- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Join us as we bring back the Plant a Row program.

I'll introduce a couple of spring flowering trees.

Bailey shows us something new she's been building in the backyard garden.

We share a natural method to suppress weeds.

And finally, Christie is whipping up another tasty meal in the kitchen.

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.

In celebration of Oklahoma Gardening's 50th anniversary this season, we are announcing a challenge to our viewers.

It's a plant a row challenge.

If you're familiar with the national campaign of Plant a Row, you might recognize it as an opportunity to give back to your local community.

Plant a Row has been a program that's been recognized by many of our previous hosts here on Oklahoma Gardening, and we thought it would be a great opportunity to bring it back this year.

When you're planning your garden season, we hope that you take us up on our challenge and plant an extra row of produce that you can then donate to your local food pantry.

It's a great way to give back to your community.

In order to kind of keep track of how much produce you guys are giving back to your local community, we ask that you go to our website and fill out a form.

We wanna hear about your donations and even see pictures if you're willing to send them in and just sweeten the pot for your donation.

We are going to enter you into a raffle to win a new garden tiller.

So again, you gotta go out to our website and fill out that form.

For the past 50 years, Oklahoma Gardening has been educating viewers about gardening, and we thought, what better way to celebrate that knowledge then to give back to those who need the food the most.

We hope you join us in this plant a row campaign While spring in Oklahoma, we often think about the red bud and some flowering plum trees, but one tree we don't wanna overlook is our native service berry, also known as Shad Bush.

They say it's called service berry.

Because of the fact that back in the day when the grounds were frozen, this plant would start flowering, which allowed people to know that the grounds were thawing out in order for them to start holding services for those that needed to be buried.

The other name Shad Bush comes from the time when the fish, the Shad was spawning and it was headed up river as this plant was in flower.

So it's got some interesting names to it, but service berry regardless is a native, primarily to the eastern coast of the US but it does really well here in Oklahoma as well.

So the nice thing about this is it's going to produce these five petaled long petaled flowers in the springtime, giving you this nice show.

It is a deciduous tree, often multi stem, so sometimes people think of it as a large shrub.

It can get anywhere from six to 20 feet tall, and it's hearty from zones four to eight.

So give it some room to grow.

But you can see it's got a nice display on it and being a deciduous tree, it's just now pushing out its leaves after it blooms.

But those leaves are also gonna give you more addition and to your garden this fall as they turn into more of an orange, red fall color for you.

So definitely one that gives you some attraction throughout the seasons in your garden.

As far as problems, you might find that this plant has a little bit of leaf rust or may have some powdery mildew, but primarily any of the disease or pest problems that occur on this plant are just cosmetic and they're not gonna be life threatening to the plant.

So go ahead.

This is a great plant, a native to the US one that's edible.

Gonna offer you spring flowers as well as fall foliage, and a great plant to consider for your landscape.

Kiwi is a vining crop.

Bailey's been hard at work in our backyard garden here, adding to it so that it's producing more.

What have we got here, Bailey?

- We have a couple of different hardy kiwis back here.

- Okay.

- So a lot of people don't think you can grow Kiwis in Oklahoma, but you can.

- Yes.

So I always think of it as a tropical fruit a little bit.

Yes.

But so when you say hardy, I also know that they usually need both a male and female too, is that correct?

- Yes.

You have one male, if you have several different female plants around.

- Okay.

And of course the females are the ones that are gonna give you your fruit.

So we have both here?

- Yes, we do.

- Okay.

- So we also have another kiwi that is self pollinating, and so we just put it next to the fence for it to grow along the fence.

- Okay.

All right.

So are these gonna be like the kiwi we find in the grocery store?

- No, they're not.

So those kiwi are more tropical.

Okay.

These ones that are hardy here, they don't have the fuzz on the outside.

- Oh, perfect.

Yeah, nobody likes the fuzz anyway.

So a lot of people don't realize kiwi is a vine.

Yes.

So of course we need something to grow it on.

So we've got one over against a fence, but this was kind of nice.

We didn't have anything defining the back of our landscape here.

So tell me a little bit about your style here.

- So this is more of a fence, esp, spier kind of style.

The tea bar is the most common - Type - Of trellis method because you're a, they're able to produce a lot more kiwi that way here.

- So it'd be like a T-shaped, right?

Yeah.

- So it has a two ends with a T shape, and then it has wires running between them.

Okay.

So you grow your kiwi up and then it hangs over.

Okay.

But here in the backyard garden, we needed a fence.

We wanted to put a fence along the back.

Right.

And so just figured putting this kind of structure back here would kinda help define the space and allow us to be able to show that you can grow kiwi here.

- Okay.

And I know some people use trellis and arbors and that sort of stuff, so there's a lot of variability with how to grow your vines, right?

- Yes, for sure.

- Okay.

Well it looks like a beautiful style.

Definitely has defined our backyard here a little bit.

Let's talk a little bit about how you constructed this too.

- So the first thing that we did was we ran a line between our two fences.

That way all of our posts would be in a straight line.

- Okay.

- And then we buried these four by four posts into the ground.

So these are pressure treated, so they'll be able to withstand the elements.

- Okay.

- And since our fruit's not gonna be right up against them, we're not too worried about that.

So we buried them two foot in the ground.

So we have six feet above.

We didn't concrete them just because just the clay soils.

Once the clay settles and dries, it's pretty solid there.

So after that, we took these two by sixes and ran them on either side of the four by fours.

So, - And they're 12 feet long, is - That okay?

Yes, they're 12 feet long.

It was a good measurement for this space to be able to fit two of these cell back here.

And it gives the kiwi plenty of space to be able to grow as well.

And so we just put them on either side of the four by four to help stabilize them and so they can't move too - Much.

All right.

So you got a pretty heavy gauge wire that you're using here too.

Tell me what gauge that - Is.

Yes.

So this is 12 gauge wire, which is what is recommended for growing kiwi.

So it's not really gonna go anywhere.

It's not gonna bend very easy either.

- Okay.

So there's two different brackets you've used actually on either end.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

- Yes.

So since this is our backyard demonstration garden, right.

I wanted to show a couple different options.

So if someone wanted to reconstruct this, they could easily, and so this first one that we have is just a regular turn buckle.

And so you could have them on both sides and be able, whenever you put them on here, you wanna extend them as far as they can go, so that way you can tighten it.

- So yeah, have this unscrewed completely so that you can tighten it up.

And the nice thing about this is it's, it's a clean on this side.

So if we are having people walk through, there's nothing that's gonna grab their arm or anything like that.

- Correct?

Yeah.

And so this is just really simple.

I drilled a pilot hole for this eye bolt to go in and then just connected this turnbuckle to it.

- Okay.

And then twisted the wire back on itself.

- Yeah.

On the other end though, we have these wire anchors and they're pretty interesting because you put the wire through it one way and it won't back out the other way.

- Okay.

- So if I were to, - So this is hammered into the outside of the post?

- Yes.

Okay.

So I pre-drilled some holes that would fit this back part into the post, and I drilled a hole straight through the post.

And so the downside to that is that it might deteriorate a little faster than this side would because it has a hole straight through.

- Okay.

- But with this, once you put the wire through this wire anchor, it won't come back out.

- Okay.

- And so in order to tighten it, you just grab some pliers and pull.

- Okay.

So you just can keep pulling it as the weight of the kiwis growing on it, you can just keep pulling - It.

Yep.

You can't loosen it.

So that is the positive to one of the turn buckles.

'cause if you needed to get in here for some reason and loosen up the wire, you can do that with the turn buckles, but not with this.

- Okay.

And then of course you have a, you know, a cut wire sticking out on the other end and you need - To pull them so you can just bend it down, but it's still there.

And it could poke you if you're not paying attention when you're walking through.

- Okay.

So in fact, it might have worked well to have one turn buckle.

So if you ever needed to redo it or replace a post or something like that, you can unhook it.

But then the other side, you've got more of a cleaner look with that hammered into it.

Yes.

- I think the last thing we need to do is just put some wood stain and some seal on these posts.

That way they can withstand the elements.

- Okay.

And these kiwi were planted last fall?

Is that - Last spring actually.

Okay.

Last.

So they have one year growth on them.

And so last year I just put a bamboo stake in the ground so that way they had somewhere to go.

- Right.

- But now I'm gonna try to train them onto the trellis.

- All right.

Well, looks good.

Definitely a great addition to our backyard landscape here.

Thank you so much, Bailey.

Thank you.

- We are here at the student farm in our certified naturally grown area, and I'm here with Shelby Mendoza to help tell us how do we control weeds in a certified naturally grown area with no pesticides?

- That's a good question.

So we have been doing manual removal of weeds.

So first we're going - Manual.

That means like you physically got first we're - Going in, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

With a hoe of some sort and disrupting those roots, pulling up as many weeds as we can.

And then we're coming in with mulch in some situations, but where we've had Bermuda grass or Johnson grass, we're actually coming in with cardboard and then mulch to help suppress those pest gear - Problems.

Okay.

So in springtime, you're gonna have a lot of winter annuals.

And you're saying you can just pull those right out and then go with cardboard and mulch.

But for those summer, and especially those peral grasses like Bermuda grass Yeah.

Can, can this really be effective to control that?

- So because we are a certified naturally grown system out here, that's an alternative certification to the USDA's organic program.

There are pesticides we can use, but there are two to three times more expensive than what you can go buy at Lowe's.

- Okay.

- And a lot of them are just taking care of the top that we see.

They're dying, they're killing back the weeds, but they're not getting to those rhizomes that we see in Johnson grass and Bermuda grass.

So really what we're doing here is trying to suppress the weeds.

- Okay.

- We want suppress, not - Suppress.

Okay.

- Yeah.

So we want to make it harder for them to grow.

So we're taking away their light source with that cardboard and then an extra layer of mulch.

But that's something we're gonna have to keep doing until we deplete those reserves in the rhizome.

'cause the plants still have energy underground, even if we take away their light source.

So it's gonna take time to really get control of them.

- So I can see in the field here you have cover crops.

Yes.

And those have helped to control the weeds before you even got started.

They have with your garden out here.

Right?

Right.

But now we've got these alleyways we got and we also need places to walk and to work so we can use this cardboard and mulch.

Right.

Hopefully control or suppress these weeds.

Yes.

And also give you a little place to work.

Right, - Right.

But one important thing, we're not just taking our Amazon boxes straight from our doorstep and putting it out.

We're removing plastic labels and tape and then we're laying it down.

We don't wanna add any extra trash.

'cause cardboard will break down eventually.

So will the mulch.

But we don't wanna add trash to our field.

- We don't wanna grow plastic out here.

Right, Shelby?

Correct.

Okay.

We wanna grow - Vegetables.

Yes.

- Okay.

So let's see how we do this.

Let's go pull some weeds and lay down some mulch.

Sure.

Sounds great.

All right.

Great job Mia.

And so Shelby, we're getting the weeds out of here.

And now I guess we lay down some cardboard and some mulch.

Right?

Exactly.

So what do we do next?

Yeah, - So we're gonna come in and just since they disturbed the roots on these plants, we're just gonna go ahead and cover 'em up, lay down our cardboard.

If there are holes in the cardboard, we would go ahead and lay double layers.

But this is really thick piece, so we're good to go.

And then we're gonna dump mulch.

- Yeah.

So you can be picky about your cardboard, right?

Yes.

Thicker the cardboard, the - The better - The better it will be.

And ultimately we're just trying to stop the sunlight smother.

Okay.

Yep.

So let's smother 'em.

- Alright, so this is just a demonstration, but if we were doing this for real, we would wanna have a second layer of cardboard here so there's no cracks for sunlight to get to our weeds.

And then we would want to have three to four inches of mulch really is what we're looking for.

- So nice cardboard layer, three to four inches of mulch.

Make sure those weeds are removed before what happens if we don't remove the weeds before.

- Depends on the weed.

Some of our, our perennial weeds, they're just gonna keep growing sadly.

But some of our more temperature dependent finicky weeds, our winter annual weeds, they should be okay.

They should smother 'em.

- Yeah.

And and we had some volunteers help us with some of our mulch where some of the weeds didn't get pulled.

- Right.

- And you can see it coming through.

- Yes.

- Picking through, right?

Yes.

So we'll have to go pull those out.

- Exactly.

- All right.

Well Shelby, well this is great.

Seems like it's easy to do.

We can control weeds and we don't have to use pesticides.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- I just wanna share with you another spring flowering tree that we have here at the Botanic Gardens.

And behind me, this is known as a jack tree.

Now this is not one that you're probably gonna find on the market or even in most people's home landscapes.

It is actually from a small, it's native to a small area in China.

And because of the native habitats being threatened, it's kind of hard to even find there.

And so, but fortunately it has been preserved and you can still find it at a lot of different arboretums around the world.

And botanical gardens, just like the one here at the botanic garden at OSU.

And in fact, we're lucky enough not just to have one, but we also have another one here behind our chicken coop as well.

So the thing about this jack tree is it is a spring blooming and you can just see the pendulum flowers.

They're like white star shaped flowers that are hanging down and it's just prolific with them.

So it gives you quite a show.

Now it does like more of an acidic soil that is somewhat moist.

So this does hold a little bit of water, but once it's established, it's actually pretty drought tolerant.

So we don't do any supplemental irrigation over here on these trees.

The other thing you can see is it really does handle our full sun here in Oklahoma.

So it works well for us here.

So once these flowers quit producing, then they actually form sort of a woody egg-shaped droop.

So you'll see those kind of fruits hanging all over this a little bit later.

And now I didn't read anything about it necessarily being a pollinator plant, but I will say, being out here, I'm kind of being dive bombed by the bees a little bit.

So I think they are enjoying this plant.

Just wanted to share this plant with you because it's one that you probably won't see in most home landscapes or even at the nursery.

But one you can appreciate if you come here to the botanic garden at OSU.

- Does anyone else making love making recipes that you can make in one pot or one pan?

I know I do because it helps with cleanup, but then also it's a great option for anybody that has maybe a small kitchen and you don't have a lot of room for a lot of pots and pans throughout your kitchen.

Today we're gonna make a sheet pan apricot glaze chicken with carrots.

And for this recipe, I've already got my sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

And I really recommend that you either line it with parchment paper or aluminum foil because the glaze that we'll be using on this recipe, it'll stick to your pan if you don't line it with, with either parchment paper or aluminum foil.

And I've already put the chicken thighs on the parchment paper, so we've got that ready to go.

And I'm just gonna sprinkle our chicken thighs with some salt and pepper and you can just adjust this to taste.

Okay.

And then just a little bit of pepper.

And then we'll add about one teaspoon of paprika.

And we're gonna do the same thing.

We'll just sprinkle the paprika on our chicken thighs.

And now I'm using chicken thighs for this recipe.

You could also use chicken legs or leg quarters.

That would also work well.

And these are boneless thighs, but you could use bone end thighs as well.

So now that we have our chicken seasoned, we're gonna go ahead and work on our carrots now.

And I've already washed and peeled the carrots for these.

We're just gonna cut them in half length ways and then we'll cut 'em in.

We'll slice some crossways and we wanna do about, you know, an inch to two inches for each cut.

And we'll just put those in, just put 'em around the chicken thighs and carrots are a really healthy vegetable for us to use with this dish.

They have a lot of nutrients like betacarotene, but if you didn't have carrots or you wanted to try a different vegetable, sweet potatoes or like butternut squash would be other great options to use in place of our carrots.

You just would cut those about the same size that we're cutting our carrots.

Okay.

And now that we have our carrots on our pan along with our chicken thighs, we're gonna go ahead and season the carrots.

We'll use about two tablespoons of olive oil and we'll just kind of drizzle that over the carrots.

And I always think olive oil is a good option.

It's a good heart.

Healthy, neutral flavored oil.

And then, then we will do the same thing like we did with our chicken thighs.

We'll go ahead and sprinkle the carrots with some salt and pepper.

And again, that's just to taste you.

You can use, you don't even have to use salt and pepper if you don't want to, but you can adjust that to however your your family likes.

Okay?

And now we're gonna prepare our glaze.

And for this we will use a half of a cup of apricot preserves.

And this can be store-bought apricot preserves, or it can be homemade if you do home canning and you don't necessarily have apricot preserves, but you have like peach jam or something similar, I encourage you to try that with this recipe.

I think this recipe is a good reminder that jams and jellies and mar and preserves, they can go on a lot more things than just on bread.

So, so I think this, this is a good recipe to try some of those that you might have at home.

But after our half a cup of apricot preserves, we're gonna add two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, two teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and then we'll add about one teaspoon of fresh thyme.

Okay.

And then we'll just mix that all together.

Okay.

And now with our glaze, we're, we'll just spoon a little bit of this on each one of our chicken thighs.

Now we don't wanna use all of it because we're gonna save half of it to put more on our chicken during cooking.

Okay.

And now that we've got the glaze on our chicken, we're gonna go ahead and put this in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Okay, it's been 30 minutes, so we're gonna go ahead and get the chicken from the oven and we'll add the rest of the, the remaining glaze.

Okay.

And now that we've added the rest of the glaze, we're gonna go ahead and add it back to the oven for about 20 minutes.

Okay, it's been about 20 more minutes.

So now we're gonna check the temperature of our chicken.

We wanna make sure that it's cooked to about a hun 165 degrees.

And when you're checking the temperature, you wanna make sure that you check the thickest part of, of the chicken to make sure that you're getting a good reading on the internal temperature.

But this chicken is done, so we're gonna go ahead and plate it.

And it really does smell good with that apricot glaze.

There we go.

That's the apricot glazed chicken with with carrots.

I hope you'll try it.

- 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 on Oklahoma Gardening as we learn more about fairy rings and air layering.

Oh, soils, soils, sunlight.

What?

What about 'em?

Us here at the Botanic Garden at OSUI wasn't ready 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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You can find this entire show and other recent shows as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma 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.