(bright music) - [All] Cheyenne Public School loves "Oklahoma Gardening."

Woo.

- Welcome to "Oklahoma Gardening."

Today, we are headed to visit a backyard garden that is full of cherished memories.

I'll give you some tips on fall planting and an update on our boxwoods.

David Hillock shares with us one of the 2023 Oklahoma proven plants.

And finally, I share with you a creative approach to using our Oklahoma soil.

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

(bright music) Looking for easy, low maintenance perennial.

(bright music) Two different types of flowering on one plant.

(bright music) That gives the pepper it's heat.

(bright music) Sidney Edison, who is an award-winning author of garden books and poetry once was quoted as saying, that "Gardens are a form of autobiography."

I would also add that gardens are a reflection of a person's season in life as well.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of hosting "Oklahoma Gardening" and being invited into many people's backyards to talk about plants.

And as we've toured their gardens, it's inevitable that as we talk about plants, people end up revealing more about themselves.

As we tour the gardens, it's often like they're turning pages in a scrapbook to share with me stories and memories.

Today, we are here at the Pendley home where they're going to share their garden with us and also the story behind their garden and how it's a family affair.

(bright music) Catherine and David Pendley moved here to this Edmond home to downsize eight years ago.

He being the perfectionist, laid out the front yard with precise measurements and Catherine, being the artist, let her creativity take control in the backyard.

- We came here eight years ago, my husband and I, downsizing from two gardens, and we had a collection of about 30 iris and 35 lilies that we dearly loved.

And this area here was all grass, and so we took up the grass, and we planted 70 perennials in this little tiny area.

It was very crowded, but we like to think of it as our little English garden.

And then of course, we had other things that we loved.

We loved our water gardens.

We had several fish ponds, and lotus bogs, and so we decided just to have a lotus bog.

And so we have two tiny little lotus bogs out here, one on each side of the steps.

They are only about 36 inches in diameter, but it's amazing.

We get about 14 big lotus blooms every year out of those two little bogs.

Of course, we had to collect art.

We have our chihuly look that you'll see in the glass that we actually collected.

I think some of it came from the Dallas Arboretum and some of it came from the Woodland Garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Whenever we visited botanical gardens all over the country, people were always thrilled to see us come because we took a lot home.

We have a bird house or a bird feeder over here that my husband fell in love with at, I think at a botanical garden in Arkansas.

And it's a good thing we had a van because he brought the whole big thing home.

We have a joyful girl out in front.

She's just crazy, and fun, and very artsy.

She has a tendency to wear different jewelry for the different months, and different sunglasses and decorations.

There are a couple of other sculptures in this yard now, but you can't see them because they're dancing around and they're shorter than the plants.

So of course we collected art all over.

- [Casey] Today, Catherine loves sharing her garden.

Last year, she opened it up to the Master Gardeners whom she still enjoys connecting with.

- You know, I decided that I wanted to retire when I turned 65.

I wanted to have time to give back, and I was very concerned about children in our society today, and so I did two things.

One thing is I worked with Whiz Kids, which is a program in Oklahoma City that works with children who need help with their reading skills.

And I became a Master Gardener so that I can work with Junior Master Gardeners.

- Which is the most fabulous garden program around.

We go into the schools.

We're serving about six schools, I think now, grade school level and we have about six to eight weeks in the spring and in the fall to put gardens out, so we plant quick-growing gardens and the kids learn so much about growing food.

They come in not recognizing that that is a thing and they go out with bags of kale and lettuce and all kinds of wonderful things, which they've learned to appreciate, so that was my favorite part of being a master gardener.

That and all the wonderful speakers there are.

- [Reporter] But even more, to Catherine, sharing her garden also means sharing her plants.

- Because we planted so many perennials, it's a constant effort to get rid of things and so every spring we dig up hundreds of rudbeckia and amaranth and daisies and all kinds of things and put them in little pots and give them away to people, so my daughter has a lot of roses of Sharons and we have learned that rose of Sharons are not liked by deer and so that's about the only thing we can grow in the garden down there, close to the woods.

Everything else we've planted down there is gone, but the rose of Sharons are just going like crazy and now we've spread hundreds of rose of Sharons all over Oklahoma City and Edmond, so that's been a fun part of the garden.

Sometimes it's not so fun that we have to dig up so much in the spring, but it's okay.

It's better than not having anything there.

- [Reporter] And her daughter, Joy, has also gotten this gardener's heart, as she is now sharing her plants back with her mom.

- There was a period of time that we lost the lotus.

They died during a freeze in the winter and we were lucky that my husband had built a bog for her at her home and so you have to thin those out about every three years and so she pulled them up and got some roots and brought them out here, I guess about three years ago, three or four years ago now for me and this was our first year to have to divide them again.

- [Reporter] David, who passed away five years ago, always loved water gardens and the two lotus bog ponds tucked into the garden not only provide beauty, but are reminders of him.

- And the lotus was just really special to my dad.

You know, downsizing, he had really large koi ponds at The Angel House.

So my parents owned The Angel House Gallery in Edmond and then their home and I think it's interesting that he brought lotus here, you know, and that that was the special thing he wanted to bring here and yeah, lotus is just, watching it, you know, send out the bud and then the first day of bloom and then by the third day, the full bloom.

Yeah, and I think it just, for us, we lost my father five years ago and for us, every time that lotus comes up, you know it's just him and so I think we had 17 last year.

We had 14 this year and so it's just kind of a thrill.

- [Reporter] Catherine is unable to get around the garden like she used to, but has developed clever ways to continue gardening.

- The Master Gardener's tour last summer was just crazy about this solution my mother had.

She figured out that she could get these shovels with handles and she's put 'em in the flower garden, she put 'em down to the vegetable garden and they're just a really sturdy, handy little tool to have in the garden.

- As it became harder for me to go down to the garden, we have brought a few tomatoes up above and a few peppers and lots of herbs here on the patio and we love mints and herbs and basils, in particular, and the deer don't like them at all, so we found that to be a very good situation for all of us.

Well, and a couple years ago we discovered those wonderful Tumbling Toms.

We only find them at the farmer's market in Norman, but they're called Tumbling Tom.

You can put them in a pot and they get, oh, this big and they spill over and they're just covered with little tomatoes.

- [Reporter] While gardens take work, if you're doing it with the people you enjoy, gardens can become a labor of love and a scrapbook of memories.

- So growing up, I have two brothers, growing up children of gardeners, our parents spent their weekends gardening.

Our father always had a big vegetable garden.

All the childhood memories are all gardening and as a matter of fact, my brother said recently, he didn't realize that all the other kids weren't weeding all weekend, so that was our family, weeding with our parents and now all three of us have gardens at home and as a matter of fact, all my perennials in my yard are from my mother.

All my liriope, we xeriscaped all our lawns so all my liriope is from my mom and my grandmother.

So it's nice.

You go outside and you think of your family.

- One of the most fun things the children have done for me since my husband has been gone is they have a couple of family cleanup days in the spring and in the fall.

Everybody comes.

There are 13 grandchildren and six children including spouses, and they all come and just wipe everything out and do everything that needs to be done.

And we usually have pizza and it's a wonderful way to share the garden again for your old mom.

- It's a good day.

(upbeat music) - As we head into fall, the temperatures are starting to cool off, which is nice because it allows us to get back out into the garden a little bit more and just enjoy it.

Now, I know as I head through the summer months there's always plants that I see at other people's garden that I think, oh, I need to add that into my landscape also.

Well fall's a great opportunity to start thinking about some of those plants and get some of your perennials your trees and shrubs added into your landscape.

It allows those plants to establish that root system before they go into those colder temperatures.

So take advantage.

A lot of times nurseries are kind of cleaning out their inventory right now and so you can get some really good discounts on some of those plants as well.

Also, when we talk about trees, a lot of times people want a particular fall color that they're looking for.

So you really, the best time to buy a tree with fall color that you're looking for is in the fall.

So you can go to the nurseries right now, see the fall color, see whether it's yellow or orange or red, and take advantage of that by buying it.

And you can be reassured that it is that color that you're looking for when you plant it in your landscape.

Now, the one type of plant that I would advise against planting right now in the fall are your broadleaf evergreens.

And so you might remember that last winter we had these boxwoods planted and they suffered some winter damage.

And so back in May we came back through and we trimmed out a lot of that damage.

And I told you I know they kind of looked like a wild hair haircut.

I mean, they weren't necessarily trimmed like a nice manicured boxwood, but we were just trying to get this new growth to come on in order to allow it to photosynthesize.

And so I just wanted to also give you an update on how our boxwoods have done all season long.

You can see they've definitely grown out a lot more.

We've got a lot more growth on them.

They have recovered nicely after giving them some fertilizer earlier in the summer and they're doing well.

So one of the best things that you can do to prevent winter damage on your boxwoods is just to ensure and maintain a healthy plant as we go into those cooler winter months.

So we've done that all season long.

They are doing well for us.

As the temperatures start dropping, we're gonna make sure that we've got a nice thick layer of mulch to protect those roots even more.

And we may cover these with some freeze cloth again this season, but we're hopeful that after two seasons now they're well established.

So we shouldn't hopefully see the winter damage that we saw last year on them.

But again, broadleaf evergreens are one that I would steer clear of planting in the fall and that's just because they kinda dry out, because they have larger surface area with those leaves.

So hold off on those until spring.

But otherwise fall is a great time to plant your perennials and other trees and shrubs.

(upbeat music) - Today we're highlighting the Oklahoma proven plant selections for 2023, and today we're here with our shrub, which is the Winterberry Holly or Ilex Verticillata.

Now this is a deciduous Holly.

It has bright green leaves and they have nice smooth edges.

So this doesn't have the spiky pokey leaves like you would have with a lot of your evergreen hollies.

But this is a great shrub.

Now the the species itself can get it, it is an eastern North American native.

We're kind of on the western edge of where it grows.

- In its wild or native habitat, it can get up to six to ten foot, sometimes even a little higher than that.

But with our Oklahoma Proven selections we're actually highlighting the dwarf cultivars that are available.

These only get maybe three to four foot high, maybe five foot high and wide.

So they're a perfect small shrub for the landscape.

Now, Winterberry hollies are quite diverse.

They, again, will tolerate a wide variety of soil conditions, though they do prefer acidic soils.

If we get a little bit on the higher pH side, above seven, then we can sometimes see some chlorosis on them.

So they're probably a little bit better for central and eastern Oklahoma.

They are very attractive plants.

They're relatively drought tolerant once they get established, but they also tolerate wet soils very well.

So they're also a great selection for maybe the rain garden, if you have one of those.

Now, I mentioned this is a deciduous holly.

It does produce, the female, does produce bright berries.

So, as with all hollies, there are male and female plants.

The female produces the bright berries, and you do need to have a male in the area to make sure you get good pollination, so that you can enjoy those bright berries.

So, there are several different male selections that are available, but these, because they're deciduous, once the leaves fall, these bright berries will remain on the plant well into the winter months.

When they're fully ripe, in mid to late winter, then the birds will come in and they'll eat them up.

So, typically, they're a bright red to a bright orange.

I mentioned several different dwarf cultivars.

Some of the more common ones is Berry Poppins.

And then there's a Goblin series.

So there's Goblin Red and Goblin Orange.

I believe this one is Goblin Orange.

And then, as mentioned, they also have some male selections that you would want to make sure you plant next to 'em.

So, they typically recommend one male for about every eight or nine females to ensure that you get good pollination.

So, with the the Goblin series, the male is called Goblin Guy.

And there's a male selection to help pollinate the Berry Poppins, which is called Mr. Poppins.

Now, as mentioned, this is a great small shrub for the residential landscape, where we have smaller, tighter spaces.

So it's a nice small, compact shrub.

In the springtime, the flowers are a great nectar source for our pollinators, especially honeybees.

And it's also the larval host for the Henry's elfin butterfly.

(upbeat music) - It is easy to look at a garden and quickly see the beauty that we get from our garden soil.

However, have you ever thought about the other beauty that might come from our soil?

Now, we live in Oklahoma, and we all know that we are famous for our red dirt, but what really makes that red dirt?

Well, if you've ever seen rusted iron, you probably know.

In fact, there is a high volume of iron in our Oklahoma soils.

And with all the oxidation and the water that it receives, that's what actually turns that iron red, giving our soil that red color.

Now, we have a high diversity of soils for the area of Oklahoma.

In fact, we have 2,500 different types of soils.

However, one of the most well known soils is the Port Silt Loam, which is identified in 33 of the 77 counties in the state of Oklahoma.

In fact, it's actually recognized as our state soil.

Did you know we had a state soil?

I didn't either.

But today we're going to talk about how to have fun with our soil.

Just because the gardening season is winding down, doesn't mean that you still can't play in the dirt.

And today we are going to talk about one way of doing that.

So you can see here, I've collected a sample of different soils from Oklahoma.

And what you're gonna do when you do this is first collect a sample, and you really don't need that much of each one.

I just kind of got a sandwich baggie of some of them.

But you can see, it's really just a couple of tablespoons that you might actually use.

What you're gonna do is pick out any debris that might be in there, leaves, twigs, things like that.

You're just after the actual soil, not the organic matter that might be a part of that.

Then the next thing you're gonna do is allow it to dry down.

So make sure to put it in a warm, hot area to allow it to lose that moisture.

And then once it has, you're gonna just pulverize it so that it's a finer texture.

And you can do that with just like a hammer and a container, if you want to, like I've done here.

You could also use maybe a rolling pin or something and actually break it up that way.

Or even a mortar and pestle, if you can find one that you're not using in the kitchen anymore.

So there's a couple of options.

- Once you get that kind of into more of a real fine powder, then what you're gonna need is some clear acrylic paint.

And so we've got a bottle of it here.

And we're just gonna go ahead and put a little bit in some of our wells here.

And then you're gonna take whatever kind of soil you want.

And really the soil is what adds the pigment to our paint.

So we're going to take some of this kind of red and just sprinkle a little bit on top of there.

And then we're gonna do some kind of light brown.

And then we're gonna do one of these darker colored ones here as well.

And you also want to add a few drops of water.

So this is just water, you want to be sparing with this.

Of course, the more concentration of pigment you use, and also the more water you use, it's going to affect how saturated that color is when you're actually painting with it.

So we're just gonna mix these up here.

And that will then turn into your paint that you can paint with.

So I'm just gonna use this now.

And what we've got here is just your traditional watercolor paper.

So this is really good, because it actually absorbs some of that moisture, as well as the pigment.

And so then you can just paint, just like this.

You can see, you can get that red, rusty color on your paper.

So depending on how good of an artist you are, you can either do it freehand and get creative with it, or you can do something to trace.

If you can see this, this is a horse that was traced that you can then paint over that.

So if you have young kids, it might be easier to trace something and then let them paint it.

But it's just a fun way to kind of get out there and still get messy in the dirt.

And also, it might be a good way of preserving your garden even after those plants are gone.

(upbeat classical music) For more information, visit "Oklahoma AG in the Classroom."

(upbeat classical music) (upbeat classical music) There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

(upbeat classical music) (upbeat classical music) (upbeat classical music) (upbeat classical music) Fall is in the air, but that doesn't mean the garden is done yet.

So join, us next week, right here on "Oklahoma Gardening."

(upbeat classical music) (crosstalk) - Thank you both so much.

- Oh, thank you.

(upbeat classical music) - [Instructor] 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 "OK 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 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.

(upbeat classical music)