Welcome!
I’m Dee Nash, a native Oklahoman, and I’ve gardened here since my teens. I know from personal experience how challenging our prairie climate can be.
But my blog isn’t just for Oklahomans. Gardening can be challenging in other climates too. So, I share how to garden wherever you grow.
Enjoy the garden you’ve always wanted!
Featured posts
The bones of the garden
The wind is blowing, and leaves are falling.…
Zinnia favorites
It’s probably no surprise I love zinnias. I…
Gardening is a love story
This morning I was talking to a friend…
Yellow flower parade
Throughout July and August, my garden is a…
Grow the sweetest cherry tomatoes
Have you ever wanted to grow the sweetest cherry tomatoes? A photo of my granddaughter eating a tomato like an apple from 2022. She's grown a lot since then, but she still loves all kinds of tomatoes. Since my granddaughter loves all tomatoes and enjoys picking cherry tomatoes best I became excited about growing the sweetest cherry tomatoes I could find. Last winter, I also fell in love with Sugar Bombs, those extra sweet cherry tomatoes you can buy at certain times of the year in your local grocery store. Firefly cherry tomato in my garden. They are super sweet and easy to eat. Children will love them, but I'm not growing Firefly this year. Since I can't buy seeds for Sugar Bombs, I'm testing out several varieties to see which grow the sweetest cherry tomatoes. I enlisted the help of Carol Michel who is my co-host on our podcast,...
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My zinnia plan for this year
I see you laughing at this title, but a zinnia plan is what it will take to incorporate so many different varieties in my garden this year. I have 32 packets of seeds. Some hold zinnia blends, but still, you could ask... 'Benary's Giant Coral' zinnia from last summer. Although I didn't order it separately this year, I bet there will be some in the 'Benary's Giants' mix. Why so many zinnias? Last summer, I was overcome by the new varieties flower farmers are hybridizing. I already tried new zinnia colors last fall like these from Milk and Honey Acreage. Now, I've bought so many I need to implement a zinnia plan. The pastel zinnias I grew from Milk and Honey Acreage were a delight. I grew them in the kitchen border. They did have some mildew problems, but I didn't care. Will I incorporate all 32 packets of seeds...
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Organizing new seeds
It's that time of year when gardeners start to dream through seed catalogs and troll websites, buying and later organizing new seeds. All this shopping is like being a little kid at a dessert buffet. Once the packages start to arrive, I'll need to organize my bounty. New Year dreaming. Each year, I write about buying new seeds. Will you grow some ephemeral spring beauties like I did last year, or will you attempt to wrest organic summer squash from the squash bugs yet again? Just a few of my new seeds. Too many new seeds? It's fun to go back and see what new seeds I bought in each new year. Shall I again share what I've bought so far this year, along with what's been sent to me to trial? Can a gardener have too many new seeds? Where do I buy my new seeds? I'm often asked...
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Trees of hope
In December, we planted two trees of hope where the horse barn stood before March 2023's wildfire. Since we don't have horses anymore, we decided to plant two maple trees in this spot where we can see them from inside the house and outside too. We chose red maples because red is not a color we have much of in the fall. 'Autumn Blaze' and 'October Glory' the two red maples we planted where the barn once stood. Oklahoma's fall is primarily yellows and oranges with a touch of red from sumac shrubs. Also, our prairie grasses give us a range of colors. Still, we don't really have brightly-colored maple trees, even Oklahoma's native Caddo sugar maple, where I live, unless you plant it, of course. First, we placed the trees where they should go. We decided to plant them where the horse barn once stood as a symbol of...
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