- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today we head south to visit the Chickasaw Cultural Center.

We get an update on what's growing at the OSU Student Farm and some of the research that's happening there.

Then I'll share a special edition we have at the Botanic Garden to celebrate Oklahoma Gardening's 50th anniversary.

And finally, Christie is cooking up a unique dessert.

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.

We're here in Sulfur, Oklahoma at the Chickasaw Cultural Center.

And joining me is Jennifer Bryant, who is the Director of Horticulture.

Jennifer, thank you so much for having us down here today.

- Yeah, well Choma and welcome to the Chickasaw Cultural Center.

Today we're in our spiral gardens here.

It's one of our mini gardens throughout campus.

The spiral garden is designed with three spirals, and these spirals represent the wind and the chickasaws journey through life.

And so we have our traditional three sisters plantings on the outside of the spirals.

And then we do a variety of different plantings within the spirals.

- So you mentioned the three sisters.

Let's talk about that.

I know it's culturally significant.

Kind of explain what the three sisters is all about.

- Yeah.

So the three sisters are corn, beans and squash.

And it's a companion planting method that we would've traditionally used and we still use today.

So when the oak leaves get the size of a squirrels ear, we know it's time to plant the corn and we'll plant the corn in the northeast, south, and west directions.

And then let it grow up a few inches tall before we go back and plant the beans and the corn plant that sister acts as a stalk for those beans.

Okay.

So she's providing stability for the, for the beans to grow up and the beans they release, you know, nitrogen into the soil.

So they're helping fertilize the other plants in the mound.

And then our third sister squash, we plant her last on the outside.

And you know how big squash leaves can get?

Yeah.

They provide, you know, really good, they, they act like mulch, you know, they hold in our moisture and they keep out the weeds for our system.

- Okay.

So the beans growing up, the stalk at this point, and then the other kind of covers the ground a little bit.

- Yeah.

- Fantastic.

So again, we're here in the spiral garden.

So let's talk a little bit about the plants and the harvest that you get off of this each week.

- Yeah, so we grow a variety of vegetables and herbs from all over.

And we show, we showcase that you can grow a lot in a little area and we, anyone, any patron can come and harvest from our gardens.

We host a free farmer's market on Wednesdays where we, we we'll harvest and give out free produce in the, in the theater lobby each week.

And so we really want this to be a community space.

- Well, it, it's a beautiful space.

And you talked about, do you rotate some of these crops or are they pretty much the way they are every year?

Can you talk about that?

- Yeah, so we definitely rotate out our vegetable crops, but we also have a lot of perennials in this garden.

A lot of our pollinator plants are perennials.

But yeah, we definitely rotate out through each each space.

Excellent.

And then we utilize it too, like when we have groups come in or we have events, we have planting activities so we can help people, you know, get their hands in the dirt and learn how to grow things.

- That's important.

- Hands - On.

Yeah.

And, and I know you guys have a lot of events happening throughout the year, but especially during the summertime.

Do you wanna share with us where, you know, our viewers can find some more information about that?

- Yeah, you can go to our website and also our social media accounts.

- Okay.

All right.

And, and this spiral garden is on the backside of the palisade kind of.

I mean there's so much to see here, right?

Do you wanna share a little bit about - Yeah.

So we are on the far east part of our campus, just on the east side of our village.

We have a 1700 traditional village and we also have an the Anole Theater.

It's a four story theater, our exhibit hall and our welcome center.

We also have our Honor garden, which is an area in which we honor those who have been inducted to our Chickasaw Hall of Fame, - Which is also a beautiful garden on its own too.

So - Yes, yes.

We're definitely very blessed to have this campus to share our culture and to help people connect to their culture as well.

- Excellent.

Well thank you so much for having us here in just a beautiful campus and great information to share with all of us.

Thank you.

- Yeah.

Ya.

Okay.

And - Thank you for - Coming.

- We are here at the OSU Student Farm today for an update with Linda.

Linda, - How's it going out here?

We really good.

We've had a wonderful spring, the cool weather and the rain has really been good for everything.

Our cool season crops have done really well.

We've harvested a lot of broccoli and cabbage and cauliflower lettuce.

It's gone really well.

- So well just tell us a little bit right now, you got two fields out in the front of the property here, an east field and a west field.

So how do you treat those?

You got cool season on one side, warm season on the other, and then you flip 'em around.

And so - How does all that work?

- Yeah, - So this year we rotated everything around so that way our cool season is all on the west field.

And then this field, which we're in is the, the warm season crops.

So last year we had the cool season over here.

The rotation has really helped between the rotation and cover crops.

It's really helped keep our disease and insect pressure down.

So, - So not only rotating in in the fields, but also within the field you got cover crops - Right.

- And rows and Yeah.

Do you rotate those as well?

- Yes, we do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We'll have, right now we've kind of left all of our wheat stubble and, and crimps and clover in the fields.

It helps for erosion and wheat suppression, a lot of things like that.

So, - Yeah.

So that's pretty important for healthy plants.

For healthy soil.

- Yep.

- Then healthy - Plants.

Yeah, healthy plants, - Healthy soil.

So how has the harvest been then?

- It's been really good.

We've harvested to date about 1500 heads of broccoli, 650 heads of cauliflower.

- Has that been a hit with the, with the people that use the food here?

- I think so.

I think people are really excited about it.

Plus when we have tours and so forth out here, we a lot of times let people sample a taste test and they can't believe how fresh it is.

'cause you know, it's - So, so you can't get any more fresh than right off - No.

- Right off the farm.

Right off the plant.

That's right.

That's exactly right.

So, so what about the warm season side?

Looks like things are looking, growing well - Over here too, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So far everything's been doing really good.

We've started harvesting squash plants.

We started harvest on zucchini and yellow squash just earlier this week.

And we got more that are ready to harvest again.

So, yeah.

So just a reminder, - How do you pick what to plant out here?

You know, why, why so much corn and sweet potatoes and onions and all that.

- Okay.

Well since everything we harvest goes to our daily bread, we kind of go off of what they want.

We've had like, they did a survey one year of what the customers really wanted.

And so we've got a lot of onions and potatoes.

'cause those are real high on their list and we'll harvest those here.

Before long other things, our broccoli was a big hit and, and broccoli's very versatile because once you harvest the main head off, you've got the secondary suckers that come up and we can harvest those as well.

- And harvesting every morning and delivering to - Yep.

- Our daily bread, food and resource center.

- Yes.

- And who does that work?

- We all do, yeah.

The students and us.

Yeah.

We harvest, you know, five days a week out here - And it is called the Student farm after All - Right.

That's right.

Yeah.

So it's a - Lot of students doing that work and delivering it to the community, which is neat.

- Yeah.

Yes.

- And then another 10 acres in the back.

Yeah.

Is that right?

- Yeah, that's right.

We're working on that in our spare time, which we haven't had a lot lately since we're harvesting, so, and still planting.

So - Yeah.

When, when do you think the, the New Acres would come online?

Is that for next year?

- I would say next year.

Yeah, next spring we'll get it going.

So we're still working on fencing and irrigation and getting all that - In.

So how does that, how does that look for the, what the students are doing?

They started on a kind of a small plot, now we're talking about bigger plot.

So how does that progression look like?

- It's gonna be a lot more labor intensive.

- Yeah.

- We'll have a lot more to do as far as, you know, student employees.

We'll have a lot more going on.

- Need more students, huh?

- Yeah, probably.

- Yeah.

Okay.

- Yeah.

- So, you know, when people drive by here, they look, they say this is the one of the most beautiful places as they come into campus here.

- Yeah.

- I have to agree with that.

That y'all do a great job out here.

They also ask about that old barn.

- Yeah.

- So what do you think might happen to that old barn?

Do you think it'll be renovated or tore down or who knows?

Right.

To be - Determined, who knows?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, it's hard to tell at this point.

I know right now with the exposure to the wind and the elements, it's seen a lot more, you know, it's, it's, the roof is getting in really bad shape and we're starting to see a lot of things that are looking like they're falling in.

So I don't know how much longer it's gonna make it.

- So, so maybe I think we, we'll work with some architectural firms to help us figure that out.

- Okay.

- But right now for visitors that have come out, stay away from the barn.

Right, - Right.

- Exactly.

Right.

But if they want to come help you harvest, hey, come on out.

- Yeah, maybe so.

Yeah.

- Okay, well thanks Linda.

That's great.

Alright, thank - You.

- We are out here at the Student Farm today and this summer we are growing seedless watermelons.

It's actually our first year to do seedless watermelons.

In the past few years, we've grown all seeded watermelons and we've had a lot of public interest for seedless.

We get asked quite often, are you gonna grow seed this year, this year?

And we just haven't.

There's a few reasons why we haven't.

Seedless watermelons can be a little harder to grow than your, your your traditional seeded melons.

The variety we have this year is Anza.

It's a smaller personal sized melon.

About three to five pounds matures in about 85 days.

A few things that take note, if you're gonna grow seedless watermelons, they can have inconsistent germination, a poor root system, and they don't produce viable pollen.

To get the best germination they need consistently high heat.

If you can provide bottom heat and 85 to 90 degree temperature consistently, you should see a better, a better rate of germination and for their root system.

One of our retired professors, the state vegetable extension specialist, Dr. Lynn Branden Berger, he came up with a way to help support the seedless watermelon roots.

If you drop in a wheat seed into the cell with your, with your watermelon seed, the wheat seed will germinate and it'll wrap around and fill in your cell and it'll give support to your watermelon seedling.

So when you take it to the field, it'll have a nice root ball instead of, you know, spindly subpar roots.

When you get the amount to the field and they get to growing.

Another thing to note is they need a pollinator seedless.

Watermelons do not produce viable pollen.

So what we have done is grown a seeded larger melon crimson sweet as our pollinator variety.

When you do order seedless watermelons, most seed companies will send you a pollinator variety along with your seedless order.

A lot of times that pollinator variety is not edible.

It's basically there just to produce pollen.

So out here at the farm, we would rather have everything edible.

So we decided to grow two rows of seedless watermelons.

And on the outside of those two rows are our seeded watermelons.

So as they grow the seeded water, the seeded watermelons will grow into the seedless and able to pollinate our seedless.

So if you're a home gardener, you can intersperse, you could do two or three plants of seedless, one plant of seeded, or just just how we've done it.

You grow it in close proximity to your seedless melons.

So if you're trying to grow seedless watermelons at home, we hope these tips have helped and have a successful harvest.

- We're at the certified naturally grown plots here at the OSU Student Farm, and today we're gonna talk to Sam about building some healthy soil, growing some healthy plants with microalgae.

So tell us what you're doing out here, Sam.

- Well, currently we're gonna be growing some cantaloupe in our field and testing to see if this microalgae is gonna improve the nutritional quality of those melons and the productivity of those plants.

- Okay.

So why microalgae?

What, why do we wanna do that?

Why is it important?

- Well, our goal is definitely based in the soil health.

So when we're adding this microalgae to our soil, it kind of acts as a communicator, a handshake, if you might, between the microbes and the plant itself.

- Okay.

So part of healthy soils we want, we actually wanna have microbes in the soil.

- Huh.

- So some of those microbes are good, some are bad.

How do we, how does the microalgae help?

How does it know?

- So this microalgae doesn't necessarily attract any particular microbe from the soil.

Its goal is simply to make nutrients that those microbes might make more accessible to the plant.

Its primary goal, in essence, is to just make things more accessible.

- Okay.

And if it's more accessible, how does that help the plant?

- Well, there's lots of nutrients that are what we call immobile in the soil.

They're stuck inside the soil structure.

So our plants can't take it up and they can't use it to grow.

So if our microalgae makes a healthy environment and makes that nutrient accessible, our plants can use it to be happier and healthier.

- So tell me how, how do you look at these cantaloupe and know if microalgae helps?

Do you like set up different treatments or how does that work?

- Yeah, we have a few different treatments for this experiment that we're doing this summer, we've got a hundred percent our recommended rate, which is what the company's bottle recommends.

We've got 200%, 150 and 50%, and of course a control.

- Okay.

So looking at all the different rates, seeing how the plant responds.

- Exactly.

- How do you know how the plant responds?

How do you test that?

- Well, for the leaves on these cantaloupe plants, we're gonna be testing their chlorophyll count.

So that will allow us to know if the plant's been more productive and making its own food through photosynthesis.

And we're also gonna be testing the fruit itself to see if there's more nutritional quality with vitamin C and what we call carotinoids, that orange color you get inside your cantaloupe and it's just general antioxidants.

- So I've heard this a lot, you know, when you're talking about maybe organic or certified naturally grown and you hear about nutrient dense food.

So is that real?

Is that a real thing?

Can Mike Raji help that or I guess you'll find out soon.

- We will.

We will.

Hopefully, yes.

Yeah.

- Okay.

So, so what do you think now as, as a student researching this, do you find validity in that, that you can have nutrient dense can lobes?

If we have some, some neat treatments?

- I think it through more testing with the actual fruit that we're gonna be harvesting, when it comes time we'll have more secure and solid evidence that tells us that.

But in the past, in this past fall semester, spring semester, we've done some research on leafy greens with similar treatments with this microalgae and we could notice some improved growth in the leaf structure and the root structure as well, which is really important to the health of that plant.

- So it's probably true, you build up the soil, you're gonna build up that soil health and probably have better plants for it.

- Yeah.

If you have a healthy environment for the plant to inhabit, it's gonna be happier and better for it.

- Alright, well maybe if you could just show us what this microalgae looks like and then Yeah, of - Course.

So this is just a bit of the treatment and a bit of water.

You can kind of see on the inside.

There's a few particulates floating around.

It's green, it's got a bit of color to it and it looks a little murky like pond water.

It's just like the algae that you find in your lakes - In that sense, I guess guess that makes sense.

Sense.

It looks like kind of green, like pod water, got that out.

Exactly.

Okay.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- So how, how are you gonna actually get that to the plant?

Are you just gonna pour that on the plant or how does that work?

- Well, as of right now, B, based on our previous findings and our research, we're trying to determine if a foliar application with a spray wand would be better or if a soil application directly to the base of the plant would be the best way to get the algae - To get.

Okay, so different application methods too.

So it's not just the different rates, different application methods and see how the plant reacts.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

- That's great Sam, I look forward to an update.

- Thank you.

- Alright, thank you.

- As you all know, we're celebrating our 50th anniversary here on Oklahoma gardening.

And in those past 50 years, we've come a long way from filming live down at OETA to what is now known as the Botanic Gardens here at OSU.

Now the Botanic Gardens actually started out as a small plot of land that was carved out of the research station and given to Oklahoma gardening as their studio gardens.

This happened in the late eighties.

And of course since that time the gardens have grown a lot.

So in recognition of that, we have placed about 16 signs around the botanic gardens here, showing you kind of how the gardens have changed over the years.

This summer we encourage you to come visit the botanic gardens at OSU and see how it was established from a few raised beds right here on Oklahoma gardening.

- Today we'll be making gluten-free chocolate zucchini brownies.

So whether or not you're wanting to find recipes to add in some extra vegetables, or if you're looking for gluten-free recipes to make, you know, maybe a dessert for family or friends that can have gluten, you'll wanna try this recipe.

So starting out, we're gonna use one zucchini, and this zucchini has already been washed and I've trimmed the, the starting end of the zucchini.

So I'm just going to use a, the large ends of a vegetable grater to start grading, grading the zucchini.

You could also use a food processor for this step.

Okay.

And now that we've got all of our zucchini grated, then just make sure that we've got all of it in our bowl.

And I think it's easier when you grate right into the bowl, that way you have less cleanup.

Okay, now we'll move on to the rest of our ingredients.

And the next ingredient is one cup of almond flour.

And again, we're using almond flour for this recipe so that it's gluten free.

You could though if you don't have almond flour or you, it doesn't matter to you if the brownies are gluten-free, you could use a regular all purpose flour and you would just use equal ingredients.

So still one cup of flour.

And the next is two eggs.

And remember, when you add eggs to ingredients like this, always cook them in or crack them into a bowl first before you add them into the bowl.

Just in case if you, you know, drop any shell so you're not mixing it into your, with your other ingredients.

Then we have one quarter of a cup of sugar and you know, a lot of the traditional brownie recipes, we'll use a lot more sugar.

So, so this is a little bit less sugar than what we typically use for making brownies.

And then we have one half of a tablespoon of baking powder and two tablespoons of melted butter.

And then we'll have one quarter of a cup of cocoa powder and it, this is unsweetened cocoa powder.

Okay.

And then we'll just mix all of this in here really well.

The last ingredient is our chocolate chips, but I'm gonna wait and add those at the end so that we'll just sprinkle those on the top.

And if at this point when you mix your brownies, if you notice that the mixture seems a little thicker or more dry than you're used to with brownies, don't worry about that because zucchini have a lot of water.

They hold a lot of water inside.

So as those, as the zucchini begins to cook with the brownies, it'll release that moisture or water into the brownie mixture.

So if it looks dry right now, then that's not really anything to con be concerned about at this point.

But we're gonna go ahead and spread the batter into a prepared nine by nine baking sheet.

And I've already sprayed this with cooking spray, so we'll just add that to the pan.

Try to make sure that it's spread out evenly so that we, so that our brownies are even sizes.

Now you could, if you wanted to add the chocolate chips to the brownie mixture, you could do it that way also.

I've made it both ways and it just seems that if you like a kind of a goo or more chocolatey brownie, then go ahead and mix it inside the batter.

But I think the appearance wise, it'll look better if you add the chocolate chips to the top.

So whichever way you prefer.

But just gonna sprinkle these around, try to get 'em evenly on top of the batter.

And again, if you're wanting the recipe to be gluten-free, always check the ingredients to make sure that there isn't any gluten added.

Most chocolate chips and baking powder are naturally gonna be gluten free, but it's always good to check.

Okay.

And now these are ready to go into the oven and we're gonna cook them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Okay.

And now that it has been 30 minutes, our brownies are done.

So we'll get those out of the oven and we'll just leave them on a cooling rack to cool for at least 30 minutes.

Okay.

And now that our brownies have cooled, now we can begin cutting into them.

Okay.

And there we go.

That is the gluten-free chocolate zucchini brownies.

I hope you try 'em - For this recipe and more like it.

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

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

Summer is here and we discuss everything from day lilies to mosquitoes next week on Oklahoma.

Gardening first was started to be carved out here at some research land.

I don't like what I'm saying at all.

Experience.

The Studio Gardens, also known as the Botanic Gardens at Oklahoma.

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.

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.