- Oklahoma Gardening is a production of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Land Grant Mission of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University, dedicated to improving the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma through research-based information.

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

Today on Oklahoma Gardening, I'll show you two fun gourds you might want to try planting next year, we get a closer look at a new fairy garden here at TBG, I'll show you some deer damage we've had on our trees and then I'll introduce you to one of our most asked about plants here at the garden.

Finally, Jessica Riggin is back with a squash recipe.

(cheerful music) It's almost like an ombre of sunset colors.

It's not the flowers, right?

(indistinct chatter) (music fades) As we approach fall, we always start thinking about squash and gourds, but you might be asking yourself, what's the difference between a squash and a gourd?

Well, typically squash, we think of eating them, versus gourds typically are used more for ornamental or decorative purposes.

So today I have two different gourds that I want to show you that we've got growing here at the gardens.

And this first one is called the birdhouse gourd.

Now, both of these gourds are great, especially if you have kids or you're crafters, because you can utilize them for fun activities.

So this birdhouse gourd, as the name may imply, is often used to create birdhouses.

You can see it's quite expansive, so you want to make sure to plant it and give it plenty of room.

And we've actually had to kind of keep pulling it off of our deer fence here because it's just not strong enough to support the vine, especially once it starts producing fruit.

It is preferable to try to trellis these so that your fruit is hanging, versus setting on the ground, because you can get some rotting spots on your fruit if you do leave them laying on the ground too long, so that can be a concern, although we're not really worried about eating these, we're just using them for decorative purposes.

Now, the birdhouse gourd, it's a hard-shelled gourd and so we're actually gonna leave these on until after the first frost.

That's gonna kill the vine and then we'll be able to come through and collect all of our gourds and then put those away to dry them in order to make different craft projects.

Now, this birdhouse gourd is native to Africa, however the seeds have been distributed all across the world because of the fruit being so utilitarian and used for water and food containers, as well as musical instruments or even garments they've used this.

Now, you'll probably notice not too many flowers on the birdhouse gourd, and that's because it makes a smaller white flower that tends to bloom later in the evening.

So you won't necessarily see those flowers very predominantly, but you will definitely start seeing these fruit as they develop under these leaves.

And especially the more you dig and after the vines die back, you'll probably be surprised with how much fruit you get.

Now we'll go take a look at another gourd.

So here's the second gourd that I want to show you, and this is a luffa gourd.

Now, you can grow this both for the fruit but I think it's quite ornamental to add to your garden.

You can see it's got a beautiful kind of palmate leaf to it, which I think sort of looks like a Boston Ivy, but it also has these bright sunshine yellow flowers that are big attractors of bees and other pollinators.

So a great addition to any garden just as a vine if you're wanting to cover something, however the fruit, you can see we've got this trellis, and we've got some giant fruits that are growing here, there's several of 'em growing back here, and so this is the fruit that we're after.

So unlike the birdhouse gourd that we're growing for the shell, this one we're actually growing for the interior.

It's got this kind of fibrous matrix interior and once these dry, we're gonna peel off that shell to reveal this, and this is what you can use in the bath or for your dishes to kind of scrub on.

And so while we often get sponges from the sea, this is called your luffa sponge that a lot of people use for kind of cleaning things.

And so you can eat it earlier when it's picked, certain luffas, but this one really is primarily grown for a sponge once it's dry.

Now, just like the Birdhouse Gore, the luffa gourd, they both like kind of rich, moist, yet well-drained soil, plenty of sunshine, and then just step back because they're going to take off growing for you in your garden.

(gentle music) - Today I wanted to show you a new garden that has been established here at The Botanic Garden at OSU.

And it was actually built by the student workers here, including Jay Pirtle.

Jay, this is sort of your idea, right?

- Just a little bit, yeah.

- So tell us, we've got a fairy garden here.

You converted the native garden.

It was getting a little overgrown, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- And some of the natives are still around.

But let's talk about what you did to establish a fairy garden.

Why a fairy garden, first of all?

- Well, we had a broken bridge here that we had to take out and that left us with an area that was too small to really do a whole lot with, but too big to let go to waste.

So I remembered going to a family friend's house when I was really young and she, I could have sworn that her entire backyard was a fairy garden.

But then going there when I was older, I recognized that it was no bigger than this area right here.

So when I saw this empty space, I thought it would be a perfect size to put in a fairy garden.

- And it's kind of magical when you're a kid to experience things like that.

Just the scale of it seems so big, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- So, of course, we have a lot of kids around here so I think this is a perfect fit for The Botanic Garden.

Tell me a little bit about what some of the features are there.

I'm constantly seeing new things in here.

- Well, that's kind of the point.

We want it to be almost like a scavenger hunt.

There's a lot of little trinkets all throughout the gardens and you can even find little fairy figurines and everything throughout here.

So it's really just a chance for the kids to come in here and interact with the plant life and really get up close and personal with it.

- Yeah, I see kids out here all the time exploring and, in fact, moving some of the things around like a playhouse almost.

But you've got different scenes set up.

So talk to me a little bit about some of the natural elements that you use to incorporate those scenes as well.

- Well, one of the important things about fairy garden is scale.

And so making sure that if you have a door that's like a couple inches big, then you don't have a fairy that's like a foot tall- - Okay.

- you know?

And so we just took some of the logs around from the compost pile and we put little doors on them and little windows and decorations and everything to make little homes for the fairies.

- Of course, they need homes.

- Mm-hmm.

- Well, and I love how you've even got stuff even in our large magnolia tree that's behind us.

There's different features that are up in that tree- - Mm-hmm.

- to discover as well.

- [Jay] Trees are a great opportunity to have a fairy garden even if it's just a foot around the base.

You can have little figurines and little plants all up and down the tree.

And so you can have lots of little hidden things to find.

- [Host] Now I know you can buy things to add to your fair garden, obviously.

But you've made a lot of these things as well.

- Mm-hmm.

Crafting is one of the best parts about fairy gardens.

You can really take anything around your house, even if you have just a square piece of wood, stick a button on there, there, and you have a door.

You can make bridges out of Popsicle sticks, or whatever your creativity can really build up.

- Excellent.

Well, let's talk a little bit about the plant material.

While there are some natives left over from the previous garden, there seems to be a lot of unique things.

I love this Soiree series, periwinkle behind us.

It's got the more dainty flowers.

And a lot of 'em seem to have smaller flowers.

Was there some intention behind that?

- Yeah, what you're trying to do is create a forest for these little fairies.

And so you wanna have plants that, if you were an inch tall, they would look like massive trees to you.

But you don't wanna fill up your fairy garden with, like, green and plants like that.

You want it to be as colorful as possible.

So you can add things like Globe Amaranth, or Honey Dot, or the Tassel Flower to give a lot of color to the gardens.

Or you can add things like the Corkscrew Willow that just looks so whimsical.

- Definitely.

Well, you've got a lot of texture, a lot of color, and a lot of just fun things to find in this garden.

And I know the kids love it.

So thanks for this addition to The Botanic Gardens.

- Thank you.

- Thanks.

(gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music continues) - We all know that deer can cause a lot of damage in the garden, but they can also cause a lot of damage to young trees that are trying to get established, especially during a rut.

Rut is the mating season that occurs in October through late winter time.

And during this season, what's happening is initially they're trying to rub off the velvet off of their new summer antlers.

And so they tend to look for trees that are about one to three inches in diameter to then rub their antlers on and get that velvet off.

And you can see here behind me, I have a spruce pine, and it's got that damage, that classic damage of that rubbing.

Usually it's a vertical- - Scraping that you'll see.

The other thing too is a lot of times the deer do this as a territorial sign to other bucks in the area that they're trying to create a dominance for that space.

But the problem is, is this can cause real damage to your younger trees.

You can see this tree did suffer.

It did die because of this damage.

And in fact, it's because it actually rubbed all the way around the whole diameter, the whole circumference of our tree.

And so in essence, it girdled it because it doesn't allow for any of that water or the nutrients to go through the vascular system that's just below that bark.

So unfortunately, we've lost our pine tree here, but there are sometimes other circumstances where you might not lose the whole tree.

It just depends on the tree, and also upon the damage or the amount of damage.

So we have an example of a Atlas Cedar that actually lost the top out of it but because it had lower branches, it was still able to photosynthesize.

So instead of a tree, now unfortunately, we have a shrub but it at least is something in our landscape.

We also have another example of some deer damage that occurred on our Blue Spruce.

And in that case, the damage occurred to the main leader.

However, there was a side branch that was still there, and is still viable and so it kind of created dominance over that tree.

And so it in fact looks like a tree from a distance, a regular Blue Spruce tree, but if you look at it a little bit closer, you'll notice that the main leader has been damaged and needs to be taken out.

So it just really depends on what type of tree you're dealing with and how much damage is done.

Now the best way is to kind of prevent any damage from happening in the first place.

But how do you do that?

I know deer can be kind of elusive to some of our techniques, but one of the best ways to try to mitigate some of that damage is by putting some stakes around your tree.

Of course, being careful not to put it too close to the root bulb.

But put some stakes around the tree, and then also install some chicken wire around those stakes.

So that sort of texture will just keep those deer from really pressing up against some of those trees.

So and you wanna make sure that you're doing this during rut October through a late winter.

(soft calming music) We've got a plant that looks like it's straight out of a children's storybook, "Jack And The Beanstalk," but it's not actually called that.

It is called the Wooly Morning Glory.

And I wanted to show you this vine because it's one that gets a lot of attention here at the Botanic Gardens at OSU.

It is a tropical and it's probably a good thing it's a tropical, because you can see how monstrous it gets by the end of the season.

Now we actually just planted two small four inch pots in this container earlier in the spring after we're past any frost.

So after April 15th, we planted two small pots and you can see how big it's gotten by the end of the season.

Now the reason why you really grow Wooly Morning Glory is because of this foliage.

It's just beautiful foliage.

You can see actually this is kind of one of the smaller leaves, but how big these leaves will actually get.

They just have a nice kind of emerald green color to 'em, but what's really nice is the underneath has this silvery sheen to it.

So when the wind is really blowing, the leaves are sort of dancing and you see some of that silver underneath kind of fleck around and stuff like that.

And so the other thing too is you'll notice that it is a vine.

It doesn't have tendrils like you would necessarily see where it kind of sends these little vines out.

But just the ends of 'em, if I can find one here, the ends of 'em will twine around and they'll even twine back up on themselves.

So they are pretty kind of woody actually.

So when we have to clean this vine off at the end of the season, we have to go in here with loppers and actually cut it out of our trellis just because it is such a sort of a woody texture to it.

But that gives it strength to sort of really support it.

Now you do want to actually give it something to climb on, but it will grow up to like 20 feet.

So you can really take it up to help cover and camouflage anything temporarily for the season.

Now again, this is called Wooly Morning Glory, which may make you think it's going to flower and it does.

But really again, we're growing it for the foliage because the flowers don't come on until late, late in the season.

And in fact, if you see right up here, we've got some buds that are just starting to form here as we head into fall.

And so this is sort of a showy kind of calyx, but inside we've got the flower buds that are in there.

And so when it does bloom, it will be kind of a purple color to it.

Again, your traditional morning glory purple flower.

So depending on when winter decides to show up or that first frost, we may not actually get the flowers in it at all.

So again, we're growing it for the foliage, but the flowers is just a bonus.

So again, this is Wooly Morning Glory, and a great tropical plant to grow in your garden.

- Hi everybody.

Today, I'm gonna be making a Butternut Squash Risotto, which is perfect for fall.

Pumpkin gets all the glory during the fall.

But I love this recipe because it's really simple and because I just love butternut squash.

It's such a beautiful color.

It has a really mild flavor, so your kids probably won't object to it, and it can kind of take on the flavors of the other things that you're cooking it with.

And it's just a great way to add some vegetables into a really fancy rice dish.

Now, risotto typically has a lot of fussy steps to it, but I have found this recipe, that while it's not short, it's not a 30-minute recipe, it is very simple, very easy to do, and I have never messed it up even at my most distracted moment.

So I've started with one whole butternut squash.

I've peeled it and cubed it.

When you're peeling butternut squash, I really like to have one of these Y-shaped peelers.

It just works really well for pulling the peel off.

Butternut squash is kind of difficult to peel, 'cause it's tough and it rolls and it's a little bit slippery.

And so I like having one of this type of peeler for it.

So I've got my squash in my bowl.

I'm just gonna drizzle it in a little bit of olive oil.

And I've also got a salt and herb blend here that I'm gonna put on it.

We wanna season it at every step.

We'll just give that a toss.

And then I'm gonna put it on my cookie sheet just in one single layer.

We don't want it stacked on itself.

And I'm gonna put this in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

The squash should be nice and soft after that.

You might see some dark browning on some of the pieces, and that is exactly what you want.

(bright jazz music) Once your butternut squash is nice and roasted and very soft, you can just take a fork or a potato masher and just start kind of mashing it up.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

It's gonna go back in the oven.

It's gonna get even softer.

We're gonna mash it and then we're gonna put it in our pot with some broth and our Arborio rice, and then put it back in the oven.

Once my squash is all mashed up, you may see some darker places where there's a little bit of char on there, and that is okay, just leave it in there.

It's gonna soften up nicely.

To my big cast iron dutch oven here, I'm gonna add a 32-ounce box of chicken broth.

You could use vegetable broth if you want, if you want this to be vegetarian.

But I like the flavor that the chicken broth gives.

You don't wanna use cold broth.

So if you had a larger box and you're using some leftover broth or some homemade broth and it's cold, heat it up a little bit first.

And to my broth, I'm gonna add a cup and a half of Arborio rice.

And then I'm gonna put in my butternut squash and just give it a quick stir.

Now I'm gonna pop a lid on this.

I'm gonna put it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

So you can just put it in there and set your timer and forget about it for about 45 minutes.

(bright jazz music) After 45 minutes in the oven, your rice should be just about perfectly cooked.

And to this I'm gonna add about three tablespoons of butter.

I'm also gonna add some more of this salt and herb blend and some sage.

It'll be really great with fresh sage right at the beginning as well, but we're gonna use dried today.

And I'm also gonna add some Parmesan cheese.

And I've got some white cooking sherry.

This would be great with a white wine, a dry white wine, if you've got that.

Or if you don't have either white wine or cooking sherry, you could just add some more chicken broth or vegetable broth.

That will be just fine.

As you do this, remember, this is a really hot pan.

So keep your hot pad handy for your stirring.

And then we're just gonna stir this all together.

Should come together and the butter will melt and the cheese will melt and it'll be nice and creamy.

- And there we have butternut squash risotto.

Next time you're looking for a Fall side to go with a pork roast or some chicken, try this butternut squash risotto.

(bright acoustic music) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) - [Narrator] There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

(bright acoustic music) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) (bright acoustic music continues) We have a lot of ground to cover, so join us next week for another Oklahoma Gardening.

(bright acoustic music) (soft acoustic music) (soft acoustic music continues) 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, Twitter, 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 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 underwriter, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

Additional support is also provided by Pond Pro Shop, Greenleaf Nursery, and the Garden Debut plants, the Tulsa Garden Center at Woodward Park, the Oklahoma Horticultural Society, Smart Pot, and the Tulsa Garden Club.

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