Is there a good resource for Oklahoma vegetable gardening? I saw a book on Amazon that looks like its for ornamental gardening. Anything?

Check out the extension service website and their fact sheets here. Vegetables-lawn, yard, & garden (http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-398)
If you are a member of the OK Food Coop you can order this publication. Producer Information (http://www.oklahomafood.coop/Producer_Info.aspx?Producer_ID=144) I have used it for a few years and find it to be very helpful.

Thanks! Do you dig out the clay and replace with topsoil, raise your beds, or mix in some compost to the clay? I'm thinking of making a go of homesteading this summer.

I live in an area that is pure sand just to the east of Bush Hills. I also have a well which is a good thing since my lot is a little larger than an acre. I use raised beds almost exclusively and have for years. I made simple boxes out of untreated 10x2's. I make my own compost and add a few inches of new compost to my beds each year. I also like to add a few veggies to my perennial gardens where I have an open spot or two. I also subscribe to Organic Gardening and Fine Gardening magazines and they have some nice newsletters that you can subscribe to for free to get more information.

At our old house we had a very small yard, but did very well with raised beds (made from composite 'wood') and two compost bins.

The new places is much larger, so we are designing a New England style raised garden using real stone for the raised beds. A compost bin in the mud room (worm cultivated) and a larger compost bin outside by the garden. Also putting in a 10x12x10 green house so we can start more from seed and save more money in the long run on both edibles and ornamentals.


I live in an area that is pure sand just to the east of Bush Hills.

Grew up in Bush Hills in high school. Parents also had raised beds in the back (if I remember correctly they were constructed with large wooden beams. The also had a green house attached to the home. Garden always did extremely well. They didn't compost and added new soil and enrichment every year or so.

Thanks! Do you dig out the clay and replace with topsoil, raise your beds, or mix in some compost to the clay? I'm thinking of making a go of homesteading this summer.

At my old house I had a large raised bed and was pretty successful and I am a TERRIBLE gardener.

It is such a shame that Case and Associates doesn't convert all this open land around our apartment complex into community gardens for the tenants to grow vegetables. I miss my gardens back in South Carolina.

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You Are What You Do

I make an attempt at growing tomatoes every year. I finally raised my beds with the garden mix soil from Minick Materials after a couple years of them getting flooded out after a heavy rain. I never have bumper crops and I seem to have more trouble with the larger tomato varieties. The cherry tomatoes I plant always seem to do the best. A lady at Precure Nursery told me that tomatoes should grow like weeds in Okla. Just stick them in the ground and water them. Well they seem to be the one weed that I have trouble growing.

I'm pretty good with tomatoes. Well draining soil and light watering 2-5 times a week are the key. One thing about tomotos is that they should be planted 30 days after the last frost date, which is April 15, which means plant on May 15. Local conditions are unforgiving if they're planted much earlier or later.
Its hard to get a productive grow in this area with the poor soil and short growing season. The raised beds and greenhouse ideas are worth considering.