- Hey everyone and welcome back to Oklahoma Gardening.

I'm so excited to start another season with you.

Before we get into the show, I have a helpful tip.

I know it can be tempting on these warm winter days to get out and start cleaning the debris out of your garden, but we still have fluctuating temperatures that can get down to freezing.

So we wanna make sure to leave this plant debris as long as possible to help insulate our plant material.

On today's show, we're gonna start out by introducing you to a native evergreen that might be a little different than what you're thinking about.

We also have a raised bed that we build from the ground up.

Then we do seed starting 1 0 1.

And finally we head to Tulsa to see an airspade in action.

Let's get started.

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 for generations.

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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 wanna talk to you about a plant that you might find surprising that is native to Oklahoma and that's the Dwarf Palmetto.

Now, this is a plant that is native to southeastern Oklahoma, where it typically is found in dense clusters like this, underneath a nice shade canopy of all the forest trees that they have down there.

It likes rich soil 'cause it's often found in those rich forest floors or also in low land areas.

So it typically likes a moist soil as well.

Now once it matures to about a three to four foot height, it can tolerate a little bit drier conditions and that's what makes it such a great plant for Oklahoma and has been well adapted to our variability in rainfall sometimes.

But of course down in southeastern Oklahoma, they do get more rainfall, but it's hardy to zone seven, and in fact has been found to be hardy all the way up to zero degrees.

And one of the main reasons is because it is a stemless palm or a trunk less palm.

So essentially you'll see that these leaves are coming up from the base of that plant.

So the growing point is right there at that soil line.

And so that sort of insulates that growing tip.

So you'll see that we've got some very mature fan like palm leaves that come up and as they get older, they sort of go to the outside and we have the newer leaves.

You can see one grow coming up right here in the center that will start to expand as it continues growing throughout the season.

Now in the summertime we'll see that it puts on like panacle of several different kind of white to yellowish flowers that have a little bit of a fragrance to 'em, and that will be quite long.

And then later they produce berries off of those flowers that will turn black in about mid October.

Now those berries will then fall.

A lot of times wildlife will transplant those seeds so you'll see 'em kind of propagate themselves that way.

And you can see these smaller winds that are just starting to grow.

They actually have more of a grass like look to 'em, and that's because they're just now starting.

So they may be a a season or two in.

They are a slow growing plant.

So it's gonna take a while for it to have this full look of these large upright leaves.

But as those leaves continue to grow on those babies, they will start to expand and have that fan like palm like look to 'em.

What I love about this plant is, is the great addition to your evergreen collection adding interest in your winter garden and in a unique native way.

Hey everyone, we're excited to get this gardening season started and I know a lot of you are anticipating getting out in the garden as well.

Well, today we have a project for you that kind of allows you to take advantage of those warm winter days.

So if you had some trouble or some challenges with your garden last year, you might consider building a raised bed.

This is really a two person weekend project.

You just need some basic hardware tools to do this.

And for about $200 in materials, you could have a nice big raised bed like this as well.

So we're gonna show you how to build this.

Let's get started.

First of all, you're gonna want to gather some supplies.

You're gonna need 12 two by four by eight foot pressure treated boards.

You're also gonna need three sheets of eight foot corrugated galvanized metal panels.

We'll need a box of wood deck screws, a box of metal to wood screws, and a box of pocket screws.

Then finally, you're gonna gather some tools that you likely have around your house, including a saw, a drill, some clamps, a tape measure, and some tin snips.

Now that we have our boards all cut for the most part to get started, if you remember, we started with 11 two by four by eight foot long boards.

Now seven of those we've set aside for the time being four of those.

We're not gonna cut it all because we're gonna use those as eight foot lengths for our sidewalls.

Three of 'em are gonna be our top rail that we are gonna have to cut down a little bit, but we're gonna wait until we finish building our box to know the exact measurements on that.

Then we have four, three foot long pieces here.

And again, those are gonna be for our corner pieces.

And then finally, we also have 10 19 inch long pieces.

And you can see on these what we've done is we've used that pocket hole jig to make two holes on either ends of these so that we just have a finer finished look when we're putting our screws in there.

So you don't necessarily need that jig if you don't want to, but it kind of helps with those diagonal drill holes that we have to create with our screws.

So we are gonna go ahead and start now by building our walls first, we're gonna start with one of our long walls, and for that we need three of these and then also two eight foot pieces.

Now to start this long wall, what we've got laid out here is our two eight foot boards and our 19 inch boards.

The three of 'em are really just going to be the space holders between the bottom and the top of that wall.

So you again, can see that we've got our boards kind of spaced out here.

Of course, this middle one we're gonna have to measure once we get the two outside ones done to make sure that we're finding that middle.

But we wanna make sure our pocket holes are up so that we can drill the screws right into this upper board.

Now that we have the frames for our long walls constructed, it's time to start on the end caps and those are gonna be the short walls that we add to both sides of this.

So for that, we're gonna need the two three foot boards that'll act as our top and the bottom rail.

And then also two more 19 inch boards that will act as the separators.

All of these 19 inch boards were drilled with these pocket holes.

So you can see now that we've got our screws in there and they're firmly attached to our in frames, we have a nice clean finish on the inside of what's gonna be our box.

Now, in order to construct our box out of our four walls, what we're gonna do is start with one of our long walls.

We wanna make sure that the pocket holes that we've drilled with screws in there are all facing the inside of that box.

We're then gonna grab one of our short walls and add it to the end of the long wall.

So instead of the whole raised bed being eight foot, it's actually gonna be eight foot plus the thickness of the short wall.

So we're gonna add it to the outside of the long wall, and this is where those clamps come in handy because they kind of give you extra hands.

In addition to the clamps, you'll also need a square so that you can make sure that when you're attaching your long boards with your short walls that you are making that junction square.

So put your square in that corner and make sure that all of your corners are flush with one another.

It's very essential that you make sure every time you add a new wall that it is square in order to have a perfect box.

All right, now we have our perfect box and we're well on our way to having a raised bed, but of course the next thing we have to do is line it.

So we've got some lay down, black lay down here that we're gonna use.

And this will just prevent any roots from actually kind of getting down.

And mainly we were more concerned about the soil washing down through into the crush granite as well.

So there is likely still gonna be some that washes out, but this will help reduce that amount.

After installing the bottom liner, we attach two eight foot links of the corrugated metal to the inside of the long sides of the sides.

For the short end walls, we use the 10 snips to cut three foot lengths of the metal.

And you definitely wanna make sure that you're wearing gloves when you're working with this metal 'cause it can be very sharp.

We use screws to attach the metal to the wood frame.

After the box is lined with corrugated metal, we still have some wood to attach for the top rail.

For this, you will use two of the eight foot boards for the long sides, and then you'll need to cut two, three foot one inch lengths for the top of the short ends.

All right, and now we have the top frame completed and our whole raised bed completed really.

But that top frame is really what's going to be nice.

It kind of acts like a seat when you're gardening here.

It also really protects your fingers from that corrugated metal edge, so it kind of finishes it off.

Now, before you fill it, there's a couple of things you wanna keep in mind.

So if you didn't construct it in the place that you're gonna keep it long term, you wanna go ahead and make sure you can move it at that point, at this point now before you fill it.

The other thing is we haven't, while this is treated lumber, we haven't stained it or anything like that.

So feel free to stain it or paint it or water seal it at this point before you fill it.

And that'll just kind of protect it long term as you go through those seasons.

And then finally, you do need to fill it, of course, to make it a raised bed.

And we've done a few different videos on how to do that, but one of the recommendations I always have is for people to find materials around their garden to fill it first so that it can reduce how much soil that you actually put in there.

But this will get you set to start next season.

It is cold outside and I know we're not doing as much outside in the garden, but it's time to start our transplants indoors.

And joining me today is Dylan Jasmine with Shape Your Future.

And today we're demystifying how to start a transplant.

I'm so excited.

- I am too.

I can't wait.

- So tell me a little bit, do you, have you done this at home before?

- I've not done this before.

Okay.

This will be my second season.

Gardening.

I've always started in the garden, so I'm excited to learn about this.

- Okay, so you normally just start your seeds directly in the garden, is that what Yes.

Yeah.

So today what we're gonna do is we're gonna go ahead and start seeding some cool season crops.

So cool season crops can go out into the garden a little bit early.

So we're looking at late February into March.

And so we have a selection of those.

But I think a lot of times with gardeners when they first get started, they're a little bit like, where do I start?

100% get overwhelmed with the choices.

So we got a couple of different options here that a lot of times when you go to the market, what you can find to start seeds, but you can use something as simple as this.

If you punch holes in it, you wanna make sure there's drainage to it.

- Okay?

- But we're gonna go ahead and get started with some containers that we have here, and we've got some pre moistened potting soil.

One of the things you always wanna make sure is get a a seedling soil.

- Okay.

- So, and that's essentially so you can get those seedlings coming up.

They're not having to push too hard through that potting soil.

- So don't dig up my garden with top soil.

- No, absolutely.

No, I'm glad you mentioned that actually.

So top soil is a big no-no, because it's just too heavy for these seedlings to get started.

And I know that feels counterintuitive 'cause you're like, I do it out in the garden, but there's just different chemistry and hydrology that's happening versus in a container.

- Okay?

- Yep.

And we pre weed it because a lot of times there's peat moss and things like that that sort of take a little while to get that moisture in there.

So we're gonna go ahead and start filling our containers.

- Okay.

- If you wanna do that, I'm gonna grab some of our seeds that we have here.

And these are some small seeds.

So sometimes tweezers or something like that come in handy.

We're gonna eyeball it.

Okay.

- Love it.

- A little extra seeds doesn't hurt anybody sometimes, but what I like to do is kind of fill 'em just up to a little below the lip.

- Okay.

- Because when you're adding moisture in there, you wanna make sure your seeds aren't gonna run off with any of that moisture.

And so the other thing too is by pre moistening this, you know, you've got a good amount of soil in there.

'cause sometimes with the un moistened soil, it's too light and fluffy and it just kind of, you'll water it and then it'll just disappear on you almost.

- So, okay?

- Yep.

All right.

I'm gonna let you pick your seeds that you want.

I'm gonna grab that soil from you.

Okay, so I can do this as well.

It's really that simple.

And I always worry that people get discouraged with gardening.

Like it doesn't have to be that complicated.

So - It really doesn't.

- So one of the things about people always ask like what's cool season and what's warm season?

And if you think about what part of the plant you're harvesting, right?

So you just said kale and what was the other one?

Broccoli.

Broccoli.

So that is the, the vegetation, right?

The leaves, and then also the flour.

Whereas, and this is a very general rule, warm season crops tend to be the fruit with the seed.

So tomatoes, peppers, corn, all of those things will come on later.

And you plant in the garden later also.

- Okay, so these are tiny - Seeds, very tiny, aren't they?

How deep do they go?

Yeah.

So just sort of flatten out your soil a little bit there.

And then what you're gonna do is you can plant just one or two, however many you're comfortable with.

If you kind of feel like you just wanna spread a few in there.

Okay, that's fine too.

So you can see here what we did in this container was we spread some seeds in there and there's a couple of ways to utilize these later on.

We could grow this out, kind of have this as microgreens that we harvest.

Or at a certain point we're gonna let 'em get a little bit larger.

But we can almost take these as transplants and sort of tease 'em apart and separate 'em.

- Okay.

- So depending on what you're wanting to do, if you had several seeds in this packet, you could tease those apart.

Or if you wanted to just take this cell and pull it out and then plant it in the garden, you could do that as well.

Okay?

And this is a great activity with kids.

I know shape your future has a lot of different gardening resources as well and activities on your - Website.

We do.

We love for people to get outside, get their hands a little dirty, you know?

And it's, for me, even as an adult, I'm still a picky eater, but if I grow it myself, - Right, - I'm, I'm gonna eat - It.

You're more willing to try it, aren't you?

Yes.

- Alright.

Okay.

So now you said that this was pre-wet.

- Yes.

- Correct.

Do I need to water it again after we've planted?

- Yes.

So what I'm gonna ask you to do before we get to that point, okay?

If you wanna go ahead and label before we, I like that you've placed those on either side, so you remember that.

That's a good trick.

Go ahead.

We've got some labels here.

- Okay.

- And a lot of times you think I'm gonna write in a pen, but pens kind of break down with uv.

The ink does.

So we always have found that writing with pencil actually holds up a little bit better.

- So's a great tip.

- Some things to put on your label is the plant name.

- Okay.

- And then also if there's a cultivar that you wanna remember, like if you're growing multiple types of broccoli, you might wanna put that on there.

And then secondly, the date that you're actually planting it.

- Okay?

- So if you don't see anything coming up, you can be like, how long ago was it?

Should it be up by now?

And kind of have an idea of what you're looking at - In the - Timeline.

That's smart.

So this is where we have our spray bottle.

Okay.

And these come in really handy.

So it's worth investing in.

They don't have to be expensive or anything like that, but just adding a little moisture is gonna help that seed come in contact with that soil a little bit more.

Okay?

Okay.

And then we wanna maintain that humidity also.

And so for that, what we're gonna do is put some saran wrap, just plain old out of the kitchen saran wrap here.

So you can do this together or you can do it separately, however it works for you.

And so we're just kinda, you can use a rubber band to kind of work that under, but eventually you're gonna put that in a bright light.

And that's the next most important thing we wanna talk about is using what sort of proper lighting for this.

And so when you place this under a light, you, some people might think there's enough light in a bright window, but there really isn't.

Oh, okay.

Even a bright window doesn't give you enough light.

So there's grow light options like this.

This one's a really nice one.

'cause it'll clip to your coffee table or whatever.

You wanna make sure to put the light as close to the seedlings as possible because they won't have to stretch as much to get to that light.

- Okay?

- But if this doesn't fit your decor, I don't know what your style is, they have simple grow lights like this that you can change out your lamp, you know, light bulb.

- Oh, that's smart.

- Yeah.

So this works really well.

And in fact, this one has the exact wavelength that you need for the different stages of growth on that plant as well.

So these are relatively cheap, as cheap as all light bulbs are these days.

Right.

- And how long should you, if you use a grow light, how long should it be under that grow light on?

- So yeah, so try to leave it under that grow light until it's ready to go out.

- Okay.

So - As we kind of get closer, the plants are getting taller, of course they're not gonna be able to stay under here, right?

Because we're gonna be tapping out.

So another option would be to use something like a baggie to put over it, to give it a little more height, but to still keep that greenhouse effect.

So you could do something like this, right?

Where you're growing in a larger pot, you've got more vertical height, but you've still got that high humidity dome over it.

And so just keeping that moisture, that condensation, you wanna make sure no algae is starting to grow.

'cause then it might be getting a little too moist on really hot days.

Like anything in a greenhouse, you might have to vent it a little bit.

Okay.

So, you - Know, and I don't need to poke any holes in this.

- I mean, later on you can, if you're finding that it just stays too hot.

- Okay.

- But yeah, so it's really that simple to do.

One thing you wanna make sure you do is put some container underneath this so you're not ruining your coffee table in that process.

- So, exactly.

- So what do you think about all this?

- I think I can do this.

I'm excited to try this in my own - Garden.

Okay.

Well I'm gonna let you take these with you.

Thank, thank you.

And and keep 'em in your home.

- Definitely.

- Thank you.

Thank you for joining us today.

Much of our garden is still asleep, but that doesn't mean there's not maintenance to be done in the garden today.

We are over here at Gathering place to take a look at some of the maintenance techniques that they're using in order to preserve good tree healthcare.

And joining me today is Kendall Spradlin.

Kendall.

Essentially, you guys are maintaining an urban tree forest here.

- Yes, we are actually, during construction, we had over 6,000 trees planted and over 300 legacy trees remain here in the park today.

Wow.

Yeah.

- And And a lot of them are newly planted.

- Yes.

- So let's talk, what is it, seven years now that this place is - Seven years and will be eight in September.

Okay.

- All right.

So a lot of 'em are starting to get established a little bit, but yeah, of course you might see some concerns as you're watching them progress.

Let's talk a little bit about that and what you're doing to mitigate that.

- Yeah.

So every year we kind of do an evaluation of the trees, just a level one risk assessment.

And then we do a visual inspection, two of the trees.

And this year we purchased the Air Spade air compressor to help mitigate some of the roots that we're girdling the trees.

So what we are doing this year with the air spade is that we are excavating the root zone and we are pruning doing some root pruning on our trees.

Okay.

So other ways we have used this air spade is actually in lawns after the park.

And the lawns have had a lot of love from our events we've had here.

And we utilize the airspace as a giant aerator in the lawns.

So we will shoot direct holes into the lawn and then backfill it with soil or compost to kind of give it more of an aerated fluffy - Okay.

- Feel to it.

And helps the soil and water filtration.

- Okay.

And I've noticed some of your trees in your lawn areas, they have kind of a different root structure than what we're seeing here.

- So Yes, yes.

So because the lawns get watered more often than most of our plantings here, those, the trees actually don't need to hunt for water.

The roots don't have to hunt for water.

So they've been laying on top of the soil.

So here we have actually been root pruning those trees in particular this year.

- So as you can see, all of these roots here are growing on top of each other.

It's very messy, it's very compacted together.

This is a result of having too much mulch around the tree.

Being in the lawn here, the sprinklers kept the mulch wet and it allowed the roots space to grow up instead of down and out.

And that's what led to this big mat here.

And right here, we're looking at our main structural root.

Everything above here doesn't need to be here.

This will actually impact this and cause the tree to not grow well.

If we were to leave it and leave it pinched like this, nutrients wouldn't be able to flow up their root and this whole side of the tree could die.

So we're doing this as a preventative measure to try to promote good tree health, good root structure.

The goal is to have it look like a wagon wheel.

You want the roots kind of radiating out evenly spaced and just all radiating away from the tree and not this matted mess.

- Well, of course the trees are still dormant, so this is a great time to do this as a winter project as - Well.

Perfect time.

And this is also great because this is a lot of hard work, but it pays off in the end because you get a large lasting stand of trees.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Kendall.

Thank you.

- Now one thing you can be doing this time of year is pulling out any of your remaining annual plants, especially those that might be in containers, so that they're ready to go for next season.

If you have any questions about today's show, feel free to visit your local OSU County extension office, or leave us a comment on YouTube or socials.

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 head out into the garden to start some early season planting right here on Oklahoma gardening.

And finally, we head to Tulsa to see an air spade in action.

Let's get started 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.OK state.edu.

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

Tune into 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 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.