- Today on Oklahoma Gardening, I'll give you a refresher on how to properly take a soil sample.

We learn about the 3 4 5 method.

We revisit the quilt garden we constructed a few years ago.

We break down plant diseases with a simple science segment.

And finally, I'll show you a fun winter gardening project.

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

Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust shape your future provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Oklahoma Gardening 50th anniversary.

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

- People in Oklahoma love their gardens.

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

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

Over the years, I've met with a lot of gardeners and I find that gardeners tend to fall into two different categories.

There's the plant collectors and your garden designers.

Now, if you're like me and maybe a plant collector or some might call me a plant hoarder, you go to the nursery and you see a unique and interesting plant and you have to have it.

You might not even have the right environmental conditions in your yard and you might not even have more space for another plant, but you go ahead and buy it 'cause you have to get it.

Now you also have gardeners that really respect the design aspect of their landscape and they will maybe have a purple and yellow perennial garden and they go to a nursery and they have a little bit more willpower than I do.

Say they see a white flower and it looks great and is interesting, but they know that they shouldn't buy it because it doesn't fit in with their design.

Now, as gardeners, we always focus on the plants.

And while that's the fun and exciting thing to talk about, anytime you're building something new, you have to have a strong foundation.

And in a garden, that foundation is our soil.

So today we're gonna focus on how to take a soil sample.

And as we go through the season, we're gonna focus on even more aspects about the soil.

In order to do a soil test, you're gonna need a couple of things.

We have here a soil probe, and you can check one of these out at your OSU County Extension Office.

It's a great instrument to be able to pull cores in order for us to sample our soil.

If you don't have one, you can check one of these out at your local county extension office.

Another instrument you might need is just a plain old screwdriver because a lot of times our soil will get stuck in here and it's nice to be able to push that out.

If you don't have a soil probe, you can use a hand trow.

This one's nice because it actually has the measurements on here.

You're gonna wanna take a full six inches of that soil profile every time you take a core sample.

The other thing we have here are our soil bags.

And this is what we're gonna actually send our sample in and a marker in order to mark this stuff.

Now, for most homeowners, you're just gonna want a routine sample and that'll give you your nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and also your pH of your soil.

This sample will cost about $10, but it's really worth it because the OSU Stillwater lab is calibrated for Oklahoma soils.

Now we also have a soil bucket.

It's just a plain old bucket that's been cleaned out so that we can add our core samples in here and get that mixture to put into our soil bag.

Once you have all of your equipment, you also wanna think about where you're going to sample.

A lot of times people ask how much of a space I can sample, and it's really not defined on how large.

What you wanna think about is how the gardens have been maintained.

Here we're going to actually sample our vegetable garden, which has been maintained that way.

So we've added fertilizer for our vegetables.

We're also going to be sampling the outside of the vegetable garden, which has not been maintained.

It has not had any compost or fertilizer added to it.

But this summer we're looking at adding a new garden.

So we wanna make sure that we know what type of nutrients we're dealing with before we install those plants.

Another area that we're gonna sample is our turf.

The lawn is typically maintained differently than the flower garden or the vegetable garden, and so we are going to sample that separately.

Also, lay a winter early Spring is a great time to test your soil because it's been laying dormant.

We haven't added any compost or fertilizer to our vegetable garden here.

And so we'll be able to get an accurate reading of what nutrients are available to those plants that we will soon be installing into our vegetable garden.

Here we're going to sample, like I said, our vegetable garden and you wanna make sure to move out any irrigation lines so you don't puncture them.

Also, move away any mulch 'cause you just want the soil.

We're gonna push this into the ground pretty deep in order to get a good six inches of the soil profile.

This will give us the reading for the amount of nutrients that are right there in the root zone for the plants to grow.

We're gonna add this to our soil bucket.

You are gonna repeat this process 15 times because it's been identified that core samples will give you the most accurate reading on your test results.

When you're collecting your soil cores, you wanna make sure that you're taking 15 samples from random areas in the garden that you're testing.

Once you have this, you wanna make sure to remove any sort of debris that might have gotten in there because you're simply wanting to test the soil.

We're going to mix this up, break it all up, and once this is mixed up pretty good, we're then going to fill our soil bag that we have.

Now, if you don't have one of these soil bags, you can use some sort of container or baggy, but once you get it to the extension office, you wanna make sure that the soil and only the soil gets transferred into one of these bags.

You also wanna make sure that you're filling up your bag completely full so that you are giving them plenty of soil for their analysis.

So you can see here we have a a, a full bag and we're simply going to tie that off and then mark on here that we want a routine sample.

Now when you take this into the extension office, they're gonna put some barcodes on here that will identify who this belongs to and you'll get your results in about seven to 10 days.

So now we have our soil sample for our vegetable garden and we're gonna repeat this process outside of the vegetable garden as we plan a new garden out there and then also in the turf area, which has been maintained differently.

Also, I would encourage you all to take advantage of these nice warm days and get out and sample your garden as well to ensure that you're building the best foundation for a successful garden this year.

And also as you get your results, you'll be able to follow along with us as we discuss all the intricacies of soil.

- I am excited introduced to you Casey Hinches.

I've known Casey for several years now and I've always admired the the things that she's done and her personality, so I know you're gonna really like her on the show as well.

- I think what's really contributed to the show's success over the last 50 years is just the fact that, again, we're always gonna have new people interested in horticulture.

We gotta remember that you know that there's always somebody new that's trying to figure out how to grow a tomato.

That and also the show's ability to pivot during different times.

So it has transition, the production behind the scenes, the format of the show, the technology, like we're always trying to provide the best quality and the best information to people and that's, that's a constant resource.

Having that at OSU to tap into that research that's coming out and to provide that to the public.

There are several reasons why you might wanna identify a right angle.

Perhaps you're building a raised bed, building a fence, or building a deck.

It's a pretty simple method that we're gonna use here called the 3 4 5 method.

And in order to do that, we're gonna need some string, a tape measure, and three pins.

So we're gonna first put our first pin right here at the corner where we want our 90 degree angle.

At that point we're gonna measure a distance of three feet from that pen.

So we've got our measurement of three feet.

We're gonna put our first pen at the three foot marker and we're then gonna draw a string to that point.

And we wanna make sure that we tie a a, a tight knot there to keep that string tight.

Then we're gonna then pull that string back to that corner pin.

At this point we're gonna take our tape measure and go out four feet on the next leg.

So our second pin, we'll put at that four foot mark and again, we'll draw our string from the corner to that pin.

You then wanna measure the distance between your two legs, so your second and your third pin that you put in.

And that distance should equal five feet.

If it's more or less, you might need to move one of those points to make sure that that hypotonus is five feet.

So here we have three, four, and five.

And therefore we know that this is a square corner and we'll go ahead and make our right triangle just like this.

At this point, knowing that this is a right triangle, what we can do then is take our string and run it along those two pins and you just wanna touch 'em.

And we can run this as long as we want and we know that we're drawing a straight line and that we have a right corner.

Now this is called the 3 4 5 method.

You could actually double those numbers and make it the 6, 8 10 method if you were building something larger and wanted to have better accuracy.

Really this is using the Pythagorean theorem.

You might remember A squared plus B squared equals C squared.

I think I might owe my math teacher an apology 'cause I told her I'd never need to know this in real life.

While adding a barn quilt is one way to decorate your garden shed.

There's another way to add those geometric shapes into your garden, and that's by building a quilt garden.

As we've done here, you're first gonna look for a flat or maybe a slightly slope full sun location.

Full sun is best to take advantage of all the spectrum of annuals that you could use to add color into your quilt garden.

After you've identified a location that you have space to create a quilt garden, you're gonna start looking for that quilt pattern that you wanna replicate.

We've made our quilt block a 10 by 10 foot plot just to help make the math a little bit easier.

Yes, just like quilting, there is a little bit of measuring involved, but unlike quilting, we're talking about plants here.

So it's not gonna be quite as precise for this particular pattern.

We actually only needed three different colors or three different types of plants to use, which allowed us to have a more simple layout 'cause it can get pretty complicated.

The other thing is if it's too complicated and depending on the overall size of your quilt garden, it can start to look a little messy and, and it may just look more like an annual mixed bed than it does a quilt pattern.

For our design, we used a double pinwheel quilt pattern or also known as a turnstile.

What I like best about this pattern is it's really about finding the center of your measurements and dividing it in half.

We began by using the 3, 4 5 method to create a 10 by 10 square using several stakes and some string.

We divided that square into four quarters, then we split those quarters into half by pulling our string diagonally across the square in both directions.

Finally, we drew the string across the quarters again diagonally from the center stakes on each side.

Now on that last diagonal line, we have to remember that we are only going to pay attention to the line that is going through every other triangle.

At this point, you can see how even a simple pattern can start to look complicated and it's a bit of a tripping hazard to try to get in there and plant with all these strings going different directions.

So to make it using the lines we marked with landscape, paint the pattern on the ground.

Once you have the pattern marked and you're happy with the layout, it's time to remove the steaks and string and begin to plant.

For our quilt, we're using three different annuals.

Cherry red Angelia will be the four large triangles, and the other four triangles will be divided into half with Helen von Stein's lambs ear and bumble blue aum.

For ease of planning, we wanna work from the center out.

So we started with the lambs ear.

Next we planted the angelonia and then finished with ageratum that was easier to reach from the perimeter.

Like all good quilts need a finished border.

We added some metal edging to ours and applied a little mulch to complete the look.

If you're looking for a fun new way to add some color into your garden or perhaps a signature piece that combines two of your hobbies, try planting a quilt garden.

If you are a part of any garden club or garden society, oftentimes this time of year, mid-summer, you'll start seeing that the conversation switches from, Wow, my plants are doing so well this year to, oh no, what's happening to my plants?

A lot of times, midsummer, we start seeing different symptoms and signs that tell us something is happening irregular with our plants.

That can include spotting, curling, cupping, irregular growth on your plants, and even for lack of better word, oozing.

Now, if you see any of these signs and symptoms, it might mean that you have a disease on your plant.

It must be a disease.

But what's a disease?

A disease is a condition of a plant that impairs normal function and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms.

Well, you have your signs and your symptoms right there on the plant.

In fact, that's probably what led you to think there's something wrong with your plant in the first place.

But what is the disease?

Well, the study of plant disease is also known as plant pathology.

Fortunately, here at OSU we have the plant disease and insect diagnostic lab where plant pathologists can extract samples, look under microscopes and use tests to determine if any pathogens are present a pathogen.

But what's a pathogen?

A pathogen is a bacterium virus or other microorganism that can cause diseases.

If a pathogen is found to be present, then we can better know how to handle the situation when a pathogen is found, this is known to be a biotic disease.

The word biotic comes from the Greek word bios, meaning life biotic diseases are those that arise due to living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and nematodes.

Sometimes you might think you have a disease, but no pathogens are found.

This is known as abiotic or absence of living organisms.

These are typically a result of environmental conditions such as soil, water, light, nutrients, chemical exposure, or even temperature that leads to the stress of the plant.

Abiotic diseases are also known as physiological disorders.

While the most assured way to identify the disease is to send a sample to the lab, there are often clues in the landscape that will tell you whether the disease is biotic or abiotic.

Clue.

Number one, you are seeing the same symptoms on different types of plants.

For instance, nutrient deficiencies will often cause the leaves of plants to turn yellow or purple.

If you saw this happening on the foliage in all your various vegetable plants, this would be a clue that it is environmental, not a pathogen.

Alternatively, biotic diseases that are caused by pathogens are often host specific and will only target their preferred host.

Keep in mind, however, they may like several plants from within the same plant family, for example, you might see the same problem on your squash as you do on your melons because they again are in the same plant family.

But if you also see that on your corn, then it's likely an abiotic problem.

This is why crop rotation is important, but that's another segment for another day.

Clue number two, abiotic diseases or disorders can often be found in patterns or are uniform in their appearance in the landscape.

This pattern or uniform appearance is due to the area of exposure to the environmental factor that's causing the symptoms.

For example, frost damage on bermudagrass can create a unique tiger stripe pattern in the fall when the frost begins to settle on the lawn.

Clue number three, abiotic diseases are not contagious from one plant to another.

In some cases you might find that the plant will grow out of it or return to normal once the adverse environmental conditions have been removed or corrected.

Clue number four, think about the weather.

In fact, most biotic diseases are caused by fungi, and generally speaking, they like moist conditions and moderate temperatures.

Now, if we've been experiencing hot dry conditions a k, a summer in Oklahoma, then the odds are that you're seeing more abiotic symptoms than biotic symptoms.

And in fact, of all the labs across the country and the samples that are submitted anywhere from 50% to 85% of those samples come back as abiotic problems, not an identified pathogen.

Now, to make matters more confusing, sometimes abiotic symptoms can leave to biotic diseases, especially if you have abiotic symptoms that are affecting the leaves, the stems or the roots, depending on the severity, it can deteriorate the overall health of the plant, making it more of an opportunity for those pathogens to set in.

This is known as a secondary biotic disease.

While there are plethora of problems that can plague your garden this time of year, understanding whether you might have a abiotic or a biotic disease on your plants can help you determine your next step.

So a lot of times people start this year with high expectations, and if you're new to gardening, I just want you to be successful regardless of what it is you're trying to grow.

One of the biggest things you're trying to grow is your confidence in being able to grow something.

So one of the easiest projects that you can start with is what I'm gonna show you here.

And it's a fun project for kids too, if you're trying to get them involved with some greens, eating greens, eating healthier, and also kind of seeing how plants grow.

This is a fun little project, so it's called a salad bowl because we are literally growing salad or lettuce in a bowl.

So you can buy a pre a clay pot or a pot that already has holes in it, or if you wanna be a little fancier, you can go buy a bowl that actually maybe matches your decoration or your dining room set.

And then just with a diamond head drill bit, actually drill holes into it.

So one of the things for lettuce is something we want a lot of surface area, and we really don't need that much depth to it.

So you can see this is almost like a soup bowl where it's really wide and shallow.

So we're gonna fill this with our potting soil, pre-wet, your potting soil because it might take a little bit to really get it moistened, and it's easier to do that before you actually put the seeds in there.

So we have ours already moist and we're just gonna fill this up.

Now you wanna make sure that you don't fill it all the way level because as you water it, you don't wanna have to worry about it overflowing.

So we're just gonna kind of pat that down a little bit and smooth that out.

You can see I left a little bit of a rim here on there.

And then just go get a seed packet.

You know they're about a dollar dollar and a half at your garden center.

This is just a mix.

So we're gonna have the kind of the red leafs and the green leafs in there.

This particular bowl here, we've got spinach started in.

So whatever kind of your greens of choice are, go ahead and get those started.

So the thing you gotta remember is lettuce seeds actually need light to germinate.

Now and that kind of makes sense because the rule of thumb with seeds and the depth to plant 'em at, which is usually two and a half times the diameter of the seeds.

And so you can see lettuce seeds are very small, so we're not even really going to be measuring how deep we're really gonna just sprinkle those along the surface there.

We're not worried too much about spacing or anything like that, and then we're just going to kind of tamp those down so that they have good contact with that soil, but we're not actually really bearing them.

They're gonna have that light.

Now again, it would be best to put a grow light over 'em.

Make sure that they do receive some of that bright light in order to grow.

Make sure you're also watering them pretty regularly.

So we're just gonna keep these moist as they germinate, but they're gonna germinate in about 10 days.

So for somebody who's new or a child, you're gonna get that quick result and that quick impact.

And again, you're gonna be able to harvest these pretty soon depending on whether you're going for microgreens or you want a fuller look, a fuller lettuce, being able to harvest these fresh and you'll continue to get some leaves off of these as you harvest it.

So it's a fun little project.

Or again, ours are fairly new.

They have a little while to grow still, but soon we'll all be eating fresh lettuce.

So enjoy this project this season.

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

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

- Join us next week as we continue to bring you inspiration with the best of Oklahoma gardening.

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

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

Join in on Facebook and Instagram.

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

Tune into our okay gardening classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

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

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

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

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