Backyard Gardener

Story and Photos By Kat Long/Contributing Writer

How does your garden grow? Very well, thank you. Cannot keep up the weeding, mowing and harvesting but everything looks fantastic! Said everyone in the state of Oklahoma. This weather has been amazing and it looks, other than getting hotter, to continue to be a fantastic “Let’s grow things” summer. To entertain myself as I waited to harvest strawberries, greens and herbs, I have been driving around looking at other people’s yards and porches. An editor told me when I first started writing about gardens and yards that it isn’t trespassing or stalking if I look closely and take pictures of the fronts of houses. I need to knock and be invited into the backyard. Front yards for the win this month. There are so many different, and beautiful, ways to grow in your front yard. I just wanted to share a few of my favorites and tell you why I love them so much.

Xeriscape

Let’s start with something completely different: a xeric yard: very little to no grass, some plants but mostly rock and ornaments. Lots of room for interpretation in this type of yard. My favorite is on the southwest side of town, and it may have evolved since I last saw it. Quite frankly, I do not remember what street or exactly where this yard is located. I just know it made me stop and look more closely to the yard when I saw it. Since seeing that yard a few years ago, succulents and small cacti have become all the rage for indoor or outdoor planting. This large bowl of succulents is under the breezeway at City Central, and it is beautiful. Succulents are the perfect plant for this dry and sometimes very windy part of the building. And don’t let anyone tell you they won’t survive in your yard. Sedums are the most popular and have a variety of sizes, shapes and bloom colors. My mom has them all over her yard, and they survived that horrible coldness in April like champs. There are over 300 species of sedum, which means they range from small, think hens & chicks, to over 18 inches tall. Apparently, the larger sedums have been moved into a separate genus, meaning they are still sedums, just under another scientific name. Gotta love science.

The Gorgeous Porch

This is one I aspire to: You’re driving from Point A to Point B and your eye catches a truly southern porch. Chairs out front and plants; gorgeous

Decorative circle found on one of my walks.

Xeric-style yard here in Ponca City. Love the entire decor. Plants in the middle are sedums. See FRONT YARD Continued on page 41

flowers and green leaves; grasses and plants that just make you want to ask if you can have a small cutting or several. Anything that this very talented man or woman can part with from their yard would be wondrous. I know my haphazard way of growing and gardening will never achieve this level of form, function and beauty, but boy do I admire it. “Stop the car, grab the camera and hope they will give me a tour” admire it.

There are several of these types of front yards in Ponca City. Take a drive and you will see the hanging plant and potted plant porch, gaily decorated with beautiful plants in plain pots or decorative pots. Hanging baskets overflowing with flowers, so pretty you can smell them from the street. My favorite front porches change every year with different plants by the steps, roses climbing up the side trellis and, of course, some type of iris or elephant ear or hydrangea … you get the idea. These are people I want to hang out with, just so I can sit on their porch. You know who you are and I salute you. The Potted Plant Brigade These are different from the Porch People. These are the gardeners who know they will not be able to handle a garden, but they want their salsa; they want their tomatoes. So pots it is. Small pots, large pots, single plants in pots and occasionally a larger pot housing all the herbs. I have seen a couple of these houses, but it has been raining or I have been late getting from Point A to Point B and could not stop to get a picture. I love and admire you all the most. You will grow your favorite food, even if you cannot do it in the ground. Pots are good and you have that porch area just sitting there, so more power to you. You can come pick mint in my yard anytime, because you will not waste a pot on that invasive stuff. The Decorative Garden

I tried doing a decorative garden circle and it turned into the blackberry patch. It was good one year with herbs and a few flowers and then boom; I planted a couple of blackberry plants and circle? What circle? I love a good circle, oval or stand-alone bed of plant decoration. This is one I saw while walking through the neighborhood, and I cannot wait to see it when it is filled out and blooming. You must be able to visualize what the bed WILL look like: Not too many plants, a nice arrangement of other decorative objects and everything has to “go together.” This is not my forte, but I do love them when I see them. I am collecting these types of pictures as inspiration if I ever try this again. The Wild Thing – of course, this is mine. Welcome to the Jungle! Takes on a whole new meaning, but I love my wild yard so much. I will give you all a picture tour next month, I promise. In fact, starting next month, I am touring a few yards in town to give you some ideas as we go into fall and winter again. But I am not alone, there are some wonderful patches of wildness in many neighborhoods and the bees and pollinators love every one of you for creating a wonderful, inviting place for them to hang out. Take a few minutes this month and stop to literally smell the flowers. You will have a smile on your face the rest of the day. I promise. And, of course, Happy Gardening.

Wild pollinator patch in another yard in my neighborhood.

Large planter with succulent varieties at City Central.