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...

Good morning Sunshines! We're going to do something a little different today on RDR. Saxon Holt is one of my favorite people and an extraordinary photographer. I am astounded by his work, and I think you will be too. Below is a guest post Saxon wrote for RDR's readers on garden photography. At the end of the post, if you comment, he's also giving two of my readers the opportunity to win a copy of his 3rd PhotoBotanic ebook. I am so excited for you. So, without further ado, here's Saxon's take on photographing the late summer garden--a task that isn't easy to do. For more wonderful photography lessons, see his entire series of PhotoBotanic ebooks. The late summer garden can be a challenge to photograph. Front Yard meadow in Stephanie Cohen's Shortwood Gardens. Trees and shrubs are looking tired. Annuals are petering out, going to seed. Perennials have grown, spread, and fallen over.The vegetable...

Late summer is the season of garden editing especially in a year with consistent rain and moderate temperatures. Consistent rain and moderate temperatures in Oklahoma? Yes, indeed. The summer of 2015 reminds me of the summers of my youth. There's heat, but only a few days over 100F, and it's rained every few weeks throughout June, July and August. Rudbeckia hirta 'Chocolate Orange' I am overjoyed by this turn of events until I think of my garden blogging friends out west. In case you haven't heard, California is drying up and on fire. Washington and Idaho are also going up in flames. Because I've blogged since 2007, I have friends in all of these places. I see their shares on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and my heart hurts for them. Oklahoma is frequently dry and on fire too so I empathize. I am praying for that Godzilla El Nino with a vengeance even though...