Oklahoma Gardening May 13, 2023

(peaceful music) (Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons") - [Casey] Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening today is one of the most popular shows that we always feature, as we head over to Tulsa for a sneak peak of the Tulsa Garden Club's annual Garden Tour.

Stay tuned for all the details, and a couple of the featured landscapes.

Then, Jessica Riggin has a recipe for some of those cool season crops you might be harvesting.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

- So if you're looking for an easy and low-maintenance pruning.

(Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" continues) - You have two different types of flowers on one plant.

Capsaicinoids that gives the pepper its heat.

(Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" concludes) - We're back over in Tulsa, and joining me today is Brenda Haggard, who is with the Tulsa Garden Club, and we are so excited to be featuring the Tulsa Garden Club's 72nd annual Tulsa Garden Tour.

So tell me a little bit about the club, first of all, I know you guys are a big advocate of horticulture education and we appreciate that.

Tell us a little bit about the history.

- Since 1929, Tulsa Garden Club members have been educating and learning and sharing, and doing everything we can to help beautify Tulsa, but also conservation and education, and engaging the community in the love of gardening.

So in 1951, we actually went from more private and closed tours of our own gardens, or maybe members of the community, and we opened it up as the community's charitable educational opportunity so that we could help begin Tulsa Garden Center, and now 72 years later, we're still doing it as the longest running educational charitable garden tour in the state.

And we work year round so that we can have proceeds available for our formal and informal gardening education programs.

- It's an amazing legacy that you guys have created, and of course everybody always looks forward to this tour, because you feature some of the gems of Tulsa.

Tell us a little bit about the tour this year.

- We have four midtown Tulsa gardens, all shapes, all sizes, all flavors, actually, each of the gardens is unique.

Most of them, let's see, have a professional who may consult, or do some of the heavy lifting, and our garden and homeowners do a lot of the hands-on themselves, and they have been so generous to let us come in and share them with the public.

- And of course you can always tell the homeowner has a certain style, or, you know, appeal to them, in how they utilize that landscape as well.

So each of those are featured, and your theme is "Passport to Paradise", right?

- [Brenda] Passport to paradise.

- Which really I feel like you need a passport, 'cause you're traveling different, you know, countries, it feels like, almost, it's so eclectic, the different ones you have here.

- [Brenda] Each of the gardens has something from their own paradise that they have brought home to make into a Tulsa paradise.

- [Casey] It's beautiful.

So there's four homes, and tell us a little bit about the details, as far as where can people get tickets and how much they cost.

- [Brenda] Right now, from any Garden Club member, tickets may be purchased, or at Tulsa Garden Center, or via Eventbrite.

So searching on Eventbrite, oftentimes we have QR codes that we can share, go look for 72nd annual Garden Tour Passport to Paradise, and you may purchase advanced tickets for $15.

On tour day, the first garden you stop in, Ms. Casey, you can get your passport to paradise, your $20 ticket for going through any of the four gardens.

It is self-guided, so you stop at the first one and you choose the next three that you want to hit.

- Okay, so even if you decide last minute, I wanna go on that tour, just show up at one of the addresses listed on your website.

- [Brenda] Yes, ma'am.

- And people can purchase the tickets then as well.

And this is open to anybody, you don't have to be a member, you don't have to be from Tulsa.

It's a great way to get ideas for your own garden, just just color and style.

So of course it's kind of drizzly today, it always is, but it makes the gardens look great.

And what I love about this, every time we come every year, is the gardens look so dramatically different from our sneak peak to when they actually will be on showcase in a couple of weeks.

- And that's what gardening is all about, everything changes, nothing ever stays the same.

- So give us the details one more time, the date and the hours.

- 72nd Annual Garden Tour, Passport to Paradise is Saturday, May 20th, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

- All right, well I look forward to seeing you there, and everyone else as well.

Thank you, Brenda.

(peaceful music) Good morning Carla, how are you?

- We are back here with Carla Childs at one, of her beautiful landscapes that she maintains.

As we are again here at the Tulsa Garden Club's Annual Garden Tour.

Carla, thank you so much for having us here.

And you love color.

- I do love color.

I'm glad you're here.

Yes, we have lots of color at this house.

In the front we are just starting, to transition from our cool season to our summer flowers.

And the front we make kind of cottagey, lots of mixed up things, blocks of color, kind of blends into the other.

We had lots of tulips and violas.

Some of them are still here, but we're transitioning into the warm season.

- [Casey] Yeah, I love the kind of pastel bluish purple violas, that you have there.

- Thank you.

- but it looks like you're coming in with some angelonias smothers.

- [Carla] Angelonias, some pentas, the dragon wing bagonia.

We're doing some Persian shield, and the grower goes, what is this, the 1980s?

(Casey laughing) And I'm like, ah, you know, we like Persian shield.

We haven't seen it in a long time.

- It's coming back.

- Yeah.

- Like all good things in fashion.

- Yeah.

- Well, I love this little area in particular, because you know, I know a lot of times, on these beautiful estates we see a gorgeous landscape, but we think is it really being used as a garden?

And you have created a little niche kitchen garden here.

- Yes, thank you.

They love to, they love their vegetables, cherry tomatoes, they love cucumbers and squash, and the peppers and they cook a lot.

And in the back we have some stuff, by the grill that you can use.

The kitchen is just right here, so it's real handy.

We've made the raised bed, trying to change it out just a little bit.

- Yeah.

- And I believe, the homeowner is in the back Trace Mahan.

Why don't you go talk, to him and see the outdoor living area.

- Awesome, okay.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

(gentle music) - Hello Mr. Mahan.

- [Mr. Mahan] How are you?

- Good, a lovely backyard.

- Thank you very much.

- May I ask you a little bit about it?

- Please sit down.

- Thank you.

- The house was built in 1936 by Otha Grimes.

He did the original house and then there was an addition, that was done in the early nineties by the Zorro family, which is what you see here.

And we moved in in late 2014.

Had, once we saw the home and saw the potential, created our vision and you know kind of started, developing our plan for what we wanted to do.

- And you're only the third owner of this home, right?

- I'm the third owner, yes ma'am.

- Which is amazing.

I know there's a lot of historical homes here in Tulsa, but it's neat that you have that history here with your family and stuff.

To be able to live here and enjoy that history.

- For sure.

- So tell me a little bit about the landscape too, and who helped you with that.

- Yeah, so Carl Szafranski, is a landscape architect here in Tulsa.

He helped us design the backyard.

Chris Murphy helped with the pool design, and the cabana.

- Aha.

- And so we all just collaborated, you know created a space, that we love to entertain.

We love being outdoors.

- Yeah.

- Sometimes it can be a challenge in Tulsa (laughing) as we all know.

In Oklahoma period right?

But, but there's still a lot of great days during the year, and we love being out here.

- [Casey] And even when the rain's going on, you can still be out here enjoying it.

- [Mr. Mahan] No question.

- [Casey] Well, I love that you definitely have different vignettes sort of, so that you have areas for different groups to entertain.

And also it seems like you've got a good runoff, for the rain when there is heavy rain.

- [Mr. Mahan] We do.

So, Carl helped us with that.

So all of the water is directed, towards the back of the house.

- Okay.

- So it's all, you know the gutter system pushes it back, so we don't have to worry about it flooding.

He also helped us, you know, with the grade, of the lawn as well to make sure that, you know we weren't sitting in water all the time.

- Right, well one of the nice things about a landscape, is that it compliments the hard scape or the home.

- That's right.

- Also and with the taylor junipers on the corners.

And you also have a lot of flowering trees, and shrubs like the desert willow.

- [Mr. Mahan] The desert willow is my favorite.

When it blooms, I wish it bloomed all year long.

- Yes.

- But it's fantastic.

That was actually, that's one of Carl's favorites.

- Is it?

- And I fell in love with it, once he told me the story.

I said, "We gotta have that for sure."

- Well it definitely adds both appeal throughout the season, but also kind of gives that transition right.

So there's always something new to discover in this backyard.

- Absolutely.

- Thank you so much.

And I know just in two weeks, it's gonna look completely different even - For sure.

- Thank you Mr. Maham.

- You're welcome, you're welcome.

(mellow music) - We are here in front of the home of Bill and Cindy Davis.

And joining me is Jane Fanning with Stone Petal Landscape.

Jane, thanks for turning on the irrigation today for us.

- Oh, absolutely I planned for it.

- Jane, we have seen your handy work, on a lot of different landscapes that have been featured on the Tulsa Garden Club's Garden tour, but this one in particular is just exquisite.

Can you tell me a little bit about what y'all done here in the front?

- Well, again I'll defer as Cindy Davis, a fabulous homeowner and gardener herself.

- Aha.

- Helps make it easy.

But we've put around, we had to redo the circle drive in the center, using lower maintenance plants.

But the green velvet boxwoods, they seem , oh they're just boxwoods, but her peonies that we helped transplant in between the boxwoods helped show off the beauty of the peonies.

- Right.

They make a nice backdrop to let the beauty, of the plant material show.

- and the, and there... - It's about ready to burst open and we'll be probably on show for the tour.

- You bet, you bet.

And then, the center was always a problem.

We went to the nursery and looked.

This was fun, this is a Daub's Frosted.

Those are grafted on a standard, but I like to lift it.

We come in and do some specialty pruning to lift and it allows you to see through and she has some fabulous different John pools that she's acquired that she loves.

It's, it's really beautiful when they bloom.

- Well it's a, it's a breathtaking approach as you come across the bridge up to the entrance here, and then you've got a lot of color even with your foliage.

- Yep.

- Around the front the yard, here.

- Yeah, we do.

We introduced some of the junipers and then we added some Diablo nine bark that are gonna be fabulous in the fall.

The beautiful fall color.

- Yeah.

Give you both the color during the early season with the flowers and the foliage.

- That's right.

- And then go into that autumn color as well.

- Absolutely.

- And that's an exquisite Japanese maple over there too as well.

- It is.

It is.

Japanese maples, There are so many different varieties with the lace leafs or the broadly and the trunk structure is what makes it really nice especially if you can clean them out.

And the trunk is just, makes it, you know the branching and the layering.

- Well, with this much going on in the front yard, I can't wait to go take a peek at the back.

Can we go back there and look?

- Absolutely.

- Let's head out that way.

- Okey doke.

- So Jane, thanks for joining me under the umbrella here.

It's beautiful, this backyard here.

Can you tell me a little bit about it?

- Well, a number of years ago, met Bill and Cindy Davis, and we had some really severe drainage issues in the horseshoe venue here.

- Yeah, I like how the house sort of, kind of frames the whole backyard.

- It does.

It's presented some difficult challenges as water was getting into the home.

Had a fabulous drainage contractor, Henry Long, who's not with us anymore, but we had trenches from behind you here that went around the entire perimeter.

Three feet deep, four feet wide.

We had to remove all the plant material.

- Oh wow.

- And save it.

- And this was a few years ago.

- This was about four and a half years ago.

- Okay, okay.

So - We put all new drainage and it works fabulous.

- And so now it's really working because I see a drag creek bed up there so that helps kind of utilize the landscape and make it functional as well.

- Absolutely.

- Well, also looking at the landscape, I see a lot of color.

So not just off the flowers, but off of the foliage.

We're getting a lot of color.

- Correct, yeah.

- So let's talk a little bit, we've got maple trees the ginkgo kind of that limey color from the ginkgo and also all the hostas and hukeris.

- That's right.

I think it's really wise to be able to integrate a variety of perennials that can bring lots of color year round without having to necessarily plant flowers and flowers is what makes it pop.

- Right, definitely.

- But they, you know, the lime greens, the reds, the purples lavenders, you know, and then you can get that through the evergreens or through the perennials.

So - Yeah.

You've got some ferns over here, it looks like.

What kind of ferns are those?

- Those are the autumn ferns.

- Okay.

There's a few Japanese painted, but not too many.

- Okay.

The hellebore are fabulous because you get beautiful color in the winter.

- Oh, yes.

Yeah.

And they're still blooming, and it looks like we've got some hydrangeas that are gonna be coming on pretty soon as well.

- Right, and the clematis is coming on well right now.

The Angelina you see over there and there, the blues - You've got - With the globosas, the lime green with the highlights over vitis, of course than the Sienna sunrise, Nandinas that give you the reds, the rich reds too.

- So Jane, we've seen your handy work on some of the previous garden tours.

Tell me a little bit about your style and, and where you get your inspiration.

- Well, I think inspiration comes from all of God's handy work around.

There's so much, if we would open our eyes and look, a walk through the forest or walk through other gardens, but I don't know, it just it's comes and just being quiet and listening.

But what's really fun is to see all of the different varieties of plants that are available to us.

Whether it's through all the different perennials.

What's fabulous I was mentioning earlier, is that hostas and huecheras and ferns, during the winter they're dead.

But then after a cold hard winter when it seems nothing is there, they come alive, bursting forth.

- Absolutely.

So much color.

- And then something that you and I were speaking of earlier is when you have a this is a green velvet boxwood that had filled in all the way down kind of and fall, not much interest.

What can we do, the homeowner wants, should we pull 'em out?

And I said, no.

Let's, you can copier them, limb them up, and it gives it a new personality.

- Absolutely.

I love that.

I love how you've lifted that and created to create sort of that, - Yeah.

- Bonzai effect where you're starting to see some of the trunk of that, as well.

- Right.

- So.

- It reveals a good character.

- Yes.

- And you can do that not just with the boxes, but with a variety of plants.

Don't be afraid to experiment a little bit and have a little fun.

- I love that, I love that.

That is what gardening is all about.

And let me say your experiment is paying off here, definitely.

Thank you so much, Jane.

- Oh yeah, and it's been so awesome.

Cindy is a fabulous gardener herself, which makes it a lot more fun.

- Absolutely, thank you.

- And thank you.

(gentle music) - Hi everybody, today I'm gonna be making something called Green Shakshuka, which is an egg dish that is traditionally made in a tomato sauce.

And so if you've ever heard of Shakshuka before or seen it, it was probably red, but this variation on it is cooked in herbs, and so it is green.

And it's very customizable, you could use whatever herbs and green vegetables you like.

Today I've got some spinach, some green onions, parsley, cilantro, dill, garlic, and leeks.

And then I'm also gonna use some lime juice.

I know that there are some people out there that really don't like the flavor of cilantro, and if that's you, no big deal, just leave it out.

If you choose to leave out the cilantro, I suggest that you replace it with something, so you could add in another green herb.

Or you could just have a larger amount of the parsley, and the green onions, and the leeks, and you could get by just like that.

So all of my vegetables here, I'm going to wash and then do a rough chop.

With my green onions, I'm just gonna do a slice right across, and then my parsley, cilantro, and dill, I'm gonna do a rough chop.

How big or small that chop is, is just gonna be up to your personal preference.

So you can do it pretty large pieces, or really small pieces.

We are going to cook it down and it's gonna wilt, and so no matter what size you prefer, it's going to be okay, and it's gonna be really easy to eat.

With the leeks, not everybody is very familiar with leeks, and so with the leeks you actually are gonna wash them after you cut them.

And to cut a leek, you just take off the the root end here, and then you slice it lengthwise, and then in each piece, each half you're gonna cut it across in little half moons.

Once you've done that, you wanna put all of those pieces into a colander, set that colander inside a bowl and fill that with water.

Kind of mix it around with your clean fingers, and then let it soak for 15 to 20 minutes because there's lots of dirt, and grime, and grit that gets inside the layers of the leek, and we wanna get rid of all of that.

So if you put it in the colander first then inside the bowl filled with water, once it is soaked you can just lift that colander out, give it another quick rinse with running water, and there should be all free of that sandy dirty stuff.

Once you've got all your herbs chopped up, you are ready to start cooking.

And so I've got a pan heating over medium heat, I'm gonna add just a little bit of olive oil.

And then to this, I'm gonna add my leeks.

Now after rinsing and draining my leeks, I did dry them off with a paper towel.

You don't wanna put water in hot oil, it'll start popping pretty bad.

So we're just gonna cook down these leeks for a few minutes until they're soft.

(pan sizzling) Okay, so my leeks are starting to get really soft, and I'm getting some brown color on them.

So to this I'm gonna add some crushed garlic.

I put this through a press and you could do that if you have one.

But if you don't have a press, just crush it with the flat part of your knife.

and it doesn't need to cook very long because garlic burns very quickly.

So I'm gonna go ahead and add all the rest of my herbs in.

This is parsley, dill, cilantro, and green onions.

And we'll just let that cook down a little bit, and then we'll add some spinach.

(pan sizzling) So my herbs have wilted down quite a bit and made room, so I'm gonna add in my spinach.

But take your time with this because spinach takes up a lot of space right at the beginning, but it wilts down and gets smaller pretty quickly.

So I'm just gonna add a little bit at a time 'cause it won't all fit in my pan.

I'll add a little bit, let it cook down, add a little bit more, let it cook down until I've got all of it in there.

(pan sizzling) Now that I've got all my spinach incorporated and wilted down, I am going to season this with some salt and pepper, and a little bit of cumin.

And I'm also gonna add the juice of a lime.

(pan sizzling) - Just gonna squeeze it right in here.

(pan sizzling) Give it a stir and then I will start making a bed for my eggs because shakshuka is an egg dish.

We don't wanna forget that.

We're gonna cook our eggs right in here.

If, like me, you have people in your house who like their eggs cooked differently, just add your eggs at different times.

So there's two people in my home that like an over easy egg and then there's two people in my home that like the yolk cooked almost completely solid, so I'll add two eggs, you know, then at first let 'em cook for a few minutes and then I'll add the other eggs so that I've got two different levels of doneness.

You just don't wanna forget which is which.

I am going to crack each of my eggs into a bowl and then add it individually just in case I get a little shell in there, I'll have the opportunity to get it out.

(pan sizzling) So I'll just pop the lid on and let my eggs cook until they are to the point where I like them, which is a little bit less than runny.

Once your eggs have reached the doneness that you like, then it's ready to serve up.

I wanna mention, as you're cooking your eggs, if your herbs start to smell like they might be starting to burn, just add a little bit of water to your pan and that will kind of give them a little buffer between the green herbs and so much heat on the bottom of the pan and it'll also help your eggs steam a little bit more quickly.

So I've got two eggs that I kind of punctured the yolk so that they will get a little bit more solid.

And then two eggs that I didn't puncture the yolk so they might be a little bit more runny.

So you can do that as well if you have people in your house who like it different ways.

And here we have our green shakshuka.

And I hope you'll try it.

(orchestral music) - [Narrator] There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

(orchestral music continues) Next week on Oklahoma Gardening, we've got a show full of beautiful blossoms and blue birds.

You won't wanna miss it.

(orchestral music continues) - On a beautiful rainy day.

(music drowns out speaker) - Behind the scenes.

(orchestral music continues) - [Narrator] 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.OKState.edu.

Join in on Facebook and Instagram.

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

Tune in to 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 underwriter, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

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.

(orchestral music continues)