Welcome back to Oklahoma Gardening.

It is mid-March and we are celebrating St.

Patrick's Day week, which means it's time to start planting your potatoes out in the garden.

Today on Oklahoma Gardening, we're featuring a few other things as well, including hellebores.

It's a plant that can handle our fluctuating temperatures that we always experience at this time of year.

As we reflect on the Oklahoma wildfires from last year, we're also going to showcase the FireWise program and how you can make your urban landscape more fire resistant.

We'll also feature Soil Preparation 101 with Shape Your Future.

All this starts right now.

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 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.

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It's a place to learn, to grow, and be inspired.

It's where Oklahoma State University bridges research, education, and passion.

We share one goal, to serve the gardeners who inspire us.

That's what makes Oklahoma Gardening true to Oklahoma and true to gardeners.

Today, I want to feature a plant that is a great plant to have in any landscape.

This is helleborus, also known as linten rose.

Now, this particular cultivar is called Frost Kiss Anna's Red, and it's one of the newer cultivars in the Frost Kiss series.

And what's really nice about it is the flowers are a little bit taller, and they also hold them upright a little bit more.

Some of the other helleborus that we have, a lot of times they're kind of nodding flowers, and they'll sometimes be buried down in the crown of the plant.

Now, you might think, why do I have this in a pot?

And that's because I want to propose an idea.

So, if you're adding to your landscape with some perennials like this, you can add them out into the landscape.

But one of the things about these is this is hardy from zones four to eight, and so it's very tolerant of cold seasons.

So, if you've purchased them, go ahead and put them in a container so you can have them up near your house and really enjoy them before you put them out into the landscape after they're done blooming.

Now, helleborus are unique in the fact that they are perennial that blooms not only in the winter, but they also are really great for the woodland garden.

So, they need that shade, and you'll see them emerging out of that leaf litter.

Also, they really appreciate a rich soil.

So, if you have some compost to add in there, they're going to appreciate that even more and make them a healthier plant.

But otherwise, they're a pretty low maintenance plant to have in the landscape.

Again, they're perennial, so they'll continue to come back for you every season.

Now, again, this cultivar is kind of unique because it has, you can see here on the new leaves, it's turned to more of a silver leaf to it as it continues to grow.

Now, there's another type of hellebore called stinking hellebores, and it's not because the flower stinks, but actually the foliage when you crush it, it kind of has an odor to it.

It has a unique look to it because it has more of a serrated leaf and also has kind of lime green flowers.

Now, traditional helleborus will come in a range of flowers also, including whites, yellows, lime greens, and they're getting more fancy with these kind of mauves and burgundy colors as well.

So, whichever one you decide to go with, I think it's a must-add in any landscape.

Joining us today is John Weir, the fire ecology specialist for OSU Extension.

John, it is fire season, right, in Oklahoma?

It is definitely fire season.

And we have a dry prairie essentially around us.

Let's talk a little bit about what the homeowner can do and be aware of.

Yeah.

So, as you said, this is the fire season.

It's not only prescribed fire season where a lot of people are out setting fires, managing their land and doing that, but it's also wildfire season here in the state.

And we can have wildfires any month of the year in Oklahoma, but typically our biggest amount of wildfires and our largest ones typically occur here in this late winter, early spring, mainly because December, January, and February are actually the three driest months of the year.

And then followed up by March, which typically has been probably the number one wildfire month, is March.

And it's typically due because March is the windiest month of the year on that.

And so again, wind is the biggest driver of wildfires.

You do need to be concerned and you need to do a little bit of pre-planning and a little pre-thought to help protect your property and protect what you own.

And farmers are trying to do their part with prescribed burns, which are beneficial, right, to their management.

Yeah, that's right.

That's exactly right.

You know, we had our great example that we did a burn last year, two weeks before March 14th, you know, that bad day here in Stillwater.

We had burned out southwest of Stillwater, a half section for animal science, that caught a lot of that fire and prevented it from heading north up into a big area that was a lot of populated area and stuff.

And so, yeah, that creates a buffer, things that we can do to create buffers and to help protect that kind of stuff.

But there's also things that we could do as homeowners that we need to think about in doing that.

You know, one of the quick things is to go out around your home and just look and see what's there.

And again, don't do this when the fire is coming.

Do this prior to prior to wildfire season, because you never know when it may happen.

Guttering that was not cleaned out at all.

If you have a lot of trees around your home and stuff, again, accumulation of leaves, they're going to dry out.

But if that fire gets in that guttering and gets into that wood, the fascia and stuff right there, that's an avenue for it to get into that house.

You're just putting kindling right there for it, right?

You're putting kindling right there.

And then the other big problem is, and what I think a lot of us don't think about, is wooden privacy fences.

Wooden privacy fences, I've seen that in several wildfires where they've been the major cause of loss of homes, where again, that wooden privacy fence attaches right up to the house, even though it may be a brick home or a rock house, something, a structure that shouldn't burn.

What it does, that fence catches on fire and then the flames go up and hit the wooden soffit above it.

That's the avenue for that fire to get in there.

There's also things that we could do as homeowners that we need to think about.

One of the quick things is to go out around your home and just look and see what's there.

Let's talk about the Eastern Red Cedar.

Eastern Red Cedar, my favorite plant.

If you can, prune those things up, prune the bottom limbs up.

Like I said, they recommend anywhere from four to six feet elevation, because that way most of the heat and the flames, if it stays a surface fire, it won't get up into the crown and cause any more damage or intensity next to your home.

Grasses burn very rapidly.

They're what we call one hour fuels.

It only takes one hour for them to equilibrate to the outside conditions.

Again, that accumulation of that plant, having that stuff right next to the home, especially anything that's flammable, that may be one of those things that during that season, during wildfire season, we may think about pruning them back, trimming them off, doing that.

Your house needs to stand alone.

What that means is it needs to be protected so that if nobody's there, you're not there to protect it.

There's not going to be a fire department there to protect it.

That fire can come through and it will still be standing when you're done, because you've done things to reduce that impact.

Well, John, thank you so much for joining us and helping us with these tips today.

Well, I hope they were helpful and glad to be here.

Thanks.

Absolutely.

It's late winter in Oklahoma and we're enjoying the beauty of our landscapes, but something we always have to be cognizant of is the fuel load that our beautiful grasses, trees, leaves, shrubs, etc.

in the landscape provide to us as a risk of wildfire.

We're going to talk about firewise concepts, which essentially tell us how to make our landscape more resilient against wildfire, yet still have a landscape to enjoy throughout the year.

So the firewise implementation program deals with concepts of reducing risk from fire and also the tools that we use to implement those concepts.

Here we've got some of the tools that we use in taking care of reducing fuel load.

Any gardener should have a set of bypass pruners, and also of several sizes.

Those are your fine pruning and also for larger branches.

A variety of saws are important.

Manual saws, and if you feel comfortable with it, power saws.

They can be two-stroke engine saws or they can be electric, but make sure that you get safety training on how to properly operate those and read the manuals.

Also leaf blowers, because they're very helpful in moving the surface debris that are loose, helping us chase it into piles and moving it farther away.

Also leaf rakes as well.

And so with a set of tools, we can implement the concepts and help reduce fire risk in our landscape.

In an ideal system, we wouldn't have any flammable fuels within the first five feet of the structure, but many of us have situations where we're going to give and take on plant materials and the different ignition zones.

Let's take a closer look at some of the fuels that can cause problems as we get right up against the structure.

We've got leaves obviously here that we should be raking out, putting either in a composting pile or take them considerably outside the ignition zone.

Also we have a lot of herbaceous annuals and also perennials.

Those materials should be taken down and again moved into either compost or out of ways.

We may not think about it, but firewood also can be flammable especially if it's dry.

It takes a little longer to ignite, but we want to move it outside of our ignition zone as well.

Regarding the deck, you really don't want organic debris to be able to get underneath there.

This one is sealed off, but if it weren't and you wanted the deck left open, you should use a fine mesh hardware cloth to be able to block leaves from getting underneath there.

Because if embers fly underneath there, it can ignite leaves and other organic debris that's underneath your deck.

There's many beautiful evergreens that we can use in our Oklahoma landscapes, but something we have to be cognizant of when we think about the FireWise program is the fact that the foliage of many of these junipers and other species that are resinous or oily evergreens, they're highly flammable and they can propagate fire.

If a fire comes in from the base, it propagates up the evergreen and also can attack our structure.

So we have to move those out away from our flammable structures.

So the FireWise concepts created by the National Fire Protection Association are written not only at a state level, but a local level.

And in Oklahoma, it's the Oklahoma Forestry Services that has a FireWise website that has a lot of great materials that we can learn about how to apply these concepts to our actual home.

Now on a larger community scale or out in the countryside, controlled burns are used to manage fuel loads.

Homeowners may not be involved with that or maybe associations could contract that to be done, but remember a lot of the detail work is up to you as the individual homeowner to reduce fire risk in your own landscape.

It's early spring and time to start getting those garden beds ready.

Joining me today is Dylan Jasna with Shape Your Future.

Dylan, I know it's so nice to get out in fresh air, right?

It is time.

And so I think a lot of times when we go out and look at our garden bed, we're like, oh look, there are stuff growing, right?

Some of us call it free cover crops, right?

These weeds that are growing.

But I think a lot of times, you know, if you're new to gardening, you're like, what do I do again?

I was so excited last year and I'm still excited, but I don't know what to do with this.

So we're going to talk about this if you want to join me down here.

So essentially we've got some weeds that are growing in here, right?

And these weeds are kind of like a cover crop because they've been holding the soil in place.

So what we're going to do is just kind of clean out this bed.

And there's a couple of ways we can do this, right?

We could just hand pull it, which is, I think is more appropriate here.

So if you don't mind.

Physically getting a little like into this with me.

And you know, doing this by hand, it gets you active.

And that's, that's what we're all about here at Shape Your Future.

We like to see people out in the garden and this is great exercise.

You know, you're standing up, you're sitting down, you're getting into the weeds, just getting that movement in every day.

All right.

When you get yours finished up, I'm gonna grab a rake here.

Okay.

And now while you grab that, do I need to pull out this irrigation tube?

Yeah, that's a good point.

If you want to just grab the end of that and we'll roll that back here.

Okay.

Perfect.

These last few weeds.

So what we're going to do, because we didn't till this, especially if we're planting seeds versus transplants, we just kind of want to have this as a loose soil surface, kind of reshape our bed here.

Okay.

You know, there's acorns and other things that might come in here and I'm not too worried about those.

So we've kind of broke that soil surface a little bit, so it's not crusted.

It's going to be easy to receive our seeds coming in here.

It's going to allow that water to penetrate.

We still have that organic matter from the roots of those plants that we didn't get all of them necessarily.

Okay.

So what can we do with these weeds?

Should I throw them away or can I use them?

Right.

Good question.

So these are really good material to add to your compost pile.

So just because we didn't use them in this bed doesn't mean it'll actually return benefit later on because they don't have insects or diseases on.

Those are the two big things.

If you notice that, then you don't want to add them to your compost pile, but these are just weeds.

So let's utilize them in our compost.

Perfect.

Now, what if I want to start a raised bed from scratch?

All right.

So we've got to fill that bed with a lot of material, right?

Let's go take a look at that.

All right, Dylan, we've got a raised bed here that we built earlier this season, and you can see it's pretty large, so we've got to fill it.

And that's a lot of soil.

A lot of times, if you don't have a truck or a trailer, you know, how do I get this filled with soil?

Right.

So we've got a little bit more of a practical approach.

There are some benefits, but there are also some drawbacks to it.

So we're going to talk through that.

Okay.

So we've got a bale of hay here.

Straw, I should say.

It is straw, not hay, which is just the wheat stalks, essentially.

We're going to pop these strings off.

Okay.

So, you know, the benefit of this is like $10.

You can throw it in the trunk of a car, right?

Right.

But really we're adding volume here.

So we're not wasting money buying soil.

Well, and it's just going to fill it up a little bit.

And my thing is, is you really want to build your soil as you're gardening, right?

So eventually this is going to break down and add a lot of organic matter into that soil.

Two birds, one stone.

Exactly.

So we're just going to kind of spread that around, right?

And of course, you know, depending on the size, you can add more material if you want.

Now, the other thing is this time of year, we're also cleaning out our gardens, right?

Right.

Do you have any ornamental grasses that have to cut back?

Right here.

Yeah.

Look at that.

So, yeah, we've got a lot of grasses.

We're just going to drop that in there.

I've got some more here on the side I've cut.

And so do you kind of want to do a mixture of dead things and clippings maybe?

So this is sort of the essence of lasagna gardening.

Also there's Hugelkultur, another form of this, where you're essentially layering organic matter.

What we're adding in right now is a lot of carbon material.

So if you had grass clippings or right now a lot of people are kind of mowing the weeds down or something like that.

Yeah, that would be good material to add in here because that would be a nitrogen source.

Okay.

So.

So you want to kind of get a good balance of carbon versus nitrogen.

Exactly.

So we're kind of going heavy on the carbon here, which is going to be something that we need to keep in mind later on because it's going to rob any nitrogen out of that soil, which could be a deficiency for our plants.

So we're going to need to keep that in mind as we fertilize later on in the season.

Okay.

So we've got some more material that you can add, right?

What else is always blowing around right now in yards?

Leaves.

Exactly.

So I'll let you add that in there.

This is filling up fast.

Exactly.

And I guarantee you, so even if you don't want to buy any material, right, your neighbors would be more than happy to give you bags of leaves.

Oh yes, they would.

And on this, you can see we've got large leaves, but then on this, we actually mowed it with a mulching mower, which is nice because it's going to shred it up a little bit more, which will allow it to break down faster.

So bigger materials, not going to break down as fast as small material will.

Now do you have to worry about this shrinking down once we start to fill it?

Absolutely.

And what you'll find is when we add the soil, it's going to drop because soil is a lot heavier.

And so we're still going to need to add a fair amount of soil to this, but really for this first season, we only need about six inches of soil, six to eight inches of soil.

That's where our vegetable roots are going to establish themselves.

So here we have, you know, a thigh high bed, but we don't need all this to be soil, right?

So over the season, this is going to decompose and integrate, and it will shrink next season.

So you've got to be prepared.

You're going to add more organic matter and kind of fill it up, but we'll be good to go.

So the next thing now is we need to add soil.

Okay.

So we've got a bed over here.

We're going to go take a look at.

Okay.

So Dylan, essentially we have the same bed here that we had over there.

So we did the same thing underneath this and you can see we've started adding soil.

We still need to add a little bit more.

Now, is this soil just composted soil?

Yeah.

So essentially, you know, the compost pile that we added our weeds to as it's broken down and it does have soil.

It's not just straight compost.

So it's kind of a good mix of everything.

And again, it's going to shrink over the season as that material underneath there starts to break down.

So, you know, and of course, if you needed to buy soil, you could buy it also and add to it, but you're not having to buy as much that way.

Okay.

So we need to fill this side up.

Absolutely.

So we need to get started on that.

All right, Dylan, how are your muscles?

You know, they're pumping.

This is a great workout.

It is.

Absolutely.

So yeah, we've been kind of lifting, squatting, bending, right?

The whole body.

All right.

Well, and it's great to get the family.

I know that's what Shape Your Future is all about.

It is.

It is.

On shapeyourfutureok.com, we've got great resources from the little tykes all the way to grandma and grandpa.

It's a family ordeal, you know, workout in your garden.

Right.

Full-body workout right here.

And we're going to get something nutritional out of it also, right?

Exactly.

Right.

Okay, well, so we've got our bed filled with soil now.

We just need to smooth that out a little bit and kind of flatten it again.

You can see we've got some nice organic matter in here that's going to break down.

Now, as I mentioned before, it's got a lot of carbon in the bottom.

So just through decomposition, it's going to kind of tie up a lot of nitrogen.

So we're going to sprinkle a balanced fertilizer here on top.

This is a slow release fertilizer.

And so by sprinkling it now, when we plant our plants, it's going to incorporate it.

Okay.

So you just want to make sure that as you go through the season, you might need to side dress your plants a little bit, because again, that nutrients.

So it is not time to plant tomatoes and peppers.

That's always the biggest question.

However, it is time to plant cool season crops.

Which is what we have here.

Exactly.

So these are some transplants we started earlier, getting a little big, but they're very healthy.

So we've got a lot of, you know, greens, broccolis, cauliflower.

It's got some kale here.

There you go.

Swiss chard.

So we're just going to do a little mix of these plants here.

And you can see, you might want to tease some of the roots a little bit if they're kind of root bound.

And how far apart do you want to plant these?

So it kind of depends on what you're planting, but I usually plant things about eight to 12 inches apart.

Onions, if you're planting onions, like we have a few that have been grown in pots here.

Obviously those you can put a little closer together.

So we've got our, actually, if you want to grab that irrigation, let's go ahead and lay that main pipe down while we're doing this.

So that way we've got that in there.

If you're growing your own transplants, you want to have hardened them off.

So these were growing in a greenhouse, but a few days ago, we started pulling them out into the environment that they were going to be growing in because essentially it's like, we're kicking the babies outside, right?

You don't want to shock them.

Absolutely.

And so we've got these, we initially put them in shade just so that they would acclimate a little bit to the bright sun.

Also the wind is a factor here in Oklahoma.

So that wind that they're exposed to in kind of a sheltered location will sort of make them a little bit stronger.

And then they're going to be ready to go out now.

Now, how deep do you want to plant these?

Good question.

So yeah, we want to make sure that we're planting them at the depth that they're already growing.

So you can kind of see where they're at.

So we'll just essentially put soil around that space again.

So if you plant them too deep, then you have to worry about them rotting too high.

They can actually dry out.

So.

And you know, it still gets cold here in the springtime in Oklahoma.

So are these plants okay like this?

That's exactly why we're planting cool season crops, not our tomatoes yet.

So these plants can handle even into those 30 degrees.

If it's starting to freeze, you're going to want to cover them.

But otherwise they should handle this, you know, back and forth.

Our temperature swings pretty well.

So we're off to a great start for the season.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for having me today.

Thanks for joining me in the garden, Dylan.

Thank you for joining us on today's show.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to your local county OSU extension office, or leave us a comment on YouTube or social media.

There are many great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

Join us next week on Oklahoma Gardening.

We'll be transitioning into spring as we talk about how to protect our plants in fluctuating temperatures and what birds will be migrating in and out of Oklahoma.

Go.

I'm sorry.

Start again.

Replant that.

All good workouts.

You need to be hydrated.

I know y'all are about hydration.

Yes.

Yeah.

No, no, no, no.

Let's do that again.

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.

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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 garden, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gym.

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 the Tulsa Garden Club, Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Tulsa Garden Center, the Oklahoma Horticultural Society, and the Tulsa Herb Society.