- Today on Oklahoma Gardening, we're headed to the 2025 Tulsa Garden Club's annual Spring Garden tour.

Then I'll show you how Oya pots can help your containers later in the hot summer and how to build one yourself.

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's 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.

- My name is Tanya Shallenberger.

I work for Paul and Marshall.

I'm her personal assistant house manager here.

She bought this house, I wanna say it was built in the seventies, around 76, and she wanted to have a backyard where friends family could get together.

She's a very outdoors person and so it started out small and it's just patios and pools have grown and grown throughout the years.

We have an area that's right off of the kitchen that she loves.

It has a TV and a solo stove and that's where she loves to do her cooking and grilling.

We also have an a pergola out back that she has.

We utilize the dining area.

There's just lots of spaces you'll see throughout the whole yard that has chairs and ready for people to come sit and gather and have fun.

She loves anything outdoors, anything from fishing to tennis.

She plays tennis weekly.

She's, she's not here when she's home.

She's at the tennis quarter at the country club, golfing.

There are some things in the pool house that, like a swordfish that her son and her caught in Marathon, Florida and it's kind of grown over the years.

Some she buys at fundraisers, some she gets given to her.

And anything that deals with tennis or golf, you'll see probably out in the pool house.

When you step off the, the deck or the kitchen and you walk out, you wouldn't realize that you're in Midtown Tulsa.

It's very quiet.

We've got a lot of, a lot of yard here around and it, the outdoor space is just part of the house.

She kind of wanted it that way.

She wanted it to be a retreat for her family to have fun and come over and play and not worry about neighbors.

She has some peonies and she has some roses.

She loves them.

And we have one area where the kids will hide Easter eggs on Sunday and they'll do their Easter egg hunt.

And it's just an area that she wants pretty for the kids and to walk through and to find eggs.

So that's why we have the rose garden up on top.

We just kind of gathered a lot of plants that we like and, and planted them.

It's, it's not, there wasn't a rhyme or reason behind any of it really.

Just if she liked it, I tried to put it out there for her.

So this area right here is the rose garden.

Paula loves roses.

Okay.

And peonies.

So we've tried to put a lot of those in for her around here Sunday.

- Well, they're just about to pop, aren't - They?

Oh, we had some bloom.

- Okay.

- Already.

But it, it's really pretty when it's all, they're all bloomed - And we miss the daffodils, but I bet they were - Beautiful.

Really?

Yes, they were.

They were pretty - Kind of lighten up this shady area a little bit.

Yes.

- And we have some hydrangeas, we have more hydrangeas on the other side, but this area right through here, we use for Sundays Easter.

So the Easter bunny normally hides as eggs throughout here.

- Okay.

- And she's got several grandkids that will be here.

And it's just a fun spot for them to walk through and do their Easter egg hunt.

- Well, I wasn't expecting this topography back here and it's a good vantage point to kind of see over everything there - Too.

Well it, the construction we just did.

It kind of opens it all up.

So you see the pool in the pergola area and we've got a new slide.

We've got a new spa area, we've got all new pool equipment.

We changed the fountain into a grotto so the kids will love it.

And yeah, it's had a lot of renovations throughout the years.

- Well, the place has beautiful curb of appeal here.

We've got a lot of different foundation plants and a few pans.

He's still lingering.

I - Know they'll be coming out really soon and we'll fill 'em this whole area with sun patients.

- Okay.

Do - Think it's really pretty.

- Do you do any particular color or, - Red was last year, I believe.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, it's hard to compete with the azelia - Color right now.

They pretty, I kind of like the purples.

I think they're my favorite color.

- It's a good combination.

They're just such a pop of color.

But I mean, these dogwoods are giving us - Quite a show too.

I know.

And they really stand out among the pink and the purple.

I think we tried to make it the plants that we put and tried to make it homey and and feel like they've always been here.

We didn't want it to be like landscaped in a way that it was so precise that you knew someone else came in to do everything.

Because we've basically done it ourselves here.

So she just wanted it to be representative of the home.

- Hi, I am Christopher Roberts.

- And I'm Bill Mullen.

We've been in the house for about 11 years in May.

It belonged to a friend of ours, Charles Padre.

And we just like the cottage style and his look.

This is our kitchen, Casey.

Beautiful.

And a lot of the stuff you see here came from Charles Padre.

Okay.

The beams are, he put in, they're probably over a hundred years old.

I'm not exactly sure where he got them.

The floors were gifted to him by one of his clients as a housewarming gift for this house.

- I feel like there's a lot of texture in his style.

I mean from the beams - To the Yeah, all different colors.

The wallpaper is from his signature wallpaper line, the oak leaf.

Okay.

- And he, he's from Oklahoma, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- He, so - Oak leaves and - Boy.

Yeah, yeah.

He loved that design.

So you'd see that in a lot of his pieces and works and stuff.

- Beautiful - Stature.

Cows, I was told was one of his favorite pieces and we were lucky enough to get those.

There's some back here too.

And he had those in all of his houses that I can remember seeing them from years ago.

So this was - His last house that he was in?

It - Was his last house, yes.

- And so you guys were able to go ahead and keep some of the pieces - Right.

They, his family allowed us to come in and pick what we wanted.

Some of the pieces had already been selected, but everything pretty much was for sale.

So we were fortunate enough to get a lot of, a lot of things from that belonged to him.

So - Very beautiful.

And and you knew him for - Several years, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

I've met him in 1981 and we were friends for quite a long time.

So he was an awesome person.

Very generous, talented, obviously.

- Yeah.

- A good guy.

- No, absolutely.

And I love kind of the recycled wood and and materials he's used also.

Can you tell us a little bit about the light fixtures and the cabinets as well?

- Yeah.

The pantry doors were from an old amoire and the upper parts of it and bottom were new lumber and they just stained the whole thing to make it look like it was an original piece.

So it looks a thousand years old.

Almost.

Pretty cool.

- Well what a treat for visitors to be able to see - Some - Of this.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's wonderful.

- Beautiful.

Thank you for sharing with us.

- Absolutely.

So since the inside was pretty much done to our satisfaction, just a matter of moving in and furniture placement, we took the entire backyard and made it our footprint and project over the last 11 years.

- We were told that the designer in the 1950s from Phil Brick originally designed the yard.

We added the patio room and really all the landscaping in the yard except for the larger trees we put in ourselves.

- I don't think we've left any of the sections untouched.

We've, we've added everything where we could and then probably then some.

So the pool was the last thing that we put into the backyard and there was no access for the larger equipment to be brought in.

So it was actually a, a hand dug pool.

The dirt was hauled out by wheelbarrows.

So we connected with Tom's Outdoor Living and they were instrumental in getting us what we wanted here.

- We love the patio room.

It's just nice to be out.

We, you know, enjoy watching football.

We can see the TV from the pool and just, you know, hanging out.

- We have Christmas parties every year and this seems to be the place where everybody congregates.

We turn on the fire, have some music, and sometimes it's standing room only in there, but everybody ends out there.

We, we always end up outside.

We have a lot of different sitting areas in the, in the yard, if you haven't noticed.

We do have the pool area.

We've got a fire pit area, our seating behind the patio room that we just kind of hang out with friends for cocktail or whatever.

We have park benches placed around in the landscaping area.

And so yeah, just anywhere you'd like to sit and enjoy you, you have a place to go.

- The color of the azelia is really bringing you around this corner, doesn't it?

- Yes, it does.

This is one of the sections where we decided to go with the, the red color pink colored azalea.

- Beautiful.

And then of course you got your fountain here that kind of drowns out any city noise, right?

- Yes, it does.

This, this thing, if you wanna just come out and relax, this is very tranquil area to sit.

- I love this combination of the dark purple with the, the pink tulips.

- Yeah.

What's - The plan for - Summer?

Well, when, when the tulips have have run their course, we are going to take all of these out and obviously come back in.

We've got some purple verina that's gonna come in here.

- Oh, okay.

- Okay.

So we're gonna keep with the purple, but it'll just be a whole different look once it's all done.

- Well, I love the tailored Junipers and how you use those kind of as a softened boundary, you know?

- Yeah.

We, we went with this option just because the, they're easy to maintain.

They do create a, a cover, a buffer with the fence that you don't even really see.

They do grow very tall and we were really in love with that option as well.

So - Yeah, we actually have done two renovations in the backyard.

We, we planted a bunch of holly trees that didn't survive.

And so this, what you're looking at now is the last thing we did about a couple of years ago.

We love the junipers and the azaleas and all the plants.

- We like the way it blooms kind of in transition through the seasons.

I mean now we're seeing tulips and azaleas.

In May you'll see different colors from all kinds of different other plants that are coming in and being planted and rose bushes.

We have varieties of rose bushes that are now blooming or ready to bloom.

So those will be ready to go for the day of the tour.

- I am Tom Butchko co with Tom's Outdoor Living.

My wife and I, Nina, we've got two active boys.

We're out here all the time, including this morning and like most mornings, playing a little tennis on the side yard.

And it's built to, to be enjoyed.

It really is our, our resort backyard.

And my wife and I, we started going to Tulum a couple years back and really liked it and, and just wanted to bring a tropical vibe to the backyard.

And I really wanted it to be different.

Even if you had to, you know, start replacing plants as annuals, it was still worth it.

My wife will tell you it, the only thing she wanted from this project was pickle ball.

And so there, there was a definitely a scramble for a ball that would bounce on this.

- And now you don't hear that pong pong back and forth.

Right.

- The deep, yeah.

Yes, exactly.

It really turned out well.

And it's the best of both worlds with touch tennis, you know, it's almost pickleball and the soccer and the basketball and, and really just the room to, to run and play - And all of this is movable.

Right, exactly.

So like you have a full basketball kind of area here or, or you could have a reception here if you wanted to.

- Yeah.

Or multiple sports with, you know, multiple groups going.

I mean we, you know, with the birthday parties over here or end of season basketball parties that, that, you know, we love to host.

It's, it's just, it's great to see the kids figure out how to use the space and, and love it.

You know, we were able to keep the irrigation on through the summer construction and keeping the specimen pieces, the, the coral bark, Japanese maple and the weeping blood Good.

Keeping those alive, you know, they came with a house and you just really wanted to make sure those were protected during the construction process.

We do a lot of phases of construction at, at Tom's and this was definitely a stopping point for our construction.

We did the, the concrete wall, which absolutely we wanted at a seat height so that players wait in waiting.

Could be, could be, you know, ready to go.

But the azaleas it, it was, it certainly it knocks down the balls now when there was a lot more soccer going on.

It protected the windows beautifully and the ja maple it, it certainly took a hit during the construction, but it's some of those old school Maple Ridge landscaping plant material.

And so it'll get transitioned over into the more resort kind of feel here sooner than later with the, with how the chap maple is unfortunately dying back.

- And let's go back to this turf, 'cause I know you have the golf course behind us here too - For - The putting green.

A lot of people think that there's no maintenance on this artificial turf grass, but there is a little bit.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

- Yeah, you know, so we, when we install turf, we try to have maintenance plans at least one visit a year where we're res sanding, you know, checking on the edges, making sure it's holding up and you know, it, it does have an aggregate base and making sure the drainage isn't washing that out.

It does take some maintenance and you wanna blow it off and you know, you still have to, you know, keep it clean, especially spring and Maple Ridge with the, with everything, dropping - All the - Little seeds.

Oh my gosh.

Yes.

- So part of that function is not having to mow a lawn next to the pool.

Right.

- Yes.

And you know, you go to enough kitty birthday parties with a pool and the concrete is slick and I knew I didn't wanna have to worry about it.

And so this, it's also a good gripper.

- Yeah.

- And it, it really helps you relax and, you know, we do so much AstroTurf at, at Tom's especially in these areas between patio and pool, where it's hard for the grass to survive and it just, it makes a really nice option.

- Right.

And you're, you're absolutely right, the tile would be slick and kids are always falling and around the wet pool.

- Yep.

- So you got some mysterious that are gonna be beautiful.

Yes.

You know, they're getting bigger, right?

Yes, - They are.

They're, they're happy and healthy and so future plans, a lot of phase approach around here and at our company, but just have a little old school probably looking metal pergola of sorts just to help shade the patio as well.

Okay.

And bring up the wisteria and keep it elevated.

We have a, a big southern magnolia in the corner and I, I grew up with a southern magnolia at Tom Senior's house and so that, that smell of the bloom in summer, that it, it just, it, it brings back good memories.

And so we've got one of those and you can really see in the deck work how we drop the deck so that the, those big leaves didn't just fly into the pool all summer long.

And then we've got a couple big lob lolly pines that we take pride in cleaning up after.

'cause there's, you know, there's always something dropping around here, but the shade that it provides and, and really the screening as well, it, it's invaluable - Today we're making a DIY oya pot.

If you're not familiar with what Oya pots are, basically they are containers that usually are terracotta something porous and they're a container that you can fill up with water and then actually bury that container down into your containers or into the soil line or something like that.

And so the idea is that it is a reservoir of water that then will permeate out into that soil profile.

So it's kind of a way to irrigate a set amount of water and allow it to really percolate into that soil profile, extending the time between waterings.

And so today we're going to make one ourselves kind of show you how to do one.

You can buy these, there's a lot of different styles that you can buy online, but this is a simple one that we've made out of two terracotta pots.

So this is actually the bottom, that's why I'm flipping it over.

And this is the top.

So you can see there was a drain hole that was already pre-made and this terracotta pot.

So we left that one uncovered and we've got this one where we've turned one pot upside down on the other and basically we've sealed them and then we sealed the other drain hole.

So this would go into your soil like this and you would bury it up to here and then you would fill this up with water right here.

This whole thing would be filled up with water and then it would slowly percolate out into that soil profile.

So let me show you how we're gonna build one of these.

And it doesn't really matter what size pots you get.

So we've got a little bit larger pot here for our demonstration purposes that we're gonna build.

So again, just simple pots that you can buy wherever they're fairly cheap, no big deal.

You wanna make sure it's one that's not glazed because that glaze will prevent that water from actually filtering out of that pot.

So here we go.

So this is one we have you of course again, make sure it does have a drain hole in the bottom of it.

'cause that's important.

Now there's a couple of different ways to actually go about like preventing that water from draining out that drain hole.

And that's what you wanna do on this first one.

So we've got some rubber corks that you can buy.

You can buy a set so you can kind of make sure you get the right size.

Or another option would be, and this is what we used on our smaller one here, is just those rubber protection pads that you can get for your chairs.

This particular one's a little bit too small for the hole that we're working with on this pot.

So we're gonna go ahead with one of these corks and use it.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna get our glue here and this is a good adhesive glue.

And basically what's li nice about it, it's a little bit of an elastic glue even after it dries.

And it's also going to hold up to water.

'cause obviously you a glue that's going to really hold up to water in this situation.

So we're gonna put a little glue around there and then we're gonna slide that down into that drain hole.

And if, just for safety, if you wanted to add a little more glue on the outside, you could do that.

This is why we're wearing rubber gloves.

You can use your finger to kind of help facilitate that glue and get it kind of peanut butter spread around there if you want to.

Now this is going to be the bottom.

So your second container, what we're gonna do is bring that over here.

I'm gonna set that on its side for right now.

And for this situation, what we're gonna do is eventually we're gonna wanna put this pot on top of it.

Okay.

So we're gonna put our glue, I have seen where some people use caulk, that might be another option, like an all weather caulk you could use.

But we found that this product worked really well.

So you just wanna make sure you have a good bead of that glue or whatever adhesive you're using.

And at this point, we're gonna turn this pot over upside down.

Now keep in mind we did not seal the hole on this one because that's actually the top.

That's where we're gonna be filling it up with water.

We did on this.

This is actually the bottom here.

So, and you gotta do your cork before you actually glue these two products together.

And this glue is a little bit smelly, so make sure you're using a ventilated area to do that in.

Now, just to give it a little bit more reinforcement, what we found that works really well is getting kind of this woven, it's sort of like drywall tape or something like that.

And it's got a little bit of adhesive to it.

So we're gonna wrap this around here and you can see that some of that glue is obviously squeezed out from between our pots, but it's not too messy that it's really shifting on us.

So that's good.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and cut that.

Got a little bit of an overlap on there.

That's fine.

And what I'm gonna do is go ahead and add a little bit more glue just on that in some of those areas where maybe I haven't seen some of that glue actually protruding through.

So I feel like this sort of just gives us a little bit more security that our pots are gonna stay melded together and I'm just kind of using the tip of the glue here to kind of do this for right now.

All right, so then again, getting your stick here, what we're gonna do is just sort of spread that like you're making a sandwich here.

We're just spreading that around, gluing that tape to really secure and weld your two pots together.

Basically, you can also use your stick to kind of press it and make sure it stays stuck to the pots.

So.

So now we have our container and our pot.

Obviously it's upside down 'cause this has our cork here in the top.

That is one of the nice things I would say about using one of these cushions inside is that it will sit flat this way, whereas with the cork you have a little bump, so it's hard to sit flat on its actual bottom.

So it doesn't matter when it's in a larger container that you're watering air in the soil, but just for storage purposes, it kind of has that lift there.

So this glue actually will dry fairly quickly.

I think the set period on it is about 24 hours, but it's pretty dry to the touch within just about five or six hours.

So this is what we're gonna do.

We're gonna leave it here, but by tomorrow we could be putting this out in the garden.

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 as we begin a brand new season with all new shows starting next week right here on Oklahoma Gardening, but for the Tulsa Garden Club's Annual Garden tour.

And joining me is Jimmy Black, who is here to give us all the details.

Thank you so much for sharing.

Yeah.

Okay.

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.

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Tune in to 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.