Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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oklahoma garden resources

Hello! It’s early Tuesday morning, which means I am getting ready for another fun day at OSU-OKC for Master Gardeners’ class!

Seriously? I have so many things to share with you about these sessions. The people are just fantastic. The new energy flow is welcome in my life and so interesting, stimulating. The deluge of information being offered is unprecedented! And so much inspiration… Week after week, I come home with new ideas and smarter daydreams. I just had no idea how much further my mind could be stretched in an arena I have loved for so long.

Maybe the most important thing I am learning is how to find really good information. And that is something I’d love to share with you no matter where you live, but especially if you too are digging and sowing and harvesting in this Great State I call home.

 

Oklahoma garden resources lazyw

Because anyone who has tried establishing and tending a garden in Oklahoma knows it is particularly challenging, right? Extreme everything. Ferocious wind, crazy temperature fluctuations, either droughts or floods (or both!)… Every soil type under the sun. Very little goes the small, quiet way here. Including beauty. So we need good support. Smart, experienced people to light the way. Here are some clickable garden resources for you, as offered to me by the fine folks at the Oklahoma County Extension:

 

Oklahoma Master Gardener Program

Soil Test 123

Oklahoma Proven

Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers

Hydro Hippy (pollinators for sale)

OK State Entomology & Plant Pathology

National Academy of Sciences pollinator resource

BBC programmes: The Private Life of Plants

Don’t Move Firewood

Bio-Integral Resource Center (for Integrated Pest Management)

IPM Institute of North America

Albuquerque Extension Master Gardener Program

National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service

Ohio State University college of food, agriculture, & environmental science

I will be adding to this list periodically, so please check in again! And if you have an online resource to share, please send me a note and I’ll add it. Knowledge is power.

We know we belong to the laaaaaand!
XOXOXOXO

our $45 apple

Sweet, smart Mama Kat, with her frugality and her perfect skin and eyebrows and delicious camera presence, has invited us this week to write about something apple related. Chances are she was hoping we’d share recipes for the crisp new season or, in light of recent retail events, maybe a tech rant or funny story. But all I can think about is my wanna-be Lazy W orchard and its singular fruit.

A few years ago I planted three fruit trees on the south side of our pool yard, two apple varieties and one plum, and have babied them ever since. And by “babied” I mean I look at them lovingly and remember to water them deeply and infrequently, not a flimsy sprinkle every day. And I never, under any circumstances, speak ill about them in public or accidentally chop them down. Never. I am a pretty decent tree mama. But in three growing seasons now, despite abundant flowering each spring, despite thick leaf cover each summer, these three trees have among themselves produced exactly one piece of fruit, a yellow apple about the size of a golf ball.

 

slowfood apple growing

Now don’t get me wrong; this small yellow gem is adorable! I mean, I appreciate the heck out of it. I love it. Every time I see it my mouth salivates and I wonder how fast I can find the salt shaker. But I dare not touch it. Being the only fruit in my entire orchard (I have no problem using terms loosely if they make me sound cool) this is a bonafide treasure.

slow food apple orchard Lazy W

But when will there be more? Can I even be sure of more to come? What am I doing wrong, do I just want it too much? I think about this more than I probably need to. Like, every time I buy apples at the grocery store. And every time I pass by the three trees while doing yard work. And at every single Hot Tub Summit (they are adjacent). And every time I prune back the over productive tomato vines. It’s hard not to compare parts of your garden, you know. Difficult not to shame one plant by praising another.

Handsome and I have discussed relocating the Lazy W Orchard in favor of installing a pool deck, but I just can’t bring myself to risk that one tiny apple. To me, after all this waiting and watching, it would feel like giving up on a miracle.

slow food apple orchard Lazy W

This definitely takes the idea of #slowfood to a whole new level. I think maybe even Barbara Kingsolver would grow impatient. Then again, she would probably have planted more than just three trees, so that by the time they would come into their own she is suddenly baking apple pie for the entire county.

Thanks for listening to my apple woes. I have a lot to learn about growing apples, for sure, and this fruit angst is raising all kinds of questions about the economy of small scale farming. We paid $15 for each fruit tree, three seasons ago. And I don’t care how much you like apples; $45 is too much for just one.

Do you have any apple growing experience? What can you teach me? What is the most you have ever spent on one piece of fruit?

The best time to plant a tree
is twenty years ago.
~Unknown
XOXOXOXO

 

Be sure to click over to Kat’s site and browse the other stories today.
Lots of fun people!

Kat Bouska
http://www.mamakatslosinit.com/

almost wordless wednesday, OSU-OKC campus garden photos

Tuesday morning I arrived for Master Gardener class early enough to stroll through the campus teaching gardens for about twenty minutes. I took lots of photos and just luxuriated in the atmosphere. Right there at northwest tenth and Portland, in the middle of rush hour traffic, near the highway and everything, the campus garden at OSU-OKC is brilliant and accomplished, a cultivated bubble of art, peace, and beauty. What struck me, in addition to the health and vibrancy of each individual plant, was the overall composition of the garden. Curves in just the right places, color, texture, rhythm, even surprises. This small series of plots and walkways, raised beds and borders, has it all. See for yourself.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
I love the clean edge of this curved path and how packed the border is. Packed but not crowded. Lush and rhythmic.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
This raised bed is so nice in its perfection. Just cinder blocks, nothing fancy, but absolutely pristine. Not a weed in sight. Love these heavy zinnias.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
These color and texture combinations are just so beautiful. And I wish you could have seen this sunlight for yourself. It was streaming through the branches. Sparkling.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
Speaking of sunlight, this view quieted me more than yoga had earlier that morning.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
This shrub put me in the mood for autumn, all by itself. And that simple driftwood arbor is so great too. I love it all.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
In my dreams and overactive imagination, my east-facing flower bed at the farm looks a lot like this.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
Or maybe like this… I have enough space to pretend both gardens are mine. : ))

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
I used to grow this every year when my girls were little. It’s hyacinth bean vine, and it is a show stopper! What a great idea to grow it on a driftwood tipi. Super cool.

 

OSU OKC teaching gardening
I fell in love with this plant after seeing it in New Orleans years ago. Gardeners there drape angel trumpets with white twinkle lights all year long! Not just at Christmas! Rumor has it that my class mentor Schroeder Wilson brings starts of this plant (just bare sticks) to the students every year. I’m basically counting on it now. My white twinkle lights are ready and waiting.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
Is this rosemary again? I think so. I like how it looks against the mulch and cut log. Finished ground areas make all the difference in showcasing gorgeous plants.

 

Friends, I saved my favorite photo for the last.

 

OSU OKC teaching garden
Pure enchantment. I can barely take my eyes off the whole long enough to see the individual parts of all this beauty. I just stood there for a few minutes and breathed deeply.

 

So there’s a quick little garden tour for you this Wednesday. It’s about as wordless as I can be. Hope you enjoyed it.

I’ll be sharing more and more about the Master gardener classes as the weeks progress. Just two sessions under my belt and I am learning a holy metric ton. And there’s so much happening at the farm right now! Lots of gratitude floating around, lots of energy being drained and replenished day after day. Thank you for all the kind words on my daughter’s birthday!

Happy gardening, friends! Happy everything.

A garden reminds us the value of intention-
plan, prepare, nurture…
A garden lets us work the soil,
teaching us everything is interrelated and interdependent.
Why not enjoy the company?
~Jean Larson
XOXOXOXO

p.s. I have been invited to be a guest on a podcast all about nature and simple living, I am so excited! Stay tuned for that.

worm or pasta?

Earlier today I decided to bring all of my houseplants to the kitchen and bathe them in a special homemade concoction. It’s cooled pasta water (leftover from dinner last night) mixed with cooled coffee (leftover from this morning). I happen to believe it’s a magical combination and love to do this for my plants once in a while. Then I rinse them off and comb out the brown leaves and feel fancy.

Today something weird happened as I was putting the nourished, shiny plants back in their decorative urns. And I hate to upset you, but it was disgusting. Ok. Deep breath.

I was just standing there in the kitchen, thinking My god I am genius! Why am I even taking these master gardener classes? I have got this under con-TROL. Then I flashed a gang symbol to my own reflection in the microwave door and did the Dougie.

Then I grabbed another soon-to-be-flourishing house plant and it happened.

I saw a long, thin, limp, not quite brown, shiny something very gross hanging from the delicate branches of a croton. I froze. I had just eaten some raw oatmeal with milk and strawberries, and that was all threatening to make a reappearance.

What. The. Heck.

“What is it???!!!” I shrieked too loudly to the empty house. But I couldn’t look away. My face was lowered to the kitchen counter, staring with disbelief at this organic but probably not living item draped across my plant like the weirdest Christmas tree garland ever. I was afraid to breathe, terrified of vomiting right there on the freshly bleached everything. Then I thought, Oh sweet granola, if it’s alive it could be playing dead and might at any moment spring out at me! This was easily the worst moment of my day.

I took a slow step backwards and raised myself upright, breathing deliberately but not blinking. Not looking away from the unidentified gross adornment.

Was it an earthworm? Had I disturbed a soil bed in one of the plants and tempted an extremely long and extremely thin earthworm out of hiding? If so, that was the most disgusting earthworm I have ever seen. So thin. So long. And no head or seams or anything! Eww.

Wait, maybe that not a worm. Maybe… Could it be spaghetti? I had, after all, used the starchy water from last night’s dinner, so maybe one stray noodle had stowed away. And maybe when I added coffee to the bowl it soaked into the noodle and turned it light brown. Maybe I had unknowingly poured the noodle onto my plant.

So I found a long grilling fork and investigated from a safe distance. (And no, I’m not afraid of worms, but if one is playing dead then it is probably afraid me. Scared creatures are scary.) It never responded to gentle prodding, and I could never see any body parts that guaranteed it’s a worm.

I also never got stronger confirmation that it was a noodle.

This whole situation really upset my day. Then when Handsome got home I showed it to him and he recoiled. “What the heck is it?? That is not a noodle! That’s a butt worm.”

Oh boy.

Our animals are healthy. We are healthy. This was becoming quite a problem.

 

what is it?? please help us
what is it?? please help us

 

What do you think, fair reader? Please vote. We need to know. Keep in mind that I snapped this photo after the unidentified gross adornment had been out of moisture for about two hours. When I first made the discovery, it was ever so slightly… plumper. Paler.

I don’t know what else to say. Stray pasta noodle? Earthworm on the Paleo diet? Or a butt worm? And while I don’t want to influence your vote, I did eat an almost raw bratwurst this weekend. Handsome has already googled the whole situation and cast his disconcerting vote.

Eww.