Tulsa Grows

Look, you guys! My little garden is growing.

Since I plan to try organic gardening this year, I went this morning to the northeast campus of Tulsa Community College for a seminar on the subject, hosted by Tulsa Community Garden Association.

From what I could tell, it was a good turnout:

I counted about 115 gardeners eager to learn about giving the pesticides a time-out and letting the ladybugs do the work. Also in attendance was Rita Scott, the woman behind Sustainable Green Country, an instigator of Oklahoma's Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign and a passionate, extremely active woman who is a wealth of information on food issues; Rainbow Girl, the local artist and Master Recycler who brought the Mother Nature Needs You campaign to Tulsa; and a few other local groups and growers passionate about food, nature and giving back to planet Earth.

Here's Rainbow Girl talking to a seminar-goer about Art In, an upcoming event at the Denver bus station that will feature local artists in an effort to increase awareness about our local transit system (more info. on this below).

She was also plying wares, including totebags hand painted by her, Mother Nature Needs You shirts and these Your Mom shirts, printed on t-shirts claimed from a local thrift store.

Of course, I had to have one. Plus, a portion of the proceeds went to support the TCGA.

See that huge rosemary plant back there? Not only was it a perfect specimen and made me weak in the knees with wanting for lamb, but it was only $5. Several of the other plants were going for just a couple of bucks. I resisted, though. After all, I'm supposed to be growing my own herbs. I think.

It's going to take me awhile to digest all the information presented at this seminar. I look seven pages of notes, and a stack of handouts is sitting on my dining room table, glaring at me. Here are some preliminary links:

• Tulsa Recycles: Curbside recycling is a service available to City of Tulsa residential refuse customers for a small voluntary subscription fee. Anyone know off-hand the amount of this fee?
• Oklahoma Food Cooperative: Fresh from Oklahoma family farms to more than 20 pick-up sites statewide. Visit the Web site for information on products and pick-up and how to join the coop.
• The Pearl Farmers' Market: Another Rita Scott project - that woman is amazing, y'all. Veg out downtown Thursday evenings 4:30-7:00 p.m. starting April 23. This market is great for downtown dwellers-by-day who make regular pit stops on the way home to pick up this or that for dinner. Why not opt for local produce sold in a beautiful park in the shadow of downtown rather than trudging through a steaming parking lot only to be dehumanized under the florescent lights of a big-box grocery store "produce" section? I'm not opinionated about this, no.
• Downtown Tulsa Farmers' Market: 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. every Tuesday at Third and Boston on Williams Green. I love this market; it's a great lunch stop for the downtown set.
• Art In for Tulsa Transit: April 4, 1-4 p.m. at the Denver Tulsa Transit station, 319 S. Denver. The event, which will feature local artists, poets and musicians, aims to support and create awareness for Tulsa Transit. The gathering will be thanks to the Mother Nature Needs You campaign and Friends of Tulsa Transit. For more information, call Rainbow Girl at 346-2131 or e-mail her at mothernatureneedsyou at yahoo dot com.
• Sustainable Green Country: "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Proud sponsor of Buy Fresh Buy Local in northeast Oklahoma and a chapter of the Oklahoma Sustainability Network.
• The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture: A wealth of information on anything and everything ag in Oklahoma.
• OSU Extension Fact Sheets: A topical list of fact and help sheets on anything and everything gardening in Oklahoma.

I'll post more as I delve into the stack more thoroughly. Unless, of course, the stack eats and makes fertilizer of me.


The mission of the Tulsa Community Garden Association, the group that sponsored the seminar this morning, is to promote and facilitate the development of community gardens in the Tulsa area, among other things. Right now the TCGA is fighting for the community garden ordinance vote at the Tulsa City Council. Read more about what's going on with that here.

How is your garden growing? Feel free to post links to your favorite local gardening, food and/or green sites and resources in the comments.