Datura

I just noticed a slug is carving holes in my datura plant's leaves. But the plant is a hallucinogen. I wonder if those slugs are tripping yet?

Here's a picture of a datura flower from past years. The first time I ever saw it bloom was at night, which is common.

Datura, sometimes nicknamed locoweed or moonflower, and known historically as jimsonweed, is a woody-stemmed annual (I think). After the flowers grow, the plant grows these ping pong ball-sized seed pods that look really wicked and drop some fairly fat seeds so you can keep them for next year. I have a pair of them in my garden this year. One was bought and the other was a volunteer.

A relative of datura, known as brugmansia, has flowers that hang upside down, leading to the downward-facing ones to be known as Devil's Trumpets, and the upward-facing ones Angel's Trumpets. As far as I know, they are both poisonous to all mammals.

Plants that Work

This year in my garden I'm going to focus on plants that work. Sometimes when planting season comes around, as a gardener, you want to take a few risks and try some things you haven't tried before. But other times maybe money is a little tight or you don't have a lot of room to mess around with, so you want to just stick with the sure thing — the tried and true.

A plant that is hardy is one that will survive an average winter in a given climate. A perennial plant is one that will return year after year to continue its growth cycle. To establish a long-lasting garden that requires less work, it's a good idea to focus on hardy perennials. Other considerations are possible uses for the plant in question, as well as just how nice they look once they're planted.

If you're focusing on looks over uses, you might want to know how each plant will look during each season. You don't want to choose only plants that look good in one season. It's easy to have a garden that looks great in the spring when almost everything is flowering, but harder to design a bed to look good in the fall and winter.

Here are a few useful, reliable plants that have worked well in my garden. Chances are if you're in the Northeast Oklahoma area, they will work for you too.

Sage — Cooks know sage is great to have in the kitchen, but the herb is undervalued as an ornamental plant in the garden. For one thing, there are a large variety of colors available, including purple, golden, varigated, two-toned and tricolor sages. The flowers can be pink or blue, and attract wildlife. In Oklahoma, sage is simple to grow as a transplant. I think my sage plant is about three years old at this point, and needs dividing. It will mound up from year to year, eventually growing strong enough to stay leafy through the winter.

Phlox — There are several varieties of phlox to choose from. I grow two kinds, one called creeping phlox, which mounds close to the ground, and the other I call "standing phlox," which grows upright and adds a good element of height to my flowerbed. Both have the same clusters of small pinkish-purple flowers, but other color varieties are easily available. They're hard workers in the garden, propagating themselves easily, low maintenance, and providing a lot of long-lasting colors. They are not native to this area as many of these other plants are, but instead come from the alpine tundra regions of Europe and East Asia.

(Above: One of many varieties of phlox. This one creeps, but others stand upright)

Rosemary and lavender — These herbs are very similar to the untrained eye. Lavender resembles a silvery version of rosemary, as both have the same elongated, leathery leaves that remind me of pine needles. When mature, rosemary will flower with small pink buds, but lavender is more well known for its blooms. Both plants are drought tolerant and can grow in poor soils. Depending on how you train them as they grow, these plants can sprawl out like ground cover or stay upright like a topiary.

Purple coneflower (echinacea) —Native tribes from the Great Plains used coneflower preparations to treat various sicknesses, and today medical studies have been done on echinacea to determine its efficacy at preventing or shortening the duration of the common cold. But in the Oklahoma garden, the purple coneflower is a performer. It's a low-maintenance plant whose many florets will attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators to your garden. In my garden, they appear to propagate themselves easily from year to year. They also tolerate being moved around (transplanted) to different sites within the same garden if you water them before and after.

Sunflowers — The first plants I ever grew from seed were sunflowers. I got a packet of 25, and sure enough I got 25 towering sunflowers by mid-summer. Sunflowers will grow almost anywhere, no matter how poor or even polluted the soil might be. Native to the Americas, the flower is also available in dwarf varieties that are roughly half the height of the usually 6- to 8-foot high plants. Some people choose to stake their sunflowers to prevent them from tipping over and uprooting. Although sunflowers can easily grow taller than you, their root systems are shallower than you might think.

(Above: Behold, my first attempt at planting from seeds! These baby sunflowers follow the sun even before their characteristic flowers appear)

English Ivy — A classic ornamental plant, Oklahoma offers the right conditions for English Ivy to flourish with very little effort from you. I planted a few little cuttings of ivy about three years ago in the hopes that it would one day cover up a chain-link fence on my property. Now a pretty long segment of the fence is covered in deep green ivy leaves, giving the yard a little better aesthetics. Sometimes you might have to weave the ivy vines through wherever it is you'd like them to grow. They can be guided by you. Aside from that, they are a low-maintenance plant.


Prairie Blazingstar — Another native plant, the prairie blazingstar is a plant people will ask about. It's a tall, unique-looking flowering plant with thick stems that support oblong flowerheads that remind me of cattails with flowers on them. These plants can be difficult to introduce at first, preferring moist soil, but once they are established they will return. They are excellent for attracting pollinators to your garden.

(Above: The prairie blazingstar looks almost prehistoric to me, but is a flower native to the Great Plains)

Clematis vine — A woody climbing vine, clematis was an idea I got from my mom because they did well in her yard. I had to be a little patient with the vine, as it grew only a little bit (it seemed) each season, but it always comes back. The flowers are star-like and gorgeous, and can be bought in a few different colors. One thing: You have to be careful never to cut clematis vines no matter what time of year it is. No matter how dead they look, they WILL spring back to life.

Purple Poppymallow (aka: wine cups) — The poppymallow is a prairie plant that I've spotted in the wild before. They like hot and dry conditions, so they're easy to keep alive in the summer. They tend to crawl around and send up wide-mouthed flowers that look like goblets. Make sure you don't mistake the plant for a weed as its leaves resemble the Carolina geranium — a common weed around these parts. The poppymallow grows from a taproot, which is edible and was used as a food source by settlers to the Great Plains area.

(Above: The poppymallow flower, also known as wine cups)

Black-eyed Susan — There are dozens of flowers that people around here refer to as Black-eyed Susans. It was probably the first flower I ever learned about. Since they grow around this area as weeds, you can probably guess that they are easy to introduce into your garden. And because they are often found as weeds, it seems silly to pay for them. Just grab some from a nearby field and transplant them. Works for me. I'm not sure if these plants are annuals or perennials, but they have returned to my garden bigger each year.

Lamb's Ears — Easy to grow in a variety of sun conditions, the lamb's ear is so easy to grow it's practically a weed. Native to Turkey and Iran, this plant is named for its resemblance to the ears of sheep. You might consider these plants as a novel alternative to the silver-colored dusty miller. I don't see lamb's ear in gardens as often as those.

Nasturtium — An incredibly useful plant, nasturtium is not only edible and pretty, but it serves other purposes as well. They make great companion plants in beds, and are often employed in kitchen gardens. They pair particularly well with squashes, broccoli, melons, cucumbers and others. They grow readily from seeds and can be harvested as microgreens for a tasty salad. The plant will also draw pests away from your more valuable plants.

Housekeeping note

This weather is flirting with the 90s right now, so if you have new transplants or seedlings in your garden, like I do, make sure they get a good soaking of water to get them through this week! Smaller, younger plants with still-developing root systems are all the more susceptible to swings in climate and moisture.

Photos of the Week: My Planting Weekend

The Sand Springs Herbal Affair this past Saturday is a great spot for gardeners. The Charles Page museum (formerly a library) is in the background, and the Triangle is to the left of the picture.

My son Xander. Hey, I'm gonna put this kid to work today, so I had to get some food in him.

McKinley Ave. in Sand Springs, shut down for the festival.

The Spice Guy had a booth. You can also find him at the Cherry St. Farmer's Market. Also the Trading Post in Jenks. I love this guy's spices.

View of the Triangle in Downtown Sand Springs.

Columbine and strawflower, bought at the festival

Genovese basil, purple basil, German chamomile, cilantro, parsley and Mexican oregano (from left to right)

Ladybug on a daylily. Please stay and eat aphids! I had to move this daylily because it has stopped blooming. I hope moving it will wake it up.

You've gotta cool off in the sprinkler.

This is my herb garden. It's small and it's messy, but I get a lot out of it.

I smoked a chicken when I wasn't doing yard and garden work. Spiced with herbs from my garden and the Spice Guy too. (thyme, oregano, basil, lemons, bay leaves, pepper, etc.) It fed a lot of people, then we used the carcass to make a chicken soup the next day.

The helper, with his own tools.

The Need for Seeds

I spent the entire weekend gardening at home, and I'm back at work now with the help of coffee and ibuprofen. I bought a few plants at the Sand Springs Herbal Affair with the intention of bringing them to work for the PennWell Community Garden, but as it turned out I had enough room to accommodate them in my own beds.

To make up for that, I went to Atwoods and bought about a dozen packets of seed. I plan to introduce these into the garden whenever I can find the time and the tools to do so (and whenever I'm not wearing slacks and dress shoes)

Seeds I have:
Black Beauty zucchini squash
Yellow summer squash
Cucumber
Mammoth Russian sunflower (two packets)
Carrots
Green onions
German chamomile
Habanero peppers (hot!)

Of these, I've only grown squash and sunflowers from seed before, so I'm a little nervous as to how this will turn out. Still, I'll give it a shot. Also, I divided a sage plant that I'd like to plant in the community garden too. Hopefully it will survive and thrive. I've never divided sage before.

I still need to find out from my fellow PennWellians how I can get some water onto these seedlings, as they'll need to be watered in once I put them in the ground. At the meeting, we said we could hook up a hose to our building, but I'm not sure if there's a hose available on our property and if so where I can hook it up. I can bring one from home if need be, but I'll still need to know where there's a faucet.

I plan to plant them in little mounds of dirt so people will know where things have been planted. Ideally, I'd like to get my hands on some popsicle sticks or tongue depressors so I can make some labels for them. I don't want to forget what I've planted where.

Most of these items will have a germination time of about 10 days, so if I can get out there this week, we'll be seeing some green peeking out of the community garden before too much longer. And who knows? Maybe my fellow PennWellians have other plans that I don't know about yet too! Stay tuned.

The Curse of the Black Thumb

So far in this blog I've written about stuff I'm good at, or at least stuff I know enough about to write. But gardening is a trial and error business. An old joke among farmers goes: "I'm a farmer just like my dad, and three things drove him insane: Drinking, gambling and growing crops."

A lot of people stay out of gardening entirely because they think they have a "black thumb." Anything they put in the ground will surely die. But the fact of the matter is even people who love gardening have things they're not very good at, and routinely fail at. So now it's time for confessions! Here's a few of the things I'm truly awful at doing when it comes to gardening.

1. Weeding. I get lazy about weeding quite a lot. The worst thing for me is grass. My gardens were all carved out of suburban dirt, and the encroaching fescue creepers are a constant source of frustration. There's really no other way to deal with them than to get down on the ground and pluck them loose from the soil. More often though, I talk myself out of it and they take over — weaving themselves through my beds and my plants until they're unstoppable. I spent about 30 minutes last weekend trying to pick fescue out from between the fragile stems of an established oregano plant. I was seeing red the whole time.

(Above: What gardeners dream about when they eat too much spicy food before bed)

2. Strawberries. I've already told you about how mad I am at strawberries. Well, it's true. I can't coax a berry out the ground to save my life. I've tried moving plants to different locations. I've tried mulching them carefully. I've tried using blood meal to keep animals away from the berries. Nothing works for me. My son Xander does not share my strawberry prejudice, and has planted a single strawberry plant in my flower bed. I couldn't say no to him, so we'll see what happens with that plant.

3. Strawflowers. I love strawflowers, but I can't get them to survive a season for the life of me. They're these gorgeous yellow flowers that feel like they're made out of paper. Incredible plants. Just about every year I buy a few and they slowly but surely disappear. I blame my house's guttering, which sometimes clogs and dumps rainwater into my flowerbed, disturbing the flowers and drowning them. This year my gutters have been fixed and I've planted new strawflower, so we'll see how that goes.

(Above: Beautiful! Why don't mine ever look that %&$#ing good?!)

4. Growing from seed. There's so much information you have to know about planting from seed, and so many tips and tricks. Some seeds you have to store in the fridge for a while. Some you have to soak in water. Some you have to "scarify" with a nail file or a knife. Some are best sown in winter. Some are better to start indoors using paper towels or little flats with seed starter soil. All this crap makes my head spin. What I look for is seeds you can direct sow with little extra work. I seldom try to do anything more comfortable than that, and the reason is I'm a coward. Still, I have a pretty good success rate with certain plants. Maybe I'll write more about growing from seed later, though I don't feel qualified to write about it! In the meantime I bought a lot of seeds from Atwoods, and I plan to introduce them into the community garden. Wish me luck because I'm a little scared.

(Above: Growing from seed is an economical, and often frustrating, way to garden)

5. Containers. In an Oklahoma summer, potted plants have demanding water requirements. This is where I get lazy and don't water them enough. Before long there's a lot of sticks and dead leaves poking out of hard, dry, compacted potting soil. When I do use containers these days, it's mostly to transport plants from one spot to another. I just divided a massive sage plant this weekend, and I stuck one half back in the bed and the other into an old pot. Hopefully both will survive because I want to transplant one of the halves into the PennWell community garden.

(Above: "You cruel jerk... why put the water where I can see it?! I'm dying here!")

6. Tomatoes (lately). I haven't had a good tomato that I grew myself in at least two seasons and it's not for lack of trying. Rains have been scarce here in Oklahoma and I blame that for my plants' lack of performance. I also had a bad case of blossom end rot that I just couldn't combat successfully last season. That combined with the record-breaking heat and drought killed any chance that I'd make a home-grown BLT last summer. I took some solace in the fact that nobody else I knew was having any luck with tomatoes that year. But this year I'm trying again with three plants — a basic "better boy" from Riddle Plant Farm, a Brandywine Cherry and a "Royal Hillbilly" slicer strain both from Dan the Tomato Man's daughters. So. Fingers crossed.

7. Shade gardening. It's not that I don't have any shade on my property. I do. In fact, thanks to the mature trees in my neighborhood, I have quite a bit of shade. But whenever I try to grow a shade-loving plant, like say a hosta, it never works out. My silver variegated hostas that I bought a couple years back have been a total bust. I planted them in a nice dark spot that gets a little filtered sunlight during the day. One died and the other never grows to be bigger than a foot across. It can barely send up flowers. I'm pretty much just waiting for a wave of slugs to devour it whole. This year I bought some columbine after seeing them do well in the shady spots of my mom's garden. So I'm not giving up just yet.

8. Overcrowding. As you've probably gathered by now, I get carried away with gardening stuff. I'm a little overenthusiastic at times. This means I'll buy too many plants when planting time comes around, and I'll have a lot more plants than I do space in my beds. When this happens, I tend to plant my plants too close together and they wind up crowding each other out by the end of their growing cycles. This, combined with my lazy approach to weeding, has resulted in some truly messy gardens. This year I'm focusing on making sure my plants have enough room to grow on, and I've promised myself I won't let the weeds get out of control (for real this time). I also moved a few plants around to encourage good health and good performance from them — as well as to use my existing space more effectively.

(Above: Crap! This is what happens when you play fast and loose with spacing requirements.)

I guarantee you that you will definitely see some big failures in your career as a gardener. You just will. You can try to stick with plants that are easy, but even that is no promise of success. The key thing to remember is to keep on trying. Just about every thing I just told you about, I'm still attempting to get right in my garden this year. Because I'm a stubborn moron when it comes to gardening apparently. Or just a glutton for punishment. But I think you have to be a little bit of both if you want to be good at gardening. Plus, hey, it's fun to trade war stories with your fellow gardeners, and you won't have any good ones unless you take a few risks.

So what about you guys? Tell me about some of your biggest garden failures. I've already told you mine, so don't leave me hanging. ;-)

Our Plot

This is what we all have to work with here at the PennWell Community Garden. It's a 12-foot by 36-foot plot on a slightly raised bed, though you can't tell by the angle of this photo I snapped.

So far I'm told it's been roto-tilled, fertilized and had some peat moss tilled in. To me, the soil seems about a foot deep and is a little bit sandier than I'm used to working with. Still, sandy soil can be good for herbs and veggies because it tends to not get compacted and hardened, which lets their roots dig deep for water and nutrients. Also a garden with this makeup will tend not to get waterlogged, which can damage or even drown plants.

Just now, I brought my trusty steel garden rake from home and tried to attack some of the fescue rhizomes that are still strewn throughout the bed. The tiller didn't get them all, and fighting back yard grass in an established garden is a major headache.

I put my back into it during 30 minutes of lunch break, but still wasn't able to work through a quarter of the total space. It's a deceptively big garden! More space than I've ever gotten to work with before anyway. I'm looking forward to starting the planting process.

My fellow community gardeners have said that we will get started by next week with some starter plants. At the meeting we talked about planting tomatoes, peppers, cabbages, onions, potatoes and various herbs. I've also sent a few e-mails around about getting some mulch, and Jan Simpson and I are interested in getting a composting operation off the ground with a 3X3X3 compost bin made from sawed-up lumber (I have it in mind to build something like what I have at home).

If you're a PennWell employee and would like to lend a hand in some way, we're open to that. Best thing to do would be to contact a member. Our members right now are myself (Jeff Postelwait), Jan Simpson, Amanda Brumby, Kathryn Dickerson, Sharryn Dotson, Traci Huntsman and Shelly Haire.

I'm ready to move some dirt this season, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, so stay tuned and see what we'll be up to as the season progresses.

Also, don't forget that this blog allows for comments, so if you have any suggestions on what you'd like me to write about in the future, specific topics you'd like addressed, or if you'd like more information about the group or our plans for the garden, please type them into the comments section.

Let's Stay Together: Companion Planting

Some aspects of organic gardening I'm unsold on. Sharryn asked me the other day about what plants might keep moths away from her property. I don't like to give people advice that I haven't seen work for me as a general rule. The plant she was thinking of was the citronella plant, but when it comes to dealing with insects, there are other, more tried and true methods that don't involve plants at all.

Companion planting, however, is something that I've seen work well in my own garden. For some reason, certain plants do well when they're grown in close proximity to other plants. There are quite a few herbs and flowers that give a boost to other plants, either by repelling harmful bugs, attracting helpful bugs, and just providing a better and more balanced ecosystem for everything living in your garden.

Companion planting is more an art than a science, though, and it won't solve every problem you have in your garden. Some plants are companions to specific other plants, and others are just good to have in just about any garden for their helpful contributions. In this post, I'll include only stuff that I have seen work firsthand in my own garden.

German Chamomile and just about everything —Called the "doctor plant" by some, chamomile provides a rather mysterious boost to almost any plant that grows in its vicinity. The flowers also play host to predatory wasps that will scour your beds for the harmful insects they feed on. Some gardeners like chamomile so much they make a weak chamomile tea and apply it to stressed-out plants that have been shocked by extreme temperatures, or are new transplants or seedlings.

(Above: German chamomile, an excellent companion plant)

Cilantro and Tomatoes — Because the fragrance of cilantro repels spider mites, a bug I've had trouble with on my tomatoes, cilantro will boost the health of your tomatoes by keeping away these sap-sucking jerks.

Peppers and most herbs — If you plant to do peppers this year, don't plant them away from your herb garden. Include them in that bed, and they will give a boost to parsley and basil. I have heard conflicting information on whether you should plant peppers near tomatoes, so go with your gut on that one.

Chives — Many members of the allium, or onion family, repel bugs with their scent. Chives are a good choice to grow if you want those benefits, but don't want to commit to garlic or onions (which have more restrictive growing seasons than the summer-friendly chive). Their flowers also attract helpful pollinators.

Mints — Members of the mint family, including spearmint and peppermint, are known to repel ants. Ants aren't usually a big problem in most gardens, but if you'd rather not have them crawling on you, consider plunking down some mint. Remember that mint can rapidly take over a garden, so try container planting.

(Above: Catnip, a member of the mint family, is repulsive to many bugs. Be careful though, as the plants spread out fast... and of course cats love the stuff)

Bee Balm and Lemon Balm — These weedy relatives of the mint family attract bees, which act as pollinators, and can improve the health and yield of your vegetables.

Sunflowers and Corn — It might be an old-wives tale, but sunflowers are supposed to grow well with corn. A more tangible benefit to sunflowers is that they will lure aphids away from your other plants. Their super-sturdy stalks can easily stand up to all but the most intense aphid attacks, and when the sunflowers start dropping seeds, they will attract birds that will also dine on aphids. Sometimes you can watch tiny ants "herding" aphids on sunflower stalks on particularly sunny days in summer.

(Above: Sunflowers provide a living trellis for plants to climb, and their flowers attract bug-eating birds, making them good companion crops.)

Sage and vegetables — The delicious Okie native sage pairs well with many vegetables, including cabbages, carrots, lettuce and broccoli. Rosemary also works together well with sage.

Basil and Tomatoes — Basil and tomatoes don't just go together in bruschetta. They're also a natural pair in the garden. The bright green annual herb will improve the flavor of your tomatoes. Basils of any cultivar are also good to plant next to petunias, asparagus, oregano and all kinds of peppers.

Marigolds — It's true that marigolds don't smell too nice. But that's because they have spent a long time in their native Mexico struggling to keep pests away. This makes them a good companion to lots of plants, plus they're just pretty to have to add a little color to your herb garden. They have also been confirmed to eliminate nematodes that are harmful to plant roots.

Beans, Squash and Corn — The American Indians of the Plymouth Bay area, as we all learned in history class, taught European settlers to grow the "Three Sisters" crops. This included corn, squash and climbing beans. Planted together in a single mound (in which fish were also buried for nitrogen-rich fertilizer), the plants each benefit the other, kind of like a paper-rock-scissors game where everybody wins. The beans fix nitrogen and climb the corn stalks. The spreading squash foliage acts as a mulch that crowds out weeds.

(Above: A plot planted with the Three Sisters crops)

Nasturtium — Nasturtium is a "trap crop" for aphids. The concept of a trap crop is it lures the pests, in this case aphids, away from other plants because the buggers like this particular plant so much. The gardener can then do with the bugs as he or she sees fit — up to and including uprooting the trap plant entirely and pitching it into an open flame. Die, suckers!

Keep in mind, this is just a sampling of what companion planting is all about. You can try all kinds of different combinations that aren't listed here. You should also be aware that some plants don't get along. There are "frenemy plants" too, so do a little of your own research and be aware of what those are.

Garden Glossary

Here's a list of terms that I or other gardeners might use, just so you don't get left behind in a blog post.

Rhizome: A fat mass of underground roots. A ginger root is an example of a rhizome.

Mattock: My personal favorite hand tool, which is like a pickaxe and a hoe mixed together. You can use it to dig through tough ground, hoe through dirt, or get under roots and pry loose plants.

Backfill: Scooping in some dirt into the hole you just dug, say when planting a transplant.

Topdressing or sidedressing: Applying fertilizers over the top of the soil, often right next to or surrounding a plant, without tilling it into the soil. This is done mostly to avoid disturbing the soil or plant roots.

Aerobic bacteria: Types of bacteria that need air to survive. These are the kinds of bacteria you want in your compost pile.

Perfect flower: A flower that contains everything it needs to self-pollinate within itself. An imperfect flower does not, and must therefore cross-pollinate with another plant of the same type.

Taproot: A big, fat, downward-pointing root that reaches deep for water and roots a plant firmly into the ground (a carrot is an example of a taproot). This is as opposed to a plant that grows using rhizomes or a fibrous root system.

Hardy: Means that a plant will be able to survive the winter in your area. A plant that is hardy in Oklahoma might not be hardy in Nebraska or Wisconsin, though.

Loam: Loam is a type of soil that contains a balanced mix of clay, sand and silt. A loose, moist loam that is dark in color is the best soil for the greatest number of plants.

Silt: Silt particles are larger than clay, but smaller than sand. When silty soil is wet, it feels muddy rather than slick, as clayey soil will.

Broadcasting: Sowing seeds by scattering them by the handful.

Seed-starting mixture: A particularly light and nutrient-rich potting soil, usually storebought, that is used in small trays to grow plants from seed.

Propagation: Any method used to create new plants from one single plant. Could mean growing from cuttings, dividing a mature plant, or other techniques.

Coldframe: A frame covered with a heat-insulating material like cloth or plastic that is designed to trap heat near the ground where plants are growing. Can be contructed from materials like PVC pipe, wooden rods, etc.

Bone meal: An organic fertilizer rich in phosphates and nitrogen that is made from ground-up animal bones. Like blood meal this is often a byproduct of the slaughterhouse industry.

Date of last frost: The date, reported by a knowledgeable agricultural entity, beyond which you can be reasonably sure you won't get any more cold snaps. It's safe once this date passes to plant your cold-sensitive plants.

Slow-release fertilizer: Any fertilizer that breaks down over time. This can be a natural or artificial process. Bone meal is slow release because it breaks down slowly all on its own. Coated fertilizers are slow release because they have a manmade coating.

Deadheading: Snipping or pinching off the spent (dead) blossoms of flowing plants. This is done to encourage the plant to grow more flowers.

Ornamental: Plants included in a garden simply to look good, with no other purpose.

Perennial: A plant that returns from season to season.

Annual: A plant that dies at the end of the season.

Biennial: A plant that takes two seasons to complete its life cycle.

Thinning out: Pinching away or removing young seedlings from a bed full of just-germinated seeds. This ensures that the plants don't crowd each other out. The remaining seedlings will grow into stronger plants.

Rootbound: When a containerized plant's roots take up all possible space in the container and come to resemble a bird's nest. Combat this by gently loosening the roots with your fingers before planting.

Leggy: A plant that is overdeveloped in height and stem growth. This usually happens because the plant is "reaching" for sunlight.

Foliar diseases: Diseases caused by too much contact between plant leaves and wet dirt. Mulch to prevent this, and try to water more gently.

Cultivar: Different types of plants within the same species. Examples: Lemon basil, globe basil, Thai basil and large-leaf basil are all still basil.

Bolting: A stage of rapid growth in a plant's life cycle where flowers are created and seeds are dropped. Bolting often causes vegetables and herbs to lose flavor, and the process is usually kick-started by high temperatures. Basil and cilantro are two plants that bolt. This is also called "Going to seed."

Organic: (1) Something that is plant-derived, or (2) An approach to gardening that minimizes the use of artificial additives in favor of materials taken from plants, minerals or animals.

Greenhouse, hothouse, glass house: All terms for an enclosed outdoor building designed to provide a warm, sunny and moist atmosphere for plants to grow in year-round. Often, these buildings will have their own temperature controls and systems for delivering water to plants and air.

Overwintering: Refers to taking a plant, often containerized, indoors for the winter. For some species of plant, such as banana trees and bay laurels, this is the only way for them to survive an Oklahoma winter. At least, most Oklahoma winters....

Dividing: Digging up and cutting in half (usually) a mature plant. This is one method of plant propagation. You get two healthy plants instead of one old, overgrown plant.

Cover crop: Anything planted over a dormant garden during the off-season to keep down weeds and (sometimes) fix nitrogen into the soil. Buckwheat and rye are two examples.

Trellis: A bit of lattice, wooden, metal or otherwise, that climbing plants can crawl up. Training a plant to a trellis can involve weaving it through the rungs of the lattice, as you would with clematis vine or English ivy.

Forcing: "Making" a plant bloom or sprout by keeping it within the right temperature conditions to do so, usually by keeping it indoors or in a greenhouse.

Perlite: Small particles of porous volcanic glass that hang onto water well. Like vermiculite, gardeners mix this in with soil to use water more efficiently — especially in container gardening.

Ground cover: A short, spreading plant grown in a garden to cover over any bare dirt, either for aesthetic or weed-prevention purposes (or both)

Direct sowing: Planting seeds directly into the ground as opposed to starting them in containers.

Peat moss: Compressed layers of dead sphagnum moss cut out of peat bogs and sold to gardeners as soil amendments. The additive builds better soil texture and holds onto water readily.

Foliar feeding: Applying a liquid fertilizer to the leaves of plants so that the plants can suck it in through the leaves. This is done to give weak or shocked plants a boost.

Blood meal: An organic source of nitrogen for gardens, blood meal is a derivative of the meat-producing industry. You can also use it to deter any small mammals that are frightened by the smell of blood. Cats love it, though...

Volunteer: A plant that was seeded by a "parent" plant last season. Many herbs, including basil and cilantro, do this. Volunteers can come from plants you never planted at all, by means of compost, manure, or animals like birds that planted them for you.

Trowel: A small hand shovel.

Escapee: A plant that skipped the garden and started to grow wild, perhaps in your yard. "The cilantro escaped."

Greensand: Sedimentary rock dust from marine environments used as an organic gardening amendment. A natural source of potassium and many trace minerals for your garden.

Deer chaser: A Japanese fountain that fills a piece of bamboo with water repeatedly, which makes a hollow "clack" as it drops. The sound from this water feature is meant to scare away deer and other troublesome mammals.

Staking or caging: Providing a means of artificial support to climbing or viney plants, like climbing roses, cucumbers. Can also be used to support plants that tend to sprawl on the ground otherwise, like tomatoes.

Chlorophyll: A plant's green pigment.

Vermiculite: A light, fluffy material derived from a mineral called mica. The porous, spongy nature of this material is used by gardeners to hold water in the soil for longer. These are the little white pellets you see in some storebought potting soils.

Soil amendment: Any organic materials you till into the soil to improve its texture and nutrient content.

Humus: The finished product of compost — a rich, black matter packed with nutrients that improves soil texture.

Transplant: A partially-matured plant, usually storebought, that you can remove from its container and plant into your soil. This is opposed to growing from seed, cuttings, or other types of propagation.

Planting Day!

Oh, planting day. It's doesn't offer the instant gratification of a birthday, the forced family togetherness of Thanksgiving, or the drunken explosions of Independence Day, but it surely deserves a holiday of its own.

And like some of the lesser-known holidays, you have to do a little bit of research to know when the right time to celebrate will arrive in your area. Not everyone can plant on the exact same day, but in general people like the USDA, local universities and the Farmer's Almanac have you covered. I'm about to do a little googling now to find out when our planting day is.

Around here, the rule of thumb is mid-April. A publication like the Farmer's Almanac, though, gets even more specific. Of course they also swear by planting plants in the light of the moon, so they may be a few crayons short of a pack over there, but with some statistics they tend to be dead on.

 (Above: The Farmer's Almanac growing zones. The USDA has growing zones too that are more specific)

There are different rules for different times of year, different crops and different places on the planet, but the kind of planting I'm mostly talking about here is it's spring, you're going out and grabbing a bunch of transplants to take home and plant more or less immediately, which is what I plan to do in the next couple of weeks. If you're starting plants from seeds indoors (rather than sowing them directly into the ground), you'll need to start earlier. How early will depend on how long it takes your plants to mature. Then there's planting in other times of the year, which we might cover another time.

To figure out when to plant your transplants, you need to learn a familiarize yourself with a term called the "date of last frost." This means what it sounds like it means. It's the forecast final day of this year when you can expect a cold snap. You don't want to plant until after that day because many of your spring and summer plants (tomatoes, peppers, basil, etc.) are very sensitive to cold.

According to the Farmer's Almanac, the 2012 date of last frost in Tulsa, OK was March 27. Usually, I like to wait a week or so until after that because I have planted too early before, and it wasn't fun.

If you do end up planting too early, you can't do much about it except cover up your plants. This isn't figurative language here. Cover them up with anything you can. Remove the bottom of a milk jug or 2-liter pop bottle and cover the plant. Use empty containers, boxes, a coldframe if you've got one, and cover everything, giving priority to cold-sensitive plants.

Selecting Plants and Preparing to Dig

Before you leave your house to shop around for plants, think about what you want to do. Do you want to try new things this year? Do you want to focus on herbs and veggies? Are you simply replacing the annuals that died between seasons, or would you like to consider some perennials? Do you want to experiment and grow things you've never grown before, or are you sticking with the tried and true? Give some thought to what you want out of your garden before you shop.

(Above: Transplants grown in plastic cups)

Consider too what you have to work with. Think about how much space you have. If you're expecting a hot, dry summer like we had last year, pay special attention to sun and water requirements for each plant you pick. Will the stuff you want to grow require any special equipment, like trellises or cages? Also think about each plant in relation to the others. Pair them well as companion plants, and consider their color, heights and growing patterns to maximize their aesthetic appeal.

Check my previous post about preparing a bed. In there, you'll find most everything you need to prepare to plant, from what soil amendments to use, to what types of gardens you can make. After you've followed the directions in that post, you should be ready to just grab a spade or a shovel and start digging.

Shopping Tips

Buy from someone with good selection. I have my favorite places to buy plants (see the resources post), but even I have to admit that your Lowes' and your Home Depots are responding to demand and carrying a nicer selection of plants. Still, you probably want to go with a seller that is local. These smaller, mom & pop-style places will have a better knowledge of local gardening conditions. They're more likely to garden themselves than people from a big box hardware store.

(Above: These tomato transplants have grown "leggy," meaning they're too spindly and stretched out from trying to reach sunlight. If you have a tomato plant like this, bury it deep.)

Select plants that look healthy — not spindly, leggy, limp, discolored or otherwise weak-looking. Buy plants that are green, short and stocky. Plants that look like they can take a beating.

Getting Dirt Under Your Nails

Dig a hole that is slightly bigger than the container the plant came in. Don't disturb the earth more than you have to.

While you dig, keep an eye out for critters. Preserve the good ones (like earthworms) and crush or discard the bad ones (like grubs)

Some people choose to toss in a little bit of fertilizer into each hole. Be careful when using anything with a high nitrogen content, though. Too much nitrogen coming into contact with the roots can shock the plant. One trick I've heard of is to toss in a whole banana with every tomato transplant you bury. People swear by that trick, though I've never tried it.

(Above: Xander planting a snapdragon)

When transplanting, remove each plant from its container carefully, applying gentle pressure to every side of the container the plant was sold in.

If the roots are overgrown and tied up (my mom called this "rootbound"), you might want to loosen the roots up a bit with your fingers. Be gentle though, and try not to tear the roots up too much.

Consider the proper spacing for each plant. Most of the time, the tag the plant came with will have this information, or you can ask the merchant. Plants grow fast, and an overcrowded garden is hard to work with. You don't want things too jumbled or it will be hard to find and destroy weeds.

Plant in nice, straight rows. Particularly for herb and veggie gardens. This will help you tell the plants from the weeds if this is your first stab at gardening and you're not sure you'll be able to tell the difference.

Once your plant is in the ground, tamp the ground around it fairly firmly. You want to make sure there's not any large, empty spaces next to the roots. This is not good for plants. Their roots need to touch earth.

When you're finished planting, give the plants a good watering-in. This is an important step because the transplanted plants are going through a bit of shock right now. If you've ever introduced a tropical fish into a new fishtank, it's kind of the same principal. That extra water will help get them through the stress they're under right now. Also, it will hopefully bring the soil into contact with the roots a little better once it soaks in.

(Above: XP waters a flowering sage plant. Just about everything you do in the garden should be followed with some watering, unless there's been heavy rains recently)

Pretty soon after you've planted, or immediately afterward, you might want to apply some mulch. Mulch can give a survival edge to a great many plants. They help soil retain water, provide temperature control, discourage certain pests (depending on what material you use), prevent foliar diseases (by making a buffer zone between your plant's leaves and the soil), and improve the quality of your soil in the long term as the mulch decays.

I might write a post about mulch in the future, but there's a bit more on the subject in one of my past posts.

Whenever planting day is at your house, I hope you have fun! Don't forget to comment and let us know what you're planting this year.

Weird Stuff You Can Compost

Some of y'all are composting out there, and that's great! I've written entire posts on composting in this blog, and it's a great thing for gardeners and environmentalists to do. 

Here's a long list of some weird, unexpected things that you can actually compost in your bin, pile or container. Just keep a few guidelines in mind. You want to make sure that these items are not soiled with animal fats, greases or oils. These things can attract "varmints."

The other thing to remember is that more surface area on an item means it will compost faster, so some of these things will require shredding, tearing up, etc. After that, just stir it into the center of your existing compost pile.

Hair — Whether it's from a human being or your pet pug-a-doodle, hair is rich in nitrogen.

Whole pumpkins — Every Halloween, my jack-o-lanterns go into the compost rather than a landfill. But you can toss entire pumpkins, squashes, melons and other large fruit into your bins. Just keep in mind that they might take a while to cook. One time I got lazy stirring my pile and a pumpkin vine sprouted out of it.

Natural fiber clothing — If it says 100% cotton, you can compost it. T-shirts, rags, denim... all of it will compost.

Beer and wine — Not that I ever have many leftovers here, but old, skunky beer or wine that's been opened too long are nitrogen-rich "starters" for your compost.

Pencil shavings

Moldy bread — Sliced or otherwise, chuck it in. Cover with compost to avoid attracting pests.

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(Above: Pumpkins, as jack-o-lanterns or whole, make great compost)

Dirty water from a tropical fishtank — Excess nitrogen from fish waste can be fatal to aquarium fish. But garden plants love them. Use this water as a liquid fertilizer for your plants, or pour it onto your compost.

Stale cereals — Forgot to seal up your Cheerios? Throw them on the pile.

Business cards — You were never gonna call that guy back anyway. Toss it on the pile.

Receipts — Provided you're sure the purchase is final.

Wine corks

Toothpicks — Wood is slow to decompose, but these small wood shavings are the perfect size.

Shells from seeds and nuts — Peanuts, pecans, sunflower seeds... use them all. Just make sure there isn't a lot of salt, as this is bad for plants.

(Above: A healthy compost pile, given the right weather, will appear to smoke.)

Anything made of latex — No questions asked!

Natural bath loofahs — The luffa begins its life as a tropical vegetable. And that means it composts.

Cotton balls — Make sure you haven't used them with anything you wouldn't want in your garden.

"Confetti" from a three-hole puncher

Ashes from wood fires — In limited quantities. Use too much and you can disturb your pH.

Paper shopping bags — One good reason to choose paper over plastic.

Dust from the vacuum cleaner — It's true there are some synthetic materials in here probably, from your carpet, but it's so small it won't make a difference.

Algae and seaweed

Used bedding from pet cages, or livestock enclosures

(Above: Aside from the usual composting fare, there's some weird stuff you might not have known you can include in your pile)

Cigar stubs — Extinguished, naturally. Nicotine is a natural bug repellent.

Toilet paper and paper towel tubes — When you're done pretending to be a samurai, that is.

Junk mail — Shred it up and put it to good use.

Cereal boxes — These things take up a lot of space in the trash can. Tear 'em up and use them as compost.

Used tissues and napkins — Again, provided you didn't use them to dab anything toxic up.

Magazines and newspapers — It's not an editorial comment. It's just compost.

Dryer lint — As with vacuum dirt, this will contain a little bit of synthetic material, but it shouldn't matter.

Tea bags

Feathers

Coffee filters — Grounds and all

Wilted flowers — From the garden or from the florist.

Cellophane — Make sure it's real cellophane, which is made of plant cellulose, and not clear plastic

Shellfish shells — Shrimp, crab, crawdads... put 'em on the pile. Good source of micronutrients like calcium and iodine

(Above: Some things you just can't compost though, like plastic sporks.)

Sawdust — Non chemical treated

Used sheets of fabric softener

Post-It Notes — Once the appointment is over.

Used masking or painter's tape

Finally, here's some stuff you CAN'T compost: Anything plastic, aluminum foil, steel wool, anything glass, anything exposed to non-latex paint, cooking oils, coated or glossy paper, dairy products, anything lined with plastic or foil, meat products, walnut shells, ashes from charcoal briquettes, manure from meat-eaters, prescription drugs

Types of Gardens

Mastering agriculture is what turned human beings from tribal hunter-gatherers into more sophisticated city-builders who could take the time they used to spend stalking prey and devote it to other pursuits, like writing, music, philosophy, art — and designing gardens that were both ornamental and functional.

From the Persians to the Romans, the Chinese to the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas, just about every culture on the planet from just about every era has developed a distinct approach to growing and keeping plants.

Today there are as many different types of gardens as there are cultures in the world. What kind of garden people design is a function of what they want to do with it, what kind of land they have to work with, and how much attention and resources they have to devote to it. Modern gardeners can choose to take their inspiration from those that have gone before them, or create a fusion of several different techniques.

Some are driven by practicality — like having a shady spot where you can't grow anything else other than shade plants. And some are the product of a grand vision, like a garden that imitates the highly manicured French formal garden.

No matter what your knowledge level is, or what resources you have to work with, you can draw a bit of inspiration by studying these different types of gardens, and learning about people's various approaches to the art and science of growing plants. Here are a few of the major "schools of thought" on gardening.

Country gardens — With an emphasis on wildflowers, color and aromatics, this style of gardening that developed in rural areas of France and England was often cultivated around a small cottage with a lot of surrounding space. A country garden works with the natural terrain — rocks, trees, ponds, etc. — rather than trying to change them. Plants are allowed to grow a little bit wild and close together, but still with an overall plan that leads to nice aesthetics year-round.

(Above: English style country gardens can be crowded, but the thoughtful use of colors and height provide a lot of visual appeal)

Cactus garden — For people who live near the high desert or in extremely dry prairie areas, there may be no other option than cactus gardening. Still, the desert is a biome teeming with life, including plant life. While often slow-growing, succulents and other desert plants offer the advantage of not needing much water. So once a cactus garden is established, they won't need much maintenance.

Formal garden — The massive and painstakingly maintained formal gardens of European royalty are likely outside the scope of the average gardener today, but the focus on clean lines and manicured order may offer some inspiration to those who prefer a garden with a more sculpted look. In a classic formal garden, hedges and topiary are paired up with architectural features like pillars, canopies, fountains and narrow walking paths that cut their way through the grounds in intricate patterns.

Shade gardens — Necessity is the mother of invention, and many people grow shade gardens simply because they can't grow anything else but shade-loving plants in a particular spot on their property. Classic shade garden plants include hostas, geraniums, daylilies, bleeding hearts, irises, ferns, columbines, primroses, lilies and foxglove. Conditions for a good shade garden are similar to those for a good rock garden, and some people like to combine the two.

(Above: Plenty of different plants are well suited for a shade garden)

Terraced gardens — Designed for areas where hills predominate, terraced gardens can require quite a bit of design work and planning. The advantage of this approach is it makes gardening on steep slopes possible. My backyard is terraced with railroad ties, so my herb garden might be considered a type of terraced garden. This style of garden takes advantage of plants that "trail," or grow to spill over the edge of something. This type of gardening might be considered a cousin of raised bed gardening.

Water gardens — The water garden is centered on or in a water feature, which might be a manmade pond, or a natural stream. The idea is to create a small habitat for both plants and animals, where they can live together in balance. Water plants, such as water lilies, bulrushes, arrowheads and others, are cultivated to grow on or in the water. Once established, frogs, snails, salamanders, birds and other animals may visit your water garden.

Rock gardens — Rock gardens create an environment for the many plants that have evolved to grow in rocky areas where there is very little soil. These plants can flourish off just a little bit of poor soil, in the cracks of stones or in shallow, rocky soil. Mosses and lichens may also be cultivated to grow on the stones. To start a rock garden, all you need is a few large and small rocks, piled together in an aesthetically pleasing way. Rock gardens work well with container gardening or Zen gardens.

(Above: Rock gardens aren't named because they use rocks, but because they use plants that thrive in rocky soil, and in the tight spaces between stones)

Raised bed gardens — For many gardeners, having to bend at the waist frequently is an issue. Raised bed gardening can address that problem. Another advantage of raised beds are that you can improve on the soil you have, by adding in quality soil amendments easily. Just pile it on top of the poor soil, and you've got a garden. These types of gardens can require a little planning and maybe a few power tools too, though.

Rainwater garden — This ecological approach to gardening is designed to effectively filter potentially polluted runoff water before it is deposited back into natural aquifers as groundwater. These gardens are purposefully placed in a low-lying area and populated with water-loving plants. Rainwater gardens are often planted downhill from a manmade surface that is impervious to rainwater, like a street, sidewalk, driveway or parking lot. Rain gardens are environmentally responsible in that they can prevent pollutants from seeping back into our rivers, streams and groundwater.

Wildlife garden — This type of garden is made from plants specifically selected to attract wildlife, like butterflies, bees, birds, frogs and others. Wildlife gardening synchronized very well with organic gardening, and special attention should be paid to using native plants when possible — after all, the animals will be native, so the plants should be too. Plants with food sources for animals are especially important. Choose flowers with plentiful nectar and long blooming times, and watch the butterflies, hummingbirds and others stop by for a snack.

(Above: In wildlife gardens, use bright, nectar-rich plants that attract insects like butterflies)

Indoor garden — Synergizing well with container gardening, hydroponics and kitchen gardening, the indoor gardening approach lets you bring a little of the outside inside. With a containerized indoor garden, you can control almost every aspect of the plant's environment, from water and fertilizer to temperature and sunlight. There's many advantages to this, but there are a few special considerations as well — particularly since the plant is depending almost entirely on you. Maybe that's a scary thought to someone who has a few dead potted plants in their past. But relax — it happens.

Community garden — More an idea than a type of garden, the community garden is a place where the responsibilities of running a garden are shared — as are the products. Often planted on rented plots of land in urban environments, or else started in a disused area needing a little touch of nature, these gardens are as wide and varied as the people who tend them. They can draw upon any style of gardening imaginable, and contain any plant the tenders can get their hands on. This blog started off as a blog about PennWell's Community Garden. It'll be my first one ever, and I'm pretty excited about it, personally.

Container gardens — Sometimes space, money and soil quality don't align quite right for putting plants in the ground. But you don't have to have plants in the ground to have a garden. Window boxes, pots and other planters allow you to grow as many flowers, herbs and other plants as you have places to put them. Containerized plants can be planted in the ground later, or brought inside and outdoors as conditions warrant — this allows some plants to survive in our climate that might not otherwise. There's so many tips and tricks for container gardening that I might want to do a whole post on it sometime. I started as a container gardener myself, and still grow a few plants here and there in pots.

 (Above: In a container garden, you choose exactly how to display your plants)

Native plant gardens — The idea of xeriscaping is to use plants that grow naturally in your area. The advantage of native plants is they're uniquely suited to the local climate, and because of that they will be easier to care for in the garden. The Great Plains has some amazingly beautiful plants, and I love learning about them. Wild Things Nursery is a local business that specializes in native Oklahoma plants, and I buy a couple of items from them every year. Sometimes, if you know local plants well enough, you can spot one in the wild and bring it home. I've done this successfully with black-eyed Susans.

Kitchen gardens — I cook, and I garden, and the two go really well together. My neighbors are used to me walking out into my yard with a butcher's knife to grab a handful of rosemary for some spaghetti sauce. If you're going to have a garden, I figure, you might as well have one that pulls its own weight. Flowers are freeloaders, but herbs and veggies contribute. The kitchen garden contains useful stuff for the kitchen, obviously, and I think you'll find that having a kitchen garden makes you want to cook and try new things — both in the kitchen, and in the garden. One of my favorite things to do is to grab a new plant that I'm not sure what I'll do with, put it in the ground, and start looking up recipes. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but sometimes I'll stumble onto something delicious.

Sustainable gardens — This approach emphasizes a landscape that is in tune with what might occur in nature. Organic methods are used, and plants are selected to need as little as possible from the gardener. In a sustainable garden, priority is given to native plants and plants that need little water. Some sustainable-minded gardeners choose to use only what the local environment offers to keep their gardens growing. You can collect rainwater in barrels, or use gravity to channel water to your garden with trenches, troughs or gutters for irrigation. You can gather up grass clippings, weeds and dead leaves to use as compost. Pests and nuisance weeds are minimized with effective use of companion planting, spacing and the encouragement of beneficial insects and animals. Using plants to improve your life is what gardening is all about, and creating an environment where your efforts also improve the lives of plants is where sustainable gardening gets its inspiration — the ultimate goal being a balanced, mutually beneficial symbiosis between you and the plants you grow.

(Above: An example of square-foot gardening)

Square foot garden — Another approach to gardening that attempts to do more with less resources (namely space), square foot gardening is a relatively recent idea. Square foot gardening, which emphasizes organic methods, a strong focus on compost and closely planted raised beds, has influenced my style of gardening pretty strongly. That might be because the idea was popular when I first started gardening a few years back. Advocates of this style of gardening say you can get more vegetables and herbs from a smaller plot using square foot gardening. Because square foot gardens are often small, they're easy to access when standing at the edge, and they're easy to cover up with a cold frame or anti-pest cage.

Photo(s) of the Week

This week, let's check out the sundew, or drosera, plant.

The sundew plant is a carnivorous plant that grows in poor soils. It uses a sweet-smelling goo called mucilage to attract and then ensnare insects. Some species exhibit rapid plant movement, or thigmonasty, as the tentacles are triggered by struggling prey and then will contract and twist around the insect, thus trapping it further.

Once the creatures are held in the plant's clutches, they are eventually smothered to death as the mucilage clogs their spiracles (breathing holes). The plant then secretes digestive enzymes, and separate glands absorb the resulting insect soup. This nutrition allows the plants to thrive in environments with poor soil conditions.

Sundew are sometimes kept as ornamental plants, but they can be fussy about the conditions they are kept in. As "meat-eating" plants, they have evolved many of the same characteristics as the Venus' flytrap, the pitcher plant, the butterwort and the waterwheel plant.

More shots of various sundew species:

Top 12 Weed Tips

Weeds are an unfortunate reality of gardening, and they're probably just about every gardener's least favorite part of the process. That late-spring, early-summer weed sprouting season can be absolutely brutal — particularly if you haven't done enough to prevent weeds from sprouting in the first place. There's nothing more demoralizing than the feeling that for every weed you pull, five more sprout up to take its place. Here are a few of my best tips on dealing with the weedy menace in your garden.

1. Create a barrier between weed seeds in your soil and the sun. Mulch might be the best way for an organic gardener to stop weeds before they start. You can also use fabric or plastic sheeting underneath the mulch, but make sure these coatings are water-permeable, and try to choose biodegradable materials over plastics.

2. If you compost, make sure your pile is hot and stirred often. You CAN compost whole weeds in an average compost heap without weed seeds surviving and germinating once you apply the compost to your beds, but you have to make sure that the compost is hot enough to destroy those seeds. Do this by maintaining a balanced pile that has plenty of air and water. Stir it often, and when you put pulled weeds into the pile, stir them into the center of the pile where they will cook the fastest.

 (Above: A familiar weed from many Oklahoma yards, called henbit)

3. Water selectively. This might not be possible in every garden's arrangement, but if you can water only the plants that you want to survive, do that. It is possible to starve the other plants (IE: weeds) in this fashion. Also when you do water, make it infrequent and deep, if you anticipate trouble with weeds. This give the water advantage to your established, deep-rooted plants instead of the smaller, shorter-rooted, scraggly weeds.

4. Space your plants well during planting. Making sure that your plants, when mature, will cover up the spaces in between the plants with their natural vegetative growth is a good way to keep weeds down to a manageable level. Big, open areas in your garden give weeds favorable spots to grow. The idea is to have your plants cast their shadows on the dirt under them.

(Above: Seen this guy before? This is the Carolina geranium, a weed I've seen plenty of)

5. Where possible, use transplants rather than seeds. An advantage of transplants is they have a growth advantage over weeds, and can grow fast enough to crowd weeds out — out-competing them for resources like water and sun.

6. Employ cover plants. Some plants are known as "ground cover." They're used by gardeners to cover up all available dirt at the bottom of the bed, so it looks nice, but they offer an additional advantage of taking up space that might have otherwise gone to weeds.

(Above: Johnson grass. I just want to strangle it.)

7. Weed when the soil is wet. This will make the work easier on you, and it will help ensure that you can pull out all of the weeds you pull — roots and all. If you leave enough weed root in the ground, chances are they will make a comeback. Ever see that same dandelion come back in your yard again and again? Dandelions have deep, sturdy taproots, and you need to pull up as much of it as possible.

8. Know your garden. If you're a beginner gardener, you might not always be able to tell the difference between a plant you want and a plant you don't. So familiarize yourself both with common weeds, and the plants you're growing this season. Take pictures. Know what they'll look like once they've grown a bit. Some storebought plants come with ID tags. Keep those and stick them into the bed next to that plant so you don't lose track of what you've planted.

(Above: Shepherd's purse. Hate it. Hate it. Hate hate hate. Worse than dandelions, in my opinion)

9. Catch them when they're young. I am sometimes a lazy gardener, and I let weeds go a bit. But the thing is, they never stay small. Their roots dig in deeper, and they spread out. If you wait too long, they'll start scattering seeds around. That's what they do — it's why they're so prevalent in the first place. So pluck weeds when they're young.

10. Give 'em a good shaking. Once you've plucked a weed, particularly one with a hairy or fibrous root system, you'll notice that they take great clumps of dirt from your beds. Shake off as much of the soil this weed stole from you from its roots before discarding it. Then smooth your soil back down, and consider covering the "divot" with some mulch to prevent future weeds from taking root in the same place.

11. Use chemical herbicides only as a last resort. I think these products are more trouble than they're worth. They're expensive, and they often aren't selective enough to avoid harming your garden or soil in some way. However, if you disagree with me, at least know what you're using. Look at the active ingredients and consider doing a little homework on those chemicals. And whatever you do, don't apply something as harsh as Round-Up to a flower bed. It will kill anything it touches, and "salt the earth" so nothing grows there for a long time.

(Above: Spiny sowthistle. Don't try to pluck it by hand. It's painful, plus this thing has a helluva taproot underneath and you'll need something sharp to dig it out)

12. Continue weeding at the end of the season. After your garden has closed up shop for the season, it would be a mistake to allow any weeds to take up residence there. They'll only go to seed and make next season much harder on you. I've made this mistake before. Pull the weeds, and for good measure you might consider giving the entire bed a little hoeing just to stir things up and disturb any weed seeds that might be trying to set themselves up for next season.

Finally, I just wanted to say that it's pretty easy to go OCD about weeds. In a way, they're like an invading plague, so getting a bit paranoid or taking it personally is something that happens to dedicated gardeners who've invested so much time in something only to see it ruined by ugly and destructive weeds. Set your own rules for what you and your garden can live with. Keep in mind that while a thick growth of weeds will rob your plants of nutrients and even potentially smother them, the occasional weed will not utterly destroy your garden. Just don't let it get out of control — in either direction.