- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today we're visiting the Greenhouse Learning Center on OS U'S campus to look at some of the ways the soil has been remediated.

We head down to an old community garden with a new name.

Then we visit with a horticulture graduate student to learn about her research on a new production system.

And finally, it's been another amazing season.

That must come to an end, but I'll give you a sneak peek of what's to come in 2025.

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.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

We are back here at the Student Farm.

I wanna share with you a tropical plant that you might find in some Oklahoma landscapes.

It's important to know which plants we are dealing with so that we can continue to maintain them successfully for years to come.

Today we are out in front of, at the Greenhouse Learning Center.

And again, joining me is Dr. Moss.

And one of the things that, as much as we care about horticulture and landscape and the soil, there are instances where we get handed a construction soil such as this five years ago.

That's right.

So let's talk about some of the remedies that we've done out here in front of the GLC to help amend the soil and improve it from that construction site.

Yeah.

We're back on campus at our beautiful Greenhouse Learning Center for our department.

And we have this outdoor classroom space too.

So we want our students to have like the hands-on experience, do all the great things in the greenhouse, but also out here.

But what did this used to be, Casey?

- It was a parking lot.

This - Was a parking lot.

- So it was literally heavily compacted.

Yes.

Not to mention the construction, to build - Stuff, all the things, - Which is important.

I mean, you gotta have a con compacted foundation area.

- Absolutely.

Yes.

- So, but now it's been a learning process for students.

Yes.

How to grow in construction soil.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

So we can still dig down, we can find plenty of rocks, plenty of concrete, plenty of rebar.

All the things - Break a few shovels, - Buried treasures are here.

And so here we are five years later and we're just now kind of getting a handle on building up soil health.

- Yes.

- Because it takes time, right?

- It does.

Absolutely.

And there's a lot that's involved in soil health - There.

There really is.

And so, you know, we always talk about where do we start?

We start with a soil test.

So of course we, we've done that and you know, as might be expected there, there are some issues here with, you know, pH and, and nutrients and organic matter.

So what we've tried to do is resolve all that through time.

And you have different areas out here, different beds.

And so not every bed is the same.

They all have a little bit different issues, a little bit different problems, maybe different slope, maybe different pH level, maybe different organic matter.

So we've just tried to build them up kinda like a prescription.

- Yes, absolutely.

- For each, for each one.

- And one of the sort of the, the aspirin for the garden is compost, right?

- Yeah.

You gotta have compost.

So topsoil and compost was, was huge.

And so really kind of the strategy is being okay.

We, we knew we couldn't do a lot about the, the hard subsoil that's here and the concrete and the buried treasures that are here.

And so why, why don't we just go up?

Okay.

So maybe build these beds up a little bit and get a little, you know, kind of bring in our own root zone, - Right.

And - Build that up in that top 6, 8, 12 inches and, and at the same time kind of build these beds up so that our plants can do well.

So really that's been the strategy.

- And I've noticed you've done that in a couple of different ways.

Not only do we have traditional raised beds, - We do.

- Yeah.

But you also have some, a succulent garden back here with rocks.

Yeah.

And then also your native garden.

Tell me about some of those.

- Exactly.

Right.

So the raised beds is really for classes for the vegetable production.

So those are, you know, definitely artificial built above the ground.

Right.

And then over, over here next to the greenhouse, we have this area where it's a little windy 'cause we have exhaust fans.

- So - We put some succulents there.

But yeah, we kind of step, step that up to give some beauty to it, some aesthetics with the rocks, and then put those succulents in there that can do well in that territory.

We're not worried about them drying out so much there.

And so, yeah, they're doing quite well.

But all of that, that rooting zone is really kind of artificial.

It's kind of, we built that up for the plants.

And then same here in our native area.

- Yeah.

And I mean, let me go back to this being succulents.

There's a little more aggregate in there for better drainage.

- Exactly.

Right.

But - Also it's a microclimate.

'cause you got a lot of wind coming from those greenhouse wind fans.

Lot of, - Yeah.

- And so having the succulents that might be are used to a dry arid environment.

They work well there, - It works well there, right.

Plant right place is so important.

Right, - Exactly.

Exactly.

So let's talk about the native garden then - Again, right plant, right place.

And so, hey, you're using some of these native, like these native grasses, like switch grass.

Hey, what does it do for you?

- It makes roots.

It makes roots and a lot of biomass on - That.

A lot of, so you can help, you know, break up that hard pan soil with those roots and, and get a little aeration to it.

Right, - Exactly.

- Naturally, right?

- Yeah.

- And so, yeah, it's all important.

- So even though this landscape, and I think that's one of the things is we don't realize like, you know what, if we're tired of switch grass, we can take that out.

That's right.

But in the meantime, it has really developed our root system and our soil.

- Yeah.

We're five years down the road and so let these things do their thing.

And then yeah.

If you wanna change the out in the future as that soil health builds up and as the quality builds up for you, it gives you more options for what plants you might put out here.

So yeah.

Let 'em do their thing.

We're five years down the road and it's gonna take, you know, it's a marathon, right?

Yeah.

And so, so we've got work to do still and we still have some areas that have, you know, relatively high pH and so we're still amending soils for that.

And, but we get there - And I know one of the things we always talk about is not only building up the soil, but also planting plants higher.

- Yes.

- Because as they settle, they can sink down, which creates sort of a, a drainage problem for Exactly.

For those plants.

So we've got 'em planted higher - Here.

So some of these are planted a little high, you'll see on some of the trees and shrubs over here in the native bed.

Yeah.

Planted a little high.

But it, it really helps the plant to do well.

- Yeah.

And being in a public space, obviously we have to take care of these sidewalks.

- We do.

- Yeah.

And I know OSU is sensitive to putting out ice melt and how much they're doing and when they're doing it, but I've noticed because of the raised beds, you're not gonna have runoff of whatever contaminants on the sidewalk going into those beds.

- That's right.

Yeah.

So it, it keeps everything kind of contained and then let, let let the drainage do its thing and take it where it needs to go.

Yeah, exactly right.

- Well Dr. Moss, thank you so much for sharing some of the remedies that y'all used here at the GLC.

- Thank you.

- Today we are in Oklahoma City at a place that might look familiar to some of you.

We are at what is the former Chesapeake Employee Community Garden that has now been resurrected by the Lynn Institute.

And joining me today is Jordan Davis, who is the director of Community Gardens for the Lynn Institute.

Jordan, thank you so much for having us here.

And I gotta tell you, last time I drove by, it was full of weeds.

Tell me a little bit about the Lynn Institute and how they got involved in this.

- Yeah, so Lynn Institute is leasing this area from Chesapeake, formerly Chesapeake, which is now Expand Energy.

So we have a five year lease and expand is kind of helping us keep up with some of the stuff around here.

But we are helping turn the beds into something that we can use for food distribution around the city.

So when I got here, I was hired about 16 months ago to kind of oversee the operation and have the vision for the area.

And so when we came in, it had kind of been abandoned because of covid.

You know, people hadn't been out here much.

There were weeds six, eight feet tall sunflowers things I just volunteered from when they were growing things previously.

So we had to come through initially and knock it all down, kind of clear the land, you know, get it ready for something that we could do.

And then we started planting - And, and you found some good bones under here, right?

Yes.

Very good.

And that was the thing about this garden is it was really built to last.

And so you've got these nice concrete raised beds that you have transformed, basically.

So tell me a little bit about the overall vision of this - Place.

Yeah, so we have kind of a few different things that are happening in here.

You know, Lynn Institute started out as a healthcare research with Integris and now they do more boots on the ground kind of stuff.

So for last few years we've been doing a lot of education classes, cooking classes, nutrition classes, dietician classes, kind of helping get resources to areas where it's needed.

And then, so this, when Covid happened and people started needing more food, Lynn stepped in and started doing food distribution where we were buying it from suppliers, wholesale.

And when this became available, you know, Pam Patty was a dietician, a master gardener who kind of saw the space and went knocking on doors.

And she connected to Lin Institute here.

- Okay.

- And - So she was a gardener that saw an opportunity for Lyn Institute.

- Yeah.

And something that was just sitting here that had a lot of opportunity.

- As a dietician in the community, that's always my role is to try to educate people.

So to say, how do you garden as well as why do you garden?

And if you have healthy food, can that translate into people being healthier in the community?

And when it's proximity, we don't have to travel, we don't have to let the food have any challenges.

You come out, you grow it, you harvest it, you eat it within proximity.

And then you have this opportunity that most times we don't get, we go to a grocery store, right.

We don't know.

It came from California, it came from Florida.

Right.

In our own backyard here we can have this gorgeous food that's really, and I think Caleb and Jordan have shown the productivity is here.

The, the amount of food that can be grown outta here is fantastic.

- There's a couple quadrants here that we're using for production.

So we're doing more urban farm style production, that way we can feed as many people as possible.

And then the other area is more of a hands-on place that people can come volunteer.

That way they can learn.

And we try to just loop everything in, like education into everything that we do.

- And is anybody able to come out here and volunteer?

Or are you working with specific groups?

- Yeah, right now we have Tuesdays and Thursday mornings that are available for people to come volunteer.

And then we do usually a Saturday every month.

We're not gonna do it in the fall, but in the spring we'll pick back up.

- And so what's the best way for people to find out information if they wanted to get involved in this?

- I'd say just go to our website lynn institute.org.

Okay.

And on there, there'll be a garden page and they can reach out to us via email.

We can kind of loop 'em in that way, have 'em out for a tour if they wanna see the place and then figure out how to get them involved.

- And I think what we're trying to do here is to bring in partner agencies that we work with and to see how can they utilize the beds for some of the programming that they're doing.

So the Indian Health Clinic, we're getting ready to meet with them.

They've already come out a couple of times and we'd love to have a couple of the, the beds for them to do their programming.

They do a turtle camp in the summer.

How can we allow people to use, like you said, it's already here, the infrastructure is already set.

How can other people come in and benefit from it?

- So we have a few different places we distribute to around the city.

And so we'll harvest it here, we usually do once or twice a week.

We've kind of built out the infrastructure.

So even though this came with a bunch of sheds, we still had to build out wash stations and things like that.

But that way we can kind of process everything on site and then get it to where they need to go.

And it stays fresh.

You know, it doesn't sit around for a few days on a truck or anything like that.

- All right.

And do you need volunteers also for all of that processing and - That we're hoping to turn into more of like an apprenticeship.

Okay.

So people want to learn how to do more urban farming.

We'd love to have people kind of do more of an extensive course, but that's in the works.

- So I know part of uncovering this garden, you found this beautiful courtyard that was preexisting as well.

- Yeah.

When they originally built this area, they put in these huge stone columns and a pergola is kind of a nice gathering place for people.

And you know, a lot of that stuff is kind of, you know, not been around anymore maintenance, right?

Yes.

And so what we're gonna do is revitalize the courtyard area.

We're gonna put the pergola back up.

That kind of came down, as well as adding a few features like a water fountain and a fire pit as well.

- Okay.

- And then we'll surround the courtyard area with native flowers, native fruit trees, something that kind of ties the whole garden together.

And then we've also got apel trees that are kind of walkaways and the walkways that we're kind of bringing back to life, you know, revitalizing that.

And so long term we'll just have it as a beautiful place that people can come and do events.

We'll continue to do our education classes in those areas as well as have a place that people can just come and enjoy the beauty of, you know, creation and what we're doing here.

- My heart is to have food demonstrations out here, to have cooking demonstrations out here, to have kids out here.

'cause that's the generation that's gonna pull it forward.

Kids are very receptive to things.

I think we have to really work on the parents.

They're the ones, oh, we don't eat that, but the kids are like, yeah, that was good mom.

So if we can try to have the family dynamic that says, Hey, kids, parents, community building.

And so everybody gets a chance to say, Hey, we want to be a part of what this is forward.

- Well, you definitely have a big project ahead of you and this is just your fair season that you've transformed this place.

So we look forward to following up with you again.

- Yeah, thank you so much.

- Thank you.

Today we're at one of the backfields here at the OSU Student Farm.

And joining me is Shelby Mendoza, who is a PhD student with the Horticulture and landscape architecture department.

And Shelby, let's talk a little bit, this is part of your project?

Yeah.

What is it that you're doing here?

- So originally this acre was covered in trees and concrete.

So in January we started clearing out the field in order to establish a certified naturally grown plot.

So it's an acre plot and we hope to get it certified through the CNG program.

This in the next year.

- Okay.

So yes, it was previously the swine farm.

We had wash racks and and things like that.

Yeah.

So a lot of debris.

But let's talk a little bit about what CNG is, first of all.

- So it is an alternative certification for growers.

Usually small growers under five acres that want to have some kind of certification.

But for whatever reason, USDA's National Organic Program is kind of out reach for them.

So it's a cheaper program.

Right now, I think the annual fees are $250 a year.

The paperwork requirement is less than would be with the USDA program.

And then it's actually a peer reviewed system.

So you don't have a government employee coming out to inspect your field.

You have growers that are in your area that know the challenges you're dealing with.

- Okay.

And so national program, right?

Or international?

- US and Canada.

Okay.

Okay.

- So how many farms are currently involved in this?

- There's 600 in the US and in Canada.

- Okay.

But fairly new to Oklahoma, which is part of why you're doing this to see how well it does here in Oklahoma, right?

- Correct.

So we currently have three that are certified in Oklahoma.

- Okay.

All right.

So let's talk a little bit about, you know, some of the differences between conventional versus C and G production.

And obviously, you know, I, I have recognized this soil is so important.

So really the last year you've been focused on getting that soil prepped to plant a crop, right?

Right.

What did it look like when you - Started?

So we did an initial soil test in March this year.

And our nitrogen, our average nitrogen across the field was only five pounds per acre.

It's very low, but our potassium and phosphorus are really high.

We did do an initial spreading of cow manure to kind of give it enough nitrogen for our cover crops this summer to actually grow.

So then we did 15 loads of cow manure across the field and then came back in in June to plant our summer cover crop of sorghum sudan grass and sun hemp.

- Okay.

And we still see some remnants of that.

Correct.

But you did terminate that.

How did you go about terminating that?

- So I got to drive the tractor and flail mow and parts of the field were actually over seven foot tall.

Okay.

So the plants really did grow quickly and tall over 65 days and then came through with the flail mower on the tractor and just cut it down to as close to the ground as we could get without disturbing the soil.

- Okay.

And you got a little regrowth from that, but that's not a big deal.

'cause our cooler temperatures are gonna - Finish this.

It'll kill it soon.

Yeah.

- Right.

But basically a lot of biomass that you have now allowed to integrate down into that soil profile.

Right.

Right.

And so let's talk about why maybe you chose sun hemp specifically, and then also let's then talk about cool season cover crops.

- Okay.

So sun hemp is a legume.

So we did inoculate it with, it's the peanut and cow P inoculate, sun hemp is also listed on that.

And it actually fixed 150 pounds of nitrogen for our acre.

- Wow.

- So we're up to over 200 pounds per acre now, where we started with five earlier this year.

- And you did test after the manure too?

We did.

So you know, that is a result of - Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

So it's still, the manure I think knocked us up to 62 pounds per acre, and now we're sitting at about 211 pounds per acre.

Wow.

Okay.

But so sun hemp is a legume and it is a tropical legume at that.

So it's able to take our heat in the summer and kind of withstand some drought conditions.

But then also sun hemp grows tall fast.

Okay.

So one of the problems we are gonna have on this specific site is Johnson grass.

So we wanted to kind of compete, we wanted our cover crops to compete with that Johnson grass and it really did a good job of that.

That hasn't been the weed that we've seen popping back up.

We've seen others, but both the sorghum sedan grass and the sun hemp we're six to seven feet tall.

- Okay.

So one of the things is with, you know, CNG is, you can't use herbicides and things like that to come in and get rid of the Bermuda grass and the Johnson grass.

So you're looking at trying to shade it out or create a competition for it basically.

- Right.

So shading out was the, the big goal there.

And then you can use products with CNG, but they have to be OMRI listed.

Okay.

And there's just not a lot of great options for herbicides that actually take care of Johnson grass or Bermuda grass on the list.

- So you're probably still seeing a little Bermuda grass and maybe some Johnson and grass that'll re come back, but hopefully over time you're gonna see less and less of that.

- Right.

- So let's talk, you've got your winter cover already planted.

Yes.

So what are we doing this winter?

- We've got crimson clover, which was inoculated again to try to get that extra nitrogen boost.

And then we've got hardy winter wheat.

Those are our two.

So we wanted to mix a grass and a legume.

- Okay.

Getting the biomass and then also that nitrogen fixing.

Correct.

So will you again terminate this in the springtime?

- We will, our goal, our, now it's looking like planting our actual crop in the beginning of March.

So we'll probably terminate her in February.

- Okay.

All right.

- And get beds prepped.

- So one of the things I think a lot of times people think if we're not using a synthetic fertilizer for nitrogen, which is kind of the most prominent - Yeah.

- Need of a plant, why not just keep reapplying manure?

Right?

Right.

So, you know, why are you shifting now to cover crops basically?

- Yeah.

So our potassium and phosphorus were already high, and when you introduce manure, you're introducing those as well.

And so we did see an uptake in that after applying our cow manure, which isn't, you know, really what we wanted, but we needed nitrogen, so that was the easiest way to get it.

Ultimately manure, continuous manure applications just aren't sustainable because it's gonna increase other nitro or other nutrient levels that we don't need.

- Right.

- And are, it's not actually available for our plants either.

And it can lead to nutrient runoff eventually too.

- Okay.

So it may, it might be that, you know, after a period of time you do use some more manure at some point, but you're gonna be watching those phosphorous potassium levels a little bit, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Well, Shelby, thank you so much for sharing this with us and we look forward to following up next year.

Thanks for coming.

We've had another incredible season here on Oklahoma Gardening, traveling the state, and it's always such a pleasure to visit with each of you.

We also wanna thank you for continuing to open your backyards for us to showcase, as well as inviting us into your living room each week.

This season we explored how gardening can create healthy lifestyles for people of all ages and backgrounds.

With Shape Your Future, we took our basil crop and turned it into a product.

With the help of OSU Robert M. Kerr Food and Agriculture Product Center, we've sowed numerous seeds, harvested various crops, and now with our winter cover crops and garlic planted, it's time to let the garden slow down a bit.

For the remainder of the year, we'll be revisiting some of our favorite segments and re airing those on our best of Oklahoma Gardening episodes.

While the garden may be slowing down a little bit, just know the OKG team is still continuously working.

And in fact, for the past several months, we have been busy planning our 2025 season.

And that's because next year, 2025 mark's Oklahoma Gardening's 50th anniversary next year.

We will not only be taking a look back at the last 50 years, but also be looking at the future.

We've begun the process of interviewing many of the previous hosts, videographers and garden managers about their experience and how the show, the Botanic Garden, and technology has changed since 1975.

It's taken a lot of dedicated people and viewers to get us to this milestone, and we look forward to sharing it with you next season.

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

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

Join us next week as we begin the best of Oklahoma Gardening as we focus on trees.

Well, so, God, it's always the end of the worst here.

Now as we continue through the Can you, I just stand here and talk 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, as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune into our OK Gardening Classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater Gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.