How to Keep Rabbits And Deer From Getting Into Your Tulsa Garden

We may enjoy watching beautiful deer and rabbits in the wild, but they’re not always so pretty when seen eating the flowers and vegetables in our backyard. Are rabbits and deer constantly feasting on your garden? What can you do to keep these critters away?

One way to ward off rabbits and deer is to plant foliage that is uninviting to these animals. You may try planting some aromatic perennials that rabbits and deer don’t favor. Here are few: catnip plants, echinacea, chives, lavender, garlic, yarrow, peony, , and columbine or honeysuckle. Although humans often enjoy the smell of many of these perennials, wildlife like deer and rabbits can actually be repelled by the strong scent of these plants. You can plant these perennials around the border of your garden or property to help repel these animals.

Along with plants that have repelling smells to certain wildlife, many fragrant soaps can act as repellents. You can hang these bars of deodorant soap, preferably wet, on trees or plants around your landscape to repel pests.

Some gardeners also make natural deer and rabbit repellents combining ingredients like red pepper, hot sauce, garlic powder, eggs, etc. and making them into a mix that these animals do not like and applying it to various plants in the garden.

Along with deer and rabbit repellent plants, many gardeners also use deer or rabbit-resistant plants. These are trees, shrubs, and plants that animals do not like to eat so they don’t disturb your garden in the first place. Deer-resistant plants, trees, and shrubs include blue spruce, juniper, birch, boxwoods, iris, daffodil, lilac, barberry, and holly. Plants that are rabbit-resistant are a little harder to tell but some include daffodils, birch, hydrangea, elderberry, lilac, sedum, and yucca. Planting shrubs that have thorns, fuzzy leaves, or thistles is also a good deterrent.

 A good fence around your garden is must in terms of effective ways of keeping these animals out. To keep rabbits out, you’ll need to have a fine mesh fencing around the lower 2 feet. Fences will need to be around 8 feet high to keep out whitetail deer, or they can be slightly lower (around 6 feet) but be slanted. Solid wooden fences will of course be the best deterrent for deer so that they can’t see what’s on the other side.

Your much-loved dog or cat might also be one of the best deterrents for deer and rabbits.  Other tactics include scaring the animals away with radios, scarecrows, loud wind chimes, and motion-sensitive floodlights.

Talk with the Tulsa landscape design specialists at Oklahoma Landscape for more tips on how to protect your garden from deer, rabbits, and insects.

Tulsa Lawn Care - All Stage Weed Control

Every gardener knows just how fast weeds can take over a lawn, stealing water, nutrients, and sunlight from the surrounding grass. So it makes good sense to have an effective Tulsa weed control treatment in place for every stage and season of a weed’s life. With just a few weed control applications throughout the year, your lawn can be healthy and look beautiful and effervescent.

In the early spring, you’ll want to start by controlling broadleaf weeds like dandelions and ragweed as well as annual grassy weeds like crabgrass (all of which will grow rapidly in Oklahoma) by using a pre-emergent weed control herbicide. Use one that is toxic to both types of weeds, broadleaf and grassy weeds. Apply this using a broadcast spreader after you have mowed the lawn a couple times at the beginning of the season. Apply the herbicide also along sidewalks where crabgrass often tends to grow more. This weed control treatment will help to abate these weeds before they even develop and overtake your lawn.

Later in the season, you might still see a few dandelions or crabgrass weeds that don’t want to go. Most of these can quickly be dealt with using a spot-treatment post-emergent weed control herbicide. Concentrated herbicides that you mix with water yourself are commonly a better value. These can be used with a handheld sprayer to spot-treat any weeds or crabgrass. You can find a spot-treatment herbicide that kills both broadleaf weeds and grassy weeds, but you may have to use different weed control spot-treatments for broadleaf and grassy weeds as well. Follow the directions on the package for prepping and when to apply the weed control treatment, usually when temperatures are below 85 degrees F. for a few days.

Interestingly, one of the best ways to keep weeds away doesn’t involve weed control herbicides. Keeping your lawn well-maintained with proper lawn fertilization, irrigation, and mowing will help to crowd out pesky weeds and stop them from overtaking the lawn. Healthy lawns can better defend against weeds so having a good lawn care and maintenance schedule is really key to preventing weeds.

If weeds have already overtaken your lawn late in the season, you may need to spray the entire weedy area with a post-emergent weed control herbicide using a sprayer attached to a hose, getting the weeds wet. You may need to apply a different herbicide for broadleaf and grassy weeds. Again a concentrated post-emergent herbicide that you mix yourself will be a better value. Apply the herbicide on calm days so that the herbicide is not inadvertently carried to other plants and flowers that it could also harm.

If you would rather not have the hassle of applying weed control treatments, the Tulsa weed control experts at Oklahoma Landscape can take care of all your lawn care needs. We offer a custom 6-step Tulsa weed control and fertilization program for your lawn that will keep it lush, vibrant, and weed-free all year. Call us today for more details!

Tips for Tulsa Lawn Care - Using Mulch

Mulch may not be the first thing you think of when pondering how to enhance your garden, but it’s actually one of the best things you can add. Mulch can help in many ways; It protects plants and their roots from extreme temperatures and helps them absorb and retain water better. Mulch keeps a garden healthier, more resistant to drought and is great for weed control while improving soil quality. Adding mulch to your garden can save much time and energy and help to simplify your other Tulsa lawn care tasks.

But how much do you need and which type of mulch should you add?

There are various types of inorganic and organic mulch. Inorganics, like stone or gravel can be good to use around areas that are likely to get washed out, and black plastic and landscape fabrics are helpful in vegetable gardens to help warm the soil and hold moisture.Organic mulches like cedar bark, wood chips, shredded leaves, hay, compost, and grass clippings will add nutrients to the soil as they decompose.

Organic mulch is often best because in addition to its other benefits it also adds nutrients to the soil. Different types of organic mulch though can be better for specific areas. For instance, fresh organic mulch will be more effective at controlling weeds than aged mulch, but will take longer to decompose, TheFamilyHandyman.com noted. So fresh mulch won’t add nutrients to the soil as fast as aged mulch to help encourage plant growth, but on the other hand, will last longer. Therefore, fresh mulch may work better around trees and shrubs that need more weed control than nutrients in the soil. Like fresh mulch, large pieces of mulch like wood bark will take longer to decompose and thus will last much longer.

Mulch for your flower bed might consist of shredded leaves from your lawn. Grass clippings can add a great deal of nitrogen to your vegetable garden. These organic and free mulches can help make your gardens healthy and beautiful.

How much mulch should you apply?

A deposit of mulch about 4 inches in depth will often be enough to discourage weed growth and help retain moisture although 2-3 inches may be enough in shadier areas. On slopes, more mulch may be needed to help it stay in place, possibly around 6 inches as it may shift around more frequently.

Before you apply mulch to an area, be sure to weed the soil. Keep about a 6 to 12-inch area around woody stems free from mulch as well as about a 1-inch area around the base of plants and vegetables free from mulch to prevent rapid decay.

While organic mulch helps the soil to retain moisture, it can also prevent the soil from warming in the spring. Thus, mulch will need to be pulled away from around perennials in the spring to allow them to better grow.

The Tulsa lawn care specialists at Oklahoma Landscape can take all the hassle out of lawn and garden maintenance with our custom lawn maintenance, weed control and fertilization programs. Call us today for more information!

Selecting Hydrangeas for Your Tulsa Garden

For good reason hydrangeas are one of the most popular landscape shrubs. These beautiful, blooming shrubs are known for producing ball-shaped clusters of small flowers nice mix of colors like pink, blue, purple, and white. Gardeners in Tulsa often love them for their rich blooms that seem to blanket a garden with color.

But with the sometimes extreme and often inconsistent Oklahoma weather, life can be difficult for hydrangeas here. They commonly need a great deal of care to survive the intense Oklahoma heat. So, which varieties of these gorgeous shrubs seem do best in Oklahoma you ask?


There is a reblooming kind hydrangea that blossoms every few weeks in the summer and fall; known as The Endless Summer hydrangea, it can endure the winter weather in Oklahoma better than other varieties and can bloom on both new and old wood. These do best in a partly-shaded area that gets morning sun and afternoon shade. These hydrangeas, like other varieties, need  rich, moist soil that drains well. While they need a lot of water, they don’t do well in soggy or constantly wet areas.

Another kind of hydrangea known as, The Annabelle hydrangea is said to be one of the hardiest with some of the longest blooms.

Examiner.com tells us, “With adequate moisture, ‘Annabelle’ laughs at the Oklahoma summertime,” “Further, because ‘Annabelle’ flowers on new growth, she is never badly hurt by late freezes.”

Annabelles generally bloom from early June through September in Oklahoma. These beautiful landscape shrubs bloom to a bright white before they turn to light green again. The Annabelle is seen to be more drought-tolerant than others and has great disease resistance.
The Oakleaf hydrangeas is also said to be an easier hydrangea to cultivate. Instead of the ball-shaped or “mophead” flower type, the Oakleaf has a unique cone-shaped clusters of white flowers and oak-like leaves that turn a beautiful reddish-purple in the fall.

Because all of these hydrangeas require moist, rich soil, Englishgardens.com recommended adding fertilizer to them during summer while they’re growing. And the vast majority, if not all hydrangeas, will do better planted in the shade or partial-shade, out of the hot afternoon sun.

For more assistance in landscaping your garden, please contact the Tulsa landscape design specialists at Oklahoma Landscape. We can design and build a landscape with the perfect flowers and shrubs for your home’s architecture and that will thrive in the Oklahoma climate.

Tulsa Landscape Ideas - Adding Edible Plants

Do you desire a beautiful landscape to complement our home? Elegant landscape design creates a peaceful place where we can enjoy summer evenings with family, unwind on the weekends,or hospitality entertain friends. But more homeowners are choosing, not just beautiful landscapes, but delicious, edible landscapes elements as well.

With the trend toward organic gardening, homeowners are seeing the many benefits of Tulsa landscape design that includes edible plants, which are as pretty as they are tasty. Edible landscaping is not just about planting a garden in your backyard, but more about including a variety of edible trees, plants, and shrubs throughout your landscape to provide cost-effective, healthy food right at home.

In fact, Better Homes and Gardens (BHG) wrote an article online about how to include edible plants in your landscaping. Here are some of the tips they gave:

A pretty plant that fits well in the flower bed or along the border is Rhubarb, especially when paired with purple-leaved Ajuga or a similar low-growing groundcover. Strawberries are another good groundcover or edging plant for a flowerbed or even planted on a sunny slope as a groundcover.

Miniature and dwarf fruit trees are available that grow about 4 or 5 feet tall and even grow well in pots. These are great for use in smaller yards. Raspberries, the article noted, do great in light to medium shade, making them easy to grow at home.Currant bushes and blueberry make great decorative (and delicious) shrubs.

Instead of traditional vines to grow over an arbor or trellis, the article suggested grapevines or short vining-type vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, and melons. Gorgeous grapevines will grow well over an arbor, plus you can use the leaves for decoration on platters or to top cheeses and salads, BHG said.

Vegetables often do well in containers, the article mentioned. Lettuces come in a different colors, making them ideal for window boxes and along edges of flower beds. Hot peppers also add rich color variety to the landscape, especially when paired with marigolds and vinca. Swiss chard is another vegetable that comes in a “rainbow of colors” that can be paired with other vibrant flowers to create a beautiful Tulsa landscape design.

For more great edible gardening tips, check out the Edible Landscaping article on BHG. If you’d like help to incorporate more edible plants into your landscape, call the Tulsa gardening and landscape design/build experts at Oklahoma Landscape.

Tips to Growing a Great Vegetable Garden in Tulsa

Growing a veggie garden in Tulsa this year? A trend among Tulsa gardeners is centered around organic gardens. Organic gardening has become a popular feature of landscape design in recent years with many homeowners looking to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a more sustainable landscape design.

The American Society of Landscape Architects’ annual survey noted: “Slightly more than three quarters of respondents noted food and vegetable gardens, including orchards and vineyards, will be in demand this year.” The ASLA said that growing food gardens can be a low maintenance, sustainable alternative to growing turf in your yard.

Even if you’re a beginner, you can have a successful organic garden. Here’s some tips…

Make sure you have healthy soil. The soil in your garden must be healthy and have enough nutrients to sustain vegetables growth. Compost can support with the soil, but it’s also good to do a test of the soil’s pH levels. Leaves remaining from the fall can be used as mulch, the ASLA said, and grass clippings make a superb weed suppressant.

Start with a small garden. Often new gardeners will plant more than they can really maintain or even eat. It's good to plan out where in your landscape you will plant your garden, whether you want an in-ground garden, container garden or a raised garden bed. Vegetables need a great deal of sunlight, at 6 or more hours a day, so thoughtfully plan the location of your garden. Gardens located too close to a tree may lose too many nutrients to the tree while also getting too much shade, The Old Farmer’s Almanac noted.

Choose hardy plants. Perennial plants that return yearly are frequently low-maintenance, the ASLA said. They suggest perennials like asparagus (purple-passion variety), rhubarb, blueberry bushes, and blackberries. Herbs, the ASLA also reported, can be very sustainable in even dry and hot regions with tarragon, sage, and chives returning year after year.

“A great idea is to explore the many varieties of mint like chocolate, marshmallow, and fruit salad, which carry flavors that match their names,” ASLA noted.

Be sure to check the Tulsa frost dates to find out when the ideal times to plant different seeds are.

Water, water, water. Vegetables will need lots of water, at least one inch a week, The Old Farmer’s Almanac said. There is a helpful vegetable watering table on the Almanac website that tells how much water is needed for different vegetables and when.

For more tips to planting a successful veggie garden, contact the Tulsa landscaping and gardening specialists at Oklahoma Landscape.

Tulsa Landscaping Company Offers Spring Gardening Tips

Many Oklahomans love to plant a garden and see their delicious vegetables grow before their eyes. Some may plant right in the ground, while others may use a raised garden bed. Either way, you’ll have fun in your garden and relax while working with nature. Here are a few tips to help your Tulsa garden thrive this year.

Plan and start small. If you are a new gardener, many gardeners say that you may want to start small in how much you plant. In your excitement, you may see a ton of colorful things to buy at the nursery or garden store, but it’s good to be modest in your first garden planting. You may want to use more common warm weather varieties of plants that will likely grow well in Oklahoma like green beans, okra, squash, radish, and melons.

Plan out your garden, possibly even on paper, to decide where plants will get the best sunlight, when you will need to plant each type of seed or plant, if you’ll plant in the ground or in a raised bed, and how big the plants and garden will get when you’re finished. Allow plenty of room to work in the garden and for the plants to extend out as they grow.
Before you plant, it’s good to have all the gardening tools you will need including cages or stakes for climbing plants, string to tie the plants to the cages, tillers, pruners, and other equipment.

Prepare and nourish the soil. You’ll need to remove any weeds, rocks, and grass in the garden and may want to test the pH of the soil to know exactly what nutrients it’s lacking. A few weeks before you plant, you may want to add some compost to the soul to make sure it has enough nutrients to support the plants. Then you can turn the soil when you add the compost and just before you plant to make sure it’s aerated.

Follow directions. There will often be much helpful information on the seed packets or plants about when to plant the seeds, how far apart to space them, and when they should be harvested. The Old Farmer’s Almanac will also have helpful information on when the best time to plant each vegetable. On the Almanac website, you can search for your particular city or state and see the exact planting directions, planting dates, directions for planting by the moon, and estimated frost free date. Along with being tax day, many gardeners will say April 15th is around the frost-free date for much of Oklahoma.

Trim shrubs and trees. Along with planning your garden design and boundaries, you may need to prune any overgrown bushes and trees that may block needed sunlight to your garden. This will also help your overall landscape to have a more polished look for summer.

These are just a few Oklahoma gardening tips for this spring. Talk with the Tulsa landscaping and gardening experts at Oklahoma Landscape for more details on how they can help you have a successful garden this year.