Brian Jarvis Ask the Master Gardener
Spring is a gardener's favorite season of the year. It brings together so many of the things I love about being a gardener: spending time in the garden, preparing the garden, planning the garden, planting new annuals, and watching my favorite perennials come back to life.
But as gardeners, we are always looking for something new and interesting to add to our gardens, or something new to replace plants that didn't grow this year.
Shopping your local garden center is a great way to find out what plants are available, but what about growing them in your own garden? It's often hard to know what a small plant will look like when it's fully grown and established in your garden. The annual Tulsa Master Gardeners Garden Tour is a great place to answer these questions and get some ideas.
This year's theme is “Landscapes of Love,” and the reasons for this theme will become clear as you explore each of the five homes featured this year. The homes featured on the tour are the homes of Tulsa Master Gardeners who have graciously agreed to open their gardens for all to see.
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Although these are the Tulsa Master Gardener's private gardens, other Master Gardeners have been helping prepare the gardens for weeks now, and as you can imagine, it's a lot of work to prepare gardens for hundreds of guests to view.
One of the benefits of taking part in our garden tours is that you'll get a variety of ideas for plants and strategies you might want to try in your own garden. Not only do these homes have spaces that incorporate a variety of landscaping strategies, but you'll get to see how these homeowners approach their sun and shade gardens, herb gardens and vegetable gardens.
Everything has a place and everything has its place.
Many homeowners are doing their best to transform their lawns into a more natural look with native grasses and flowers, and one home on this year's tour features prairie-style landscaping that includes bluestem, switchgrass, dropseed grass, select milkweed, lavender and liatris.
Whatever your gardening style, or if you're still finding yours, there's something for everyone at this year's tour homes. Plus, Master Gardeners will be on hand at each venue to answer all your gardening questions.
This year's tours take place next Saturday, June 8th and Sunday, June 9th. Hours are 9am-5pm Saturday and noon-5pm Sunday. Most of the homes are in the Midtown area, so you won't have to drive very far to get from one home to another. The addresses of the homes will be shown when you purchase and print your ticket.
Advance tickets are available for purchase for $10 at tulsamastergardeners.org or at our office at 4116 E. 15th St. Tickets can be purchased for $15 at any of the tour homes during the garden tour; addresses will be posted on our website that weekend. This is a rain or shine event, so please come along! We hope to see you there!
For answers to all your gardening questions, call the Tulsa Master Gardeners Helpline at 918-746-3701, stop by the Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th St., or email us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org.
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