Netafin drip irrigation installed in 2008. You may have noticed RDR has a new theme.  For my birthday last September, and in honor on my blogging anniversary this month, I decided on a new design which better reflects Oklahoma gardening and my personality.  The photos are all mine, but I did not create the design.  Although it was a long time coming, it was well worth the wait. Side border. The new theme and blog anniversary made me reflect on other changes at RDR this year. We installed a new irrigation system which has already made maintenance a lot easier.  No longer do I drag hoses and switch the system manually.  HH said it was my anniversary gift from 10 years prior. I planted Crossfire Fescue II grass seed, and I'm overjoyed at all the little plants which grew.  Just call it my blue green baby.  For the first time...

I worked all week on a Power Point presentation for last night's Central Oklahoma Hemerocallis Society meeting; so, if you don't mind, I'm going to post the following article I wrote for the Oklahoma Horticulture Society's newsletter last  month. Cover the Summer Garden with a Blanket of Color Previously published in Horticulture Horizons Aug./Sept./Oct. 2008 In planning your garden next spring, don’t slight the humble Blanket Flower, a/k/a Indian Blanket, Gaillardia species. Not only is G. pulchella Oklahoma’s State Wildflower, and therefore should be included for that reason alone, its relatives now come in varieties other than the standard orange and yellow. A genus of the sunflower family (Asteraceae,) Gaillardia was named after M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. Blanket Flowers can be planted as container specimens or by seed. Seeds take awhile to become established, so you may want to...

It's October, and it doesn't feel like fall.  We're still having late summer temperatures, so everything continues to grow and bloom in spite of the shorter days.  I wish Pennisetum purpureum 'Prince', growing behind the red Salvia, would overwinter here, but it won't because it's only hardy to USDA Zone 8a.  Bummer. However, my darling Rosa 'The Fairy' will, and she's a trooper with constant bloom from spring until frost.  What more could you ask for?  Scent?  Boy, you guys want everything.  Her scent is very, very light.  As you can see from the photo, her blossoms are now speckled with raspberry caused by weather changes. I grew Mexican Flame Vine, Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides (a/k/a Senecio confusus) this year, but I'm not that impressed.  I expected it to cover the back fence during the summer.  It did not.  Perhaps, it didn't get enough sun because it was planted next to my...

Yesterday afternoon, I took my iced tea and a cookie out to the garden.  When I opened the back door, I was surprised. Everything was perfectly still. Now, as you all know, I live in the country.  During the week, when the rest of humanity is at work, my world is pretty quiet.  There are no city sirens and no street noise.  However, it's the kind of quiet which really isn't.  There is constant activity in the garden with birds chirping and fighting, bees buzzing and butterflies flitting to and fro. This day was different. Not a sound could be heard.  No leaf or flower moved in the breeze, and the air was heavy with expectation.  I felt as though I'd walked into a party unannounced; my underwear was showing, and everyone was waiting for me to notice.  I nearly dropped my plate of gluten free, almond biscotti as I...