- Absolutely.

So we talk to people, adults especially, about having them remember what was it like when you were a kid?

Did you see more bees and butterflies?

And people do realize there's been a change over the last few years, and they are concerned about that.

And I've really seen people start to embrace the fact that, okay, a yard really is a dead space, right?

There's no real life in it that you can see, versus if you come to a garden like this, there's all kinds of life in it.

It's thriving.

And so it's just being comfortable with that, versus this very manicured type of garden that we're used to.

Education is really important, and we are accomplishing that in a couple of different ways.

So one of those ways is we actually have a grant program for schools K through 12 in the Oklahoma City metro area.

And so the zoo provides funding for them to plant a pollinator garden at their school.

And we also provide workshops for their teachers, then, to teach them how to design and install a garden that will be successful in attracting pollinators, and then also how to use that garden to teach a variety of subjects.

- [Casey] Okay, what's the, kind of the timeline on that for people to be looking?

- [Rebecca] Yes, so it happens annually.

The application is available on the zoo's website in January of each year, and then it's due at the end of April.

So we just received our next batch of applications, and we're reviewing those now, And we award five or six schools every year.

- Oh, very nice.

- So we've established 22 school gardens now.

We're doing research in those gardens.

So we have a post-doctoral fellow here, Dr.

Guest, and she's gone to all of the gardens to survey them for pollinators.

And we found that all the gardens do have pollinators in them.

So they're working.

- Terrific.

- So that's exciting.

We also have survey work happening here at the zoo to see how the zoo is performing as habitat for pollinators.

We had a bee survey done in 2020 and found that there are 60 species of native bees that use the zoo.

- [Casey] Wow.

- [Educator] And Dr.

Guest is doing a butterfly survey now that she started in the fall, and I think she's counted at over 40 species so far.

And that'll continue through the summer.

So that just shows that if you do plant a diversity of flowering plants and host plants, you will attract a wide diversity of our native pollinators.

- Absolutely.

It is definitely working.

And it's available for all ages, right?

- That's right.

- It's really neat.

- Absolutely.

- So thank you so much for sharing this with us.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - So you've seen how beautiful the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden is.

And joining me now is Candice Rennels, who's gonna share with us how you can come and visit the zoo for free.

- Yes, absolutely.

So the Oklahoma City Zoo has a fantastic access program that not only connects kids to learning about monarch butterflies, but it encourages reading for families and togetherness.

- [Casey] Right.

- [Candace] So we have a program called Read for Adventure.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Candace] That features this original children's book, "Juniper's Butterfly Garden".

"Juniper's Butterfly Garden" was written by one of our own team members, Autumn Heigle.

- [Casey] Oh, excellent.

- [Candace] So it's very special to us, but it is a book that's available in statewide Oklahoma libraries.

- [Casey] Okay.

- For families to check out.

And the thought is you go and you check out "Juniper's Butterfly Garden", you take it home, you read it, you learn about Juniper's wish to create her own butterfly garden at home and how you can do it.

And then when you return the book to your library, you get a voucher good for four admission tickets to the Oklahoma City Zoo.

- That's awesome.

- Yes.

- And the value right there for your family to come to the zoo.

- It is a fantastic value, yes.

So it's good for those four admission tickets.

And those are good through a year.

- Okay.

- From when the program starts.

So we're getting ready to kick off our seventh season of Read for Adventure, thanks to our fantastic partners, OG&E.

And the books will be at the library starting this June and the vouchers will be available.

So it is a really great program and opportunity for families during the summertime when the kiddos are home.

- And I have to admit, I've read this with my kids and it's fun.

They love this book.

And there's even information in there actually about how to do this in your own garden.

- There is, yeah.

So there's some great information, some resources at the back that tell you about planting your own garden from our friends, from Okies for Monarchs.

And then OG&E has some fantastic graphics that show the migration patterns for Monarchs, which come right through Oklahoma.

- [Casey] Absolutely.

- Yes, so it's very exciting, but we're very proud of this program.

And like I said, it'll be launching this June.

- Okay.

- And the vouchers will be good through June of 2024.

- So how can people find out if it's available at their library or not?

- Yeah, great question.

So to find out if your public library or community library is participating, just go to the zoo's website, okczoo.org.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Candace] And we have a tab under Events called for Read for Adventure.

And just click that link and you can find out if your library participates.

- [Casey] And it's pretty comprehensive across the state for libraries.

- It really is.

So we have over close to 200 partnering libraries that are state libraries or tribal libraries that are participating.

So there's a lot of opportunities for our Oklahoma communities across the state.

- All right, well, we love free tickets to the zoo.

- Oh, I know.

- So thank you for sharing this.

- Thank you, yes.

- We'll go check it out.

- Okay, thanks.

(upbeat music) - We're here at Insect Adventure talking with Dr. Andrine Shufran, and of course, the day I come to talk to you about the drought and how it's affecting insects, it's raining.

- Yay.

- Yay.

- It's raining.

- We're so happy about the rain.

- Definitely.

- But even though it's raining and we're getting quite a bit of it, that still doesn't alleviate some of the concern that maybe the drought has had on our insect population.

- Yeah, there's a lot of effect.

Small micro climates, anything in the environment is affecting insects extremely, a lot.

- Okay.

- It can be temperature, it can be humidity.

The rainfall, how long a heat or a cold season lasts.

- Right.

- All of these have an effect on different species and it's hard to tell a lot of times if what we're seeing in the environment is just something that's a new environmental change this year, or if we're really losing insect species that we're not seeing every year.

- Okay, so it's really hard to pinpoint it on the drought per se, because there's just so many factors.

- So they can be playing into it.

But how are, I mean, let's say drought how would that influence, I mean I know a lot of insects live in the ground.

Can-- - [Speaker 1] Yeah.

- Can the hard soil maybe affect that?

Or what are some of the ways that it could potentially inhibit some of the insects?

- So there are tons and tons of arthropods that live in the soil, and that may be their stage of life where they're a larvae and they're busy feeding and doing things not when they're adults.

And so if they're underground, busy feeding and the top surface of the ground becomes hard pan, they can't penetrate up to become adults.

That could be true for bumblebees, which live in the ground or the crane flies, which will also live in the ground for several years before they come out.

And too much rain is a problem too.

- Then we see the worms coming out.

Right?

- You see all the worms come out on the street and die.

Yeah.

But all of these different species interact with each other.

They interact with the temperature, they interact with the soil, all of these different things.

As an extension specialist, we get a lot of calls during a drought time about insects that are in their homes, in people's homes.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- That they've never seen before.

Oh my goodness.

I have scorpions in my house.

I've never had scorpions.

Oh my goodness.

I have black widows.

I've never seen black widows.

Where did all these roly polies come from?

And all of those animals need the same thing we need.

Food, water, and shelter.

And in a drought, there's none of that.

And so they're going to come inside your home a lot of times and you'll see them for the first time.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- Then if you get some rain, a lot of times their populations will explode.

And so the drought caused a greater number of them to come out at a single time than when they may have just come out a little bit.

They all come out together and kind of seem to take over the world for a while (laughs).

- So if we've had this drought and it can be detrimental they need water, right?

Obviously.

Does that cause them to die?

I mean, are we gonna reduce some of our bad insect populations potentially?

I mean-- - Good thing is not stand the heat.

Right?

- Right.

- Mosquitoes, there's no water.

- Exactly.

- So insects, again, they live in a microclimate and they don't hibernate like we think of hibernation where your body shuts off and doesn't come back for a while.

They're able to turn their metabolism on and off for a lot of different reasons whether it's for reproduction times or they're waiting for certain temperature, or it gets really dry.

Insects are able to shut down their metabolism.

It's called diapause.

And then when they find that the situation looks good again, they're able to come back to life and move around and eat and attach themselves to your pants and suck your blood.

- [Interviewer] Oh goodness.

- That's why you see mosquitoes in the winter.

- I was gonna say, so I've seen mosquitoes really early already before we got this nice heavy rain.

- Yeah.

- Does this mean that now maybe they're gonna really come out together and find each other and our population's gonna explode unfortunately?

- Yeah, probably.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- So mosquitoes can breed in a very small amount of water.

And that's why we often encourage people that if they have outdoor plants or tires or whatever that they're turning those on a regular basis.

Because even something the size of like a cup of water can breed hundreds of mosquitoes because each female's laying 200 to 250 eggs at one time.

And so yeah, it's very important.

They're all gonna be coming out all year long.

And so wear your bug spray.

- Well, and this is why the insects are so successful, right?

- Right.

There's a billion more of them than there are of us.

- Yeah.

All right.

Well, thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - Today we are here at the Maino Valley Research Station which is located in Bixby, just south of Tulsa.

And joining me today is Dr. Tom Ingram, who is the Horticulture Program assistant.

And Dr. Ingram, thanks for sharing a little bit about all of this.

Tell us, I mean you've got a big program that just started a couple of years ago here.

- Right.

- Tell us a little bit about it.

- Well, this, we call this our seed to supper farm.

Basically, it's from seed to actually providing food for food pantries.

But we had the idea for this for several years.

But one of the main challenges is like, hey, where are we gonna do it?

We'd have to buy land.

Where are we gonna get water?

How are we going to, all these things that we didn't have?

- [Interviewer] Right.

Yeah.

- And then eventually, Brian, who ended up talking to people in Stillwater about maybe we could have an acre or two out here at the research station, and they said, sure, go for it.

So we started.

- So they have a few more facilities already-- - Oh, yeah.

- For you.

- Water and there's tractor and stuff.

And so we've been, we've been able to do a lot of things we wouldn't have been able to do if we had that financial hurdle to get over to get started.

- Right.

Right.

- If you will.

So yeah, we started last year, our first crop.

We learned a lot.

We learned-- - You always did.

- Learned a lot about-- - Things we didn't necessarily wanna learn about, we learned a lot about pigweed (interviewer laughing) and how it's evil and it takes over everywhere but we took what we learned last year and kind of carried it to this year.

We've got a lot of crops this year.

We started actually in February, laying some new water lines and now we're using the plastic mulch a little more than we used to last year to help fight back the weeds.

But we got a lot of stuff growing out here this year.

- Okay and so you're doing both the cool season and warm season- - Right.

- And you've got some, looks like a whole field of corn you're back there growing as well.

- [Gardener] We do.

- So tell us a little bit about this partnership that you've created as far as where is this food then going?

- Right, well we started it with like a, kind of a multipurpose.

A, we wanted to use this to kind of teach master gardeners how to garden or farm on a little bit larger scale than your 10 by 12 garden in your backyard.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- Because a lot of people are interested in kind of becoming urban gardeners, selling things at the farmer's markets, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

So that it, we use that to teach out here.

But then we also have made some connections with food pantries in Jenks and Bixby and, but it's just been amazing the reaction we've gotten from people that we deliver the food to because as you can imagine, a lot of the food pantries, they got, you know, box macaroni and cheese, canned, I mean all this stuff that's not fresh.

- [Interviewer] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Gardener] And we show up and we're basically harvesting in the morning and taking it that morning and it's being delivered, picked up that afternoon.

- [Interviewer] You can't get any fresher than that, right?

- You can go gnaw it off the vine.

I guess that would be fresher, but not much fresher than that.

- Well, not only, I love this because not only are the master gardeners getting education- - Right.

- But part of that is also to learn by doing, right?

- [Gardener] Right.

- [Interviewer] So they're getting their kind of service hours that they've committed to through this program.

- [Gardener] Right.

- [Interviewer] And then truly giving back to the community in return.

It's a complete full circle thing- - [Gardener] Right.

- That's happening right here.

It's really a neat showcase.

So what are some of those lessons that you're think you might be learning this year to, I assume this is gonna continue, right?

- Oh yeah, well I hope so.

We're, you know, we're thinking about, I mean this will be the first year that we've actually come back in and plant a second crop.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- Last year we just kind of did the first crop but today, you know, we're harvesting all the potatoes and onions and stuff and we're gonna go back in and plant pumpkins and sweet potatoes for later on.

Now we're gonna keep a better eye on our squash 'cause the squash bugs got a little ahead of us last year.

But like, this is to learn.

- Right.

- And it's one thing for all the master gardeners to talk about these things but it's another to actually come out and see it and hands on and here's what you do and here's how this happens.

And it's just been a lot of fun.

And the people that come out here and work, I mean, they just love it.

It's hard work.

It's hot, everybody goes home tired and sweaty.

But we know we're doing good.

- [Interviewer] And I know as we're filming we're, there's a lot of conversation that's happening, so- - [Gardener] Oh yeah, there's like a little.

- [Interviewer] A lot of socialization- - [Gardener] Exactly.

- [Interviewer] And all this stuff too.

- [Gardener] Exactly.

- [Interviewer] So it's a great community that's out here- - [Gardener] Right.

- [Interviewer] With the committee that's offered to help with this so.

- [Gardener] Right.

- Thank you so much for sharing this.

I'm gonna go check in with Brian and see what's going on in the field.

- Sounds great.

- Thanks.

- You bet.

(upbeat country music) - So to give us a little more insight about what's happening here in the vegetable garden, joining me is Brian Jervis who is the Tulsa County Horticulture Educator and it looks like y'all been kind of cleaning up your tomatoes.

Tell us what's going on here.

- Man, we got 'em a little far too, we didn't get 'em pruned quick enough.

- Yeah.

- So they- - Took off with all this.

- They really did.

So, you know, I think showing a good demonstration of how to kind of clean up a tomato.

So, you know, you like a lot of airflow.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- [Gardener] You know, tomatoes are, it's our job security there at the extension office.

Everybody tries to grow tomatoes and their every problem- - Yes.

- Gets to a tomato.

So, you know, we try to do the best things we can do to help us later on.

And so what we're gonna do here is try to clean this up, open it up a little bit where air will flow, where it'll allow more growth at the top, where we can get a longer harvest of tomatoes throughout the season.

- [Interviewer] Okay so what's kind of the first step?

You've got your stake on just a single stake here?

- Yeah, so we're just, we're just doing a single stake, not putting too much labor in it.

I mean, you could put a lot and do some weaving with some ropes and skirt twine, but we're just gonna try to keep 'em up on a single leader.

It's kind of what we decided to do here just to kind of, so we could allow us to do other things, so.

- Right and that's the thing.

I mean like everybody has their own style that works within their system.

- That's correct.

And I mean, you could get really intense and, you know tie 'em up, prune 'em every other day and have a good long harvest with a lot more yield.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- But here we've got plenty of area, so we put plenty of plants in where we could kind of be a lazy gardener, if you will.

- Perfect.

- Yeah, so looking at this plant, you know, you want to definitely want to get everything off the ground.

- Okay.

- A lot of disease floating around in that soil.

And any soil that's splashing on that leaf will spread- - Right.

- That disease.

So, you know, this limb here is probably a candidate to take out.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- So we're trying again, try to make that single leader or two leaders where we can start sending them up.

So we're gonna take a lot of this off, unfortunately but it's gonna help us later on and.

- And that might be hard 'cause you're losing some green tomatoes there.

- Oh man, I'm gonna hate to cut some of these off, but again, we're doing this for the future.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- [Gardener] I mean, we could leave them on here and get a good harvest in a couple weeks.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- Or we can kind of prune it and then get a good harvest for two months, so that.

- Right, you're thinking the longevity of plant.

- That's correct.

That's correct.

So this one's gonna go, I'm sticking out into the rows.

- So now I know sun scald is a concern on tomatoes.

When you're pruning and exposing some of these, what's something to consider?

- So, yeah, definitely if you start taking foliage off and seeing the, you know, the tomato shining.

That's gonna be where it's gonna burn.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- Sunburn.

So we gotta be careful about that.

Or we prune and hopefully we can fill that foliage in in a few days.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- [Gardener] And they're growing fast- - [Interviewer] They are.

- [Gardener] So it won't take long, but, you know a couple days of exposure, it'll burn 'em.

- [Interviewer] Right, right.

- [Hat Wearer] To be marketable.

- And again, that might be, you know, a small sacrifice for the short term, right?

- For later on.

So this one, you know, (sighs) boy, I'm gonna struggle with this one.

(Casey laughs) - And each one of 'em is different.

That's the thing, is there is no right way or wrong way, you just do what you can.

- And they would've been better.

- These are best practices.

Right?

- You know, after we planted 'em, maybe in a couple of weeks, coming and taking a few limbs off earlier on would've been better but we didn't get to it.

So shoulda woulda type things.

- This branch here has a lot on it.

- A lot on, that's why I'm just kinda worried.

So I'm gonna take a few off this top and we're just gonna tie it over here.

And using pipe cleaners, just simple pipe cleaners, a lot of people use a lot of different things, but pipe cleaners work and it doesn't take a lot to hold 'em up, especially as they get trained.

- And you're just loosely tying those on there?

- Yeah, just kinda loosely, don't wanna girdle 'em too bad and, you know, nothing too special really.

And but this is gonna be our leader and, you know, we'll probably leave this one to save those tomatoes and then come back and after we harvest the tomatoes and prune it back off.

But, you know, I still am not happy with, you know, I see too much foliage right down here at the center, you know, the airflow.

But these tomatoes are kinda hindering us a little, so I'm gonna basically stop pretty quick.

- Okay.

(laughs) So now you've got the plastic mulch down which helps with some of that splashing of the foliage and stuff like that, so that's one of the good things.

And this is another thing with the airflow, because we know it might be windy in the spring but it gets hot and dry here in the summertime, right?

- It gets pretty warm, and this plastic help hold moisture in real well.

And so that gives us a constant moisture instead of you know, wet and then dry.

A lot of issues come up with that.

So, you know, again, not a good example of pruning, but there's so many tomatoes I just hated to take 'em all off and we'll come back later and pick 'em up.

- Okay, excellent.

Well, I know you got a lot of other stuff going on out here, you've got several master gardeners out here working.

Tell us a little bit about some of the other plants and chores that are happening in June.

- Yeah, so today's kind of a fun day, we're working through corn trying to thin it out.

Our planter didn't quite get it precise enough so we're trying to thin it to about six to nine inches, and so they're simply going through and pulling that out.

You can cut it with a hoe, but, you know, the ground's so nice after the weekend rain that it works pretty well just to pop it out, lay it down and go.

So that's one project where we've planted melons a little late.

So they're going through and got a few weeds in there and try to keep those weeds ahead, try to keep ahead of those weeds 'cause they're one week on without hauling weeds and they're too far gone.

- Yeah.

So keeping the crops that are coming in weed-free is a big thing to help with pest problems.

And then you finished up your cool season and you're finishing up a few beans here, okay?

- We did.

So we will harvest beans today, we're gonna go ahead and finish harvesting our onions and harvesting our potatoes.

And we're gonna till all of those up, and we're gonna put pumpkins in and we're gonna put sweet potatoes in for the fall.

So exciting.

- So no rest for the weary, keep on going.

- No, no, there's always something to put in and so we're having a good time out here.

- Well this is an exciting project that you guys have going on south of Tulsa here.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for sharing it with us.

- Absolutely, glad to share.

- Thanks.

(bright music) (camera shutter clicking) There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

(bright music continues) Join us next week right here on "Oklahoma Gardening" as we showcase how libraries are helping gardeners.

And all of this with us.

- You bet, thanks for coming out.

- Thanks.

I'm gonna go check out... That's what I was supposed to say, wasn't it?

Sorry.

(cap wearer laughs) (bright music continues) (leopard squeaking) 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 oklahomagardening.okstate.edu.

Join in on Facebook and Instagram.

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 OKGardeningClassics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous posts.

"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 underwriter, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

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.

(bright music continues)