Here's the video of four out of six of the gardens that will be on the Oklahoma garden tour this Saturday. I think my garden is the first one profiled. I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks to our local Oklahoma Gardening for spending the day with all of us. Garden tour proceeds go to horticulture students throughout the state. If you only want to see my garden, they pulled out just that section too. Choices, choices. I just love that crazy expression on my face. A special shoutout to Kevin Gragg for making my garden look its very best. Thanks!

As I step outside my back door just after dawn, my Nikon hangs over my shoulder and across my hip. I balance a cup in my right hand and take a sip of PG Tips. It's cool enough this morning for hot tea, but I can't linger. The garden beckons. The fountain on the back deck burbles, and it's the only sound I hear because the morning creatures are still asleep. Down the steps of the deck I go and into the back garden gravel crunching under my feet. Pumpkins, hostas, variegated Solomon's seal and lime green creeping Jenny. This morning is cool and overcast, belying that Oklahoma is in the middle of an October heat wave. The mercury will top 89°F this afternoon, but fall skies will be the clearest shade of Prussian blue. Purple chairs in the back garden look blue in this photo. Blue skies and fall color are only two reasons I'm in an...

The Oklahoma Horticultural Society holds a garden tour each fall showcasing Oklahoma gardens in various parts of Oklahoma City, or its surrounding suburbs. The ticket price goes to scholarships for horticulture students at universities throughout the state. You can buy tickets for $15.00 the day of the tour at the gardens, and beforehand at the reduced prices of $10.00 for OHS members to $12.00  for nonmembers at various retail outlets listed in the above link. This year the tour is on October 17th, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and I'm proud to say my garden is one of the six on tour. Mine is the furthest northern garden, and last Friday, I got an early sneak peek at three of the other gardens on tour. Mine is the only one designed by the gardener with her husband's substantial help. Front of our log cabin. I am not a professional landscape designer,...

I used to read about cutting gardens in magazines, and while I was attracted to the idea, I felt overwhelmed at implementing it. Creating a cutting garden seemed difficult and out of reach. Maybe I had too many responsibilities like college, marriage and raising children. I could only manage a small garden back then, and that was okay. Celosia, also known as coxcomb, is a long lasting flower for a cutting garden. I now have more time, but in one of those crazy quirks of the universe, time now moves more quickly, and I don't seem to get as much done as I once did with a 24-hour day. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly sipping nectar from Zowie! Yellow Flame zinnia. Last March when Bill tilled up my vegetable garden, he made it larger than ever. We till this one area because of the nasty Bermuda grass that covers our prairie. Bill also replaced the chicken...