Column: On the record
Life is as much about the journey as the destination.
Lifestyle
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Column: And the survey says
As the year winds to an end, it seems like a good time to see if Oklahoma is doing okay.
Fall planting in Oklahoma
Fall is officially here, and hopefully, the cooler weather is here to stay. If Mother Nature would bless us with rain now, it would be wonderful.
Column: ‘I should have known it was the Tooth Fairy’
Here at The Ardmoreite, our email inboxes are frequently flooded with questionable content from various questionable companies. One common type of email claims to provide “survey results” on any number of topics.
Column: I’ve never even been to Ohio
For about a day last week, my YouTube account thought I lived in Ohio.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
These herbs grow well in Oklahoma, along with lots of other herbs that Simon and Garfunkel couldn't work into their lyrics. Herbs are plants that are used for medicinal purposes and to add flavor to food. Fresh herbs are always better when adding flavor to food, but your own dried herbs are also wonderful to have on hand for enhancing your home cooking. Herbs are fantastic for making herb butters, herb vinegars, bundles for flavoring your grilled masterpieces, rubs, marinades, sauces, herbal teas, and potpourri. Who knew you could use herbs in so many different ways?
Fall lawn care in Oklahoma
The calendar says Sept. 22 is the first day of fall; however, it still feels like summer. When I went outside to get garden chores done this morning, it felt like a sauna. There was no breeze, and it was already in the 80s. At least the temperatures are much cooler at night now. One of the fall gardening chores that should be undertaken to maintain landscapes is the application of a fall pre-emergent herbicide to prevent winter weeds in the lawn. Pre-emergents work by preventing weed seeds from sprouting. Specific dates for applications of pre-emergence herbicides are difficult to give due to varying environmental conditions for each year. Applications must be made before weeds emerge - hence the name pre-emergent. Winter annual weeds germinate in late September and October in Oklahoma and die the following summer so OSU recommends that application of a pre-emergent needs to be done, generally, starting around Sept. 15 in Oklahoma because those weeds are getting ready to germinate. When the soil temperatures cool and the rains come, so will the winter weeds.
New honors to be had at the county fair
Apparently, little has changed in nearly a decade.
Fall-blooming beauties for Oklahoma
It has finally gotten a little cooler, and has finally started to rain a little. Hopefully, it will keep raining and keep getting cooler so gardeners can enjoy being in their yards after months of heat and drought and dragging hoses to keep plants alive. The plants should start looking refreshed and start blooming more now so keep annuals and perennials deadheaded but do not do any heavy pruning that would cause tender new growth that will provide yummy snacks for insects and freeze with the first frost. You can always prune to remove dead leaves and stems.
Gardening tips for September
Although September is still pretty much a summer month in Oklahoma, it means cooler fall weather and more rain are coming soon, thank goodness. Even though the autumn equinox is the official start of fall on September 22nd, plants are still growing and need the same care they needed all summer mainly watering, deadheading, watering, weeding, and more watering right now. Remember to water early, water deeply, and water 1” to 1 1/2” twice a week while it is so hot for established plantings and more often for new plantings. Containers require watering once or twice a day while it is so hot. In southern Oklahoma, we have had many days with temperatures above 100 with no rain so, hopefully, Mother Nature is ready to give us a break and some cool rainy fall weather. I am really tired of dragging hoses just to keep things alive, deadheading to keep things blooming, and keeping on top of weed removal (prostrate spurge is evil) in this heat; however, what we do in the garden now is extremely important because it determines the success of our spring gardens so it is worth the extra effort now for just a little while longer.