Welcome Shannyn! Below is a link, where one can look up one's zone. I bet you are in zone 7.

I'll let someone from the OKC area tell you about where to find things. Tahlequah is quite removed from Moore.

I'm native to NJ and lived back there for four years before moving here. One thing I can tell you for sure, is that with tomatoes, many of the large old heirlooms don't really like our heat. They can often be grown with special attention to either getting them in early or planting for a fall crop (yes, fall crops are very nice and prolonged here, very much unlike NY state!) But for main crop tomatoes I am very much gravitating towards medium sized, heat resistant tomatoes. I do grow a couple larger tomatoes which seem to do well here.

Baker Family Heirloom has nice sized red fruit and sets for all but the hottest time of the summer. The vines are very hardy, bushy and long (something like 10' by frost).

Prudence Purple - a strain I've had since about 1984 and which I do not know just how similar it is to commercial strains of Pruden's Purple, is a very large brick red/pink, potato leafed variety which seems to set fruit pretty well here.

Tuxhorn's Yellow & Red - a strain of the famous heirloom "pineapple" tomatoes, which I received from Mrs. Ed Tuxhorn, in Warsaw, IN; in 1985. The vines of Tuxhorn's Yellow & Red seem to absolutely THRIVE in our heat. But the fruit commonly rot during the hottest part of the summer, unless picked fairly green. In the fall, this one does great. It also makes the best fried green tomatoes I've ever tried. They are tangier than most.

Sioux (and I assume Super Sioux, which I have not tried)is not a real large tomato. But it produces splendidly through the heat of the summer. It, for me, is a very good multipurpose tomato, being quite good sliced and yet easy to process for canning.

Okiedawn is sure to show up and present you (or direct you to) a VERY large list of her favorites. She probably grows more kinds of tomatoes, in a year, than I will in my life time!

I can give your some input on beans. But as is the case in many things I grow, I'm often nearly the only one growing them : ) I've found that most beans grow fine here. The exception to that are the runner (as in Scarlet Runner) beans. I'm partial to pole beans and inside that category, I'm especially partial to old time string beans, with tender hulls. These are beans which remain tender until they are actually drying down. Most also make good cornfield beans. Our all time favorite is called Tennessee Cutshort, which is now available commercially through Sandhill Preservation Center. My wife's great Aunt grew them for years and presented us with some seed back in 1985. I've grown a couple others which are pretty similar (all about as good) and last year I grew Cherokee Striped Cornhill Pole bean, an East Tennessee heirloom. It did superbly and the ones we tried were delicious.

Okay, well let us know about any special recommendations you would like. There are plenty of helpful, knowledgeable folks here. Good to have you on board!

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Look up your zone

Hello fellow Moore Citizen! I am new to Moore myself and just started a garden and new flowerbeds in front. Put down carboard and composted manure last fall on top of the sod, kind of a lasagna type deal, and will be putting potatoes down this week with compost over...we are on Main if you ever want to stop by! This forum is a great source of information!

Hi Shannyn. I don't have answers for your questions, but I wanted to say Welcome! just the same. There are lots of friendly knowledgeable gardeners here. Hope you'll stick around. There's lots to read.

Glad to have you,
Seedmama

Hi Shannyn,

Welcome to Oklahoma! Also, welcome to the Oklahoma Forum. I am going to guess that our weather and soil are going to make you feel like you've moved halfway across the world instead of halfway across the country. I believe you will love it here once you adjust to our very erratic weather and learn that staying indoors during the "hot part" of the July and August days makes summer almost bearable. During those months I try to finish my gardening tasks by 10 a.m. or at least no later than noon, and don't go back outside until 5 or 6 p.m. Working outside in the heat of the day with our heat and humidity can be dangerous, so pace yourself.

VEGETABLES: I am going to assume you're talking about heirloom vegetables. (If you're talking about heirloom flowers, we can go back and talk about them later in the thread.)

COOL-SEASON VS. WARM-SEASON: Many newcomers to Oklahoma think that we have one long growing season here because we are frost-free from roughly April through November in much of the state, and even from March-December in the southern part of the state in a very warm year. However, we have very distinct mini-seasons within that long frost-free period in which different crops must be planted so they can grow at the right times.

COOL-SEASON CROPS: Beginning as early as January in far southern OK where I live, you can put onions (short-day, intermediate-day or day-neutral types, but not long-day types like they grow up north) in the ground, although most people in the rest of the state will plant them in February. Potatoes go in next, either in Feb.-Mar. and most other cool-season crops can be planted in Feb.-Mar., including peas, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, spinach and other greens, etc. Brussels Sprouts do better as a fall crop because it gets too hot too early here for them to form many sprouts before the heat ruins their flavor and makes them too bitter to eat. Most of these crops will be "finished" sometime in June, or even in May in far southern OK. The nice thing about Oklahoma is that you can plant a second round of cool-season crops in late summer for harvest in autumn.

WARM-SEASON CROPS: Most warm-season crops can go into the ground in mid- to late-March in southern Oklahoma, and in April in the rest of the state. I'll link the OSU vegetable planting guide below for you and think that, since you are in Moore, you generally could plant right in the mid-point of the range of dates they show.

You also can grow some true heat-lovers here that might not have done well for you in NY if you tried to grow them there. These include melons of all types, sweet potatoes, southern peas (crowder peas, cream peas, black-eyed peas, etc.), and sweet potatoes. They all go in later than most other warm-season crops because they like really warm soil.

HEIRLOOM VARIETIES: Many heirloom varieties do well here. I'll try to list a few or, if I've found all the heirlooms do equally well, I'll say that.

ASPARAGUS: Most people here grow the newer all-male types due to their higher productivity so I won't even try to list any heirloom varieties. However, I've never seen a variety of asparagus, new or old, that doesn't produce well here if properly maintained.

BEANS: All pole and bush types do well here except for the runner beans and some of the half-runners, and their problem is that they don't produce well in our heat. I especially like the following (but like I said previously, all but the runners do well here): McCaslan, Lazy Housewife, Black Valentine, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Tendergreen Improved, Jacob's Cattle, Kentucky Wonder, Rattlesnake, Henderson Bush Lima and Christmas Lima.

BEETS: They all seem to do well here although slow to germinate in cold soil.

BROCCOLI: I grow the heirloom sprouting types in the fall (any and all do equally well) but grow hybrids with short days-to-maturity in the spring because that's the only way to get a harvest. From a March planting, you can harvest in May thru early June and then the heat both causes the plants to flower and ruins the flavor. A couple of quick-maturing varieties we grow in spring include Premium Crop, Packman and Small Miracle. Waltham and the sprouting types can be grown in the fall.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS: In the fall, you can get a good harvest from Falstaff or Jade Cross if planted in mid-July through mid-August for a harvest from mid-October through November.

CABBAGE: Any type I've tried does well here as a spring-planted crop harvested in early summer or a mid- to late-summer planting harvested in late fall.

CARROTS: Any and all do well here and I like growing a rainbow of carrots in different colors. If you have heavy clay soil you'll have to stick with some of the shorter ones like Little Fingers, Parmex and Thumbelina.

CAULIFLOWER: Any cauliflower I've planted has grown just fine in spring, including Early Snowball and the colored ones like Graffiti, Cheddar and Green Harmoney.

CELERY: Very, very iffy here but can be grown with great attention to planting times and creating the perfect microlimate for it.

CHARD: All varieties grow well here including Fordhook, Five-Color Silverbeet and Rhubarb Chard, and the newer hybrids like Neon Lights and Bright Lights. The chards produe all summer long and look striking in the garden. You do have to keep them picking while the leaves are fairly small in the hottest part of the summer or the leaves get too tough.

CORN: I grow mostly sweet corns, and our all-time favorite is Country Gentleman (shoepeg) although we also grow and like Golden Bantam and Texas Honey June (seed for it is available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange). I grow hybrids as well, and am especially partial to Serendipity. We also have grown and liked Silver Queen and Merit for many years.

CUCUMBERS: If there is a cuke that won't grow and produce here, I haven't found it. I like Chicago Pickling, but also grow some of the bush-type picklers like Spacemaster and Picklebush so I can cram more plants into the ground. Lemon Cucumber is an heirloom that thrives in the heat, but be sure you harvest it while it is smaller and no darker than lemon yellow.

EGGPLANT: They all do well here but often have issues with flea beetles if planted too early. If you wait until May to plant them, the flea beetles usually aren't much of an issue by then (at least here in southern OK). I think the smaller ones in the fascinating range of whites, lavenders, etc. taste better than the older, larger dark purple ones

Pingtung Long
Ichiban
Rosa Biana

GREENS: Collard greens, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, etc. all do well as cool-season crops but finish up pretty early here.....by the end of May or earliest June in southern OK.

LETTUCE: Any and all do well here and are surprisingly disease-free. However, they are strictly cool-season crops and cannot take our June, July and August heat here in southern OK. Folks in central and northern OK may be able to keep them going into June in a good rainfall year. When you see a variety described as "heat-tolerant" or "produces all summer" or whatever, just remember that although that statement might apply in cooler parts of the country, it doesn't apply here. Lettuce just melts away in our heat. Black-seeded Simpson and Bloomsdale Longstanding are more heat-tolerant than most.

MELONS: Most of them do well here although some do better than others. Some of the heirlooms we like are listed below and the list includes true cantaloupes, muskmelons, crenshaw and casaba types, etc.

Pike
Collective Farm Woman
Noir des Carmes
Rocky Fore
Old-Time Tennessee
Ha'Ogen
Cochiti Pueblo
Schoon's Hard Shell
Hollybrook Luscious
Piel de Sapo (aka Frogskin Melon)
Crane
Eden's Gem
Early Frame Prescott
Prescott Fond Blanc
Orange-fleshed Honeydew
Christmas
Canary
Petit Gris de Rennes

OKRA: They all grow well here. We like Hill Country Red, Clemson Spineless, and Cowhorn.

ONIONS: Any short-day, intermediate day and day-neutral types will grow here. George grows Yellow of Parma. I grow modern-day onions, not hybrids, and get great harvests from Texas Supersweet (aka Texas 1015Y), Candy, Contessa, Super Star, Yellow Granex, Southern Red Belle, etc. A lot of us are trying Red Candy Apple this year, and it is a red version of the very popular sweet onion Candy. In the south, the sweet onions grow better than the hotter long-storage onions which tend to be long-day types that don't bulb up here.

PEAS: I can't say much about green peas because I don't grow them here in extreme southcentral OK since we get too hot too early here for them. Mulberryknob (Dorothy) can tell you about peas and so can some of our gardeners from northeastern OK.

PEPPERS: I've never met a pepper, heirloom or hybrid, that isn't happy here in our heat. Be careful not to plant them too soon or they'll sulk and be unproductive all year. I plant them 2 or 3 weeks after my last spring tomatoes go in because they need warmer soil. Other than avoiding early planting, any hot or sweet pepper you want to grow will do just fine here

RADISHES: All do well here as early cool-season crops.

SOUTHERN PEAS:
Pennyrile
Red Ripper
Pinkeye Purple Hull
Cream
Mississippi
Zipper

SUMMER SQUASH: Any and all do well here, including Yellow Straightneck, Yellow Crookneck and all the patty pan types. In the zucchini world, we are partial to Costata Romanesco and Cocozelle. In our heat, they get really big really fast, so harvest every day or two before they turn into huge monsters.

WINTER SQUASH/PUMPKINS: We have an extensive thread on these that has been around a couple of months now so I won't repeat what is in it. Squash vine borers and disease are hard on certain types and not quite as hard on others. The most disease-resistant one I grow is the heirloom Seminole pumpkin and the best-tasting one for pies is Winter Luxury Pie. If you can't find the old thread via a search of the back pages of this forum, let me know and I'll try to find it.

TOMATOES: I hardly know where to start. Many of the ones you are used to growing will not set many if any fruit here. Brandywine is a good example. Excellent flavor, as I am sure you know, but you're lucky to get 6 fruit from a plant in our heat. There are a few of the large-fruited heirlooms that produce well and I'll include them on the lists. Oxheart types do not produce many, if any, fruit in our heat and are a huge disappointment here.

CHERRY, GRAPE, CURRANT AND PEAR TYPES: Pretty much all of these grow well here, so you can let your taste buds be your guide. I grow tons of these and dehydrate thousands of the tiny fruit to eat all winter long. Here's a list of some of the ones (both hybrid and heirloom) we like:

Black Cherry
SunGold
SunSugar
Lime Green Salad
Dr. Carolyn
Riesentraube
Grape
Coyote
Tess's Land Race Currant
Red Currant
Fargo
Golden Gem
Snow White
Super Snow White
Orange Santa
Ildi
Galina's
Cuban Yellow grape
Yellow Currant
Rosalita
Red Pear
Yellow Pear
Sweet Chelsea
Sweet Million
Isis Candy
Bi-Color Cherry

PASTE TYPES:

Opalka
Polish Linguisa
Martino's Roma
Amish Paste
San Marzano Redorta
Grandma Mary's Paste
Jersey Devil
Viva Italia

SLICERS:

EARLY:
Sophie's Choice
Glacier
Bush Early Girl
New Big Dwarf
Better Bush
Mountain Princess

MAIN SEASON:
True Black Brandywine
Brandywine Sudduth's (better producer than all other BWs here except TBB)
Black Krim
Ananas Noir
Cherokee Purple, Green or Chocolate
Indian Stripe
Black From Tula
Carbon
Black Pear
Black Plum
Chocolate Stripes
Paul Robeson
Better Boy VFN
Druzba
Nepal
Mule Team
Jet Star VF
Box Car Willie
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Dr. Wyche's Yellow (an Oklahoma heirloom from the Hugo area)
Dixie Golden Giant
Janue Flammee'
Persimmon
Russian Persimmon
Azoychka
Livingston's Golden Queen
Livingston's Gold Ball
Lemon Boy
Jubilee (aka Golden Jubilee)
Zogola
Tangerine
Porter
Porter Improved (aka Porter's Pride)
Black Prince
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Green Giant
German Johnson
German Giant
German Queen
Tennessee Britches
Valena Pink
Big Rainbow
Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter
Estler's Mortgage Lifter
Stump of the World
Goliath
Momotaro
Earl's Faux
Pruden's Purple
Marianna's Peace
Rutgers
Sioux
Super Sioux
Eva Purple Ball
Homestead 24
Caspian Pink
Coustralee
Livingtons's Paragon
Livingston's Favorite
Livingston's Magnus
Livingston's Perfection
Liningston's Main Crop Pink
Tiffen Mennonite
Tappy's Heritage
Ramapo
Moreton
Supersonic
Primetime
Brandy Boy

LONG-KEEPING VARIETIES:
Burpee's Red October
Burpee's Longkeeper
Yellow Out, Red In
Old-fashioned Garden Peach
Winterkeeper
Green Thumb

TURNIPS: All do fine here and we like Purple Top White Globe.

WATERMELONS: All do fine here as long as they are in full sun and well-drained soil and get lots of moisture. Our all-time favorite is Blacktail Mountain and we grow other smaller ones including Yellow Doll, Bush Sugar Baby, Sugar Baby and Jurasik. Others that have done well (but take up lots of space) include Ali Baba, Moon and Stars, Chriss Cross, Rattlesnake, Crimson Sweet, and many others.

FOR FALL TOMATOES: I usally plant a lot of the Livingston varieties and some of the longkeepers plus whatever looked good enough in July that it was allowed to go on into fall.

One key to remember is that our summer heat shuts down tomato pollination/fertilization very early so you have to plant your tomato plants as early as you dare and be prepared to cover them up on an occasional "late" cold night. By about the third or fourth week of June most years, the temperatures are high enough that most of the larger tomatoes (not including the small cherry, currant, grape, pear and plum shaped ones) won't set new fruit until the temps drop again, so early planting pays off and late planting means not many tomatoes will be harvested until fall.

Some crops you grew in NY cannot handle the heat and do not do well here in general, although some people have managed to create just the right microclimate for them. (That is rare, though.) Rhubarb and raspberries are incredibly hard to grow here as they do not like our heat. Apples and pears can be iffy as the apples often fall victim to cedar-apple rust and they both tend to get fireblight about the time they start bearing crops. Stone fruits like peaches, pears, plums, apricots and almonds grow pretty well here but bloom too early some years and lose the crop to a late frost.

Many heirlooms do well here, but it takes trial-and-error to discover which ones can handle the heat. I have found, though, that almost all of them produce pretty well if planted at the appropriate time. Many of them have adequate disease resistance too.

I know you'll have many questions as you adapt to our climate and soil. Don't worry. We're right here to help you adjust.

Dawn

Shannyn: Welcome to Oklahoma! I can't help you too much with veggies, however it looks like Dawn has done another very admirable job with that. She's amazing!

In regards to your zone, I live just a hair north of you in N. OKC, I count my zone as a solid zone 7. I don't actually use zones too much for anything, but if anyone asks, that's what I go with. We have a nice zone, we are in between too cold for somethings and too hot for others :) We can grow peonies, so that makes me happy. We are cold enough for that :)

Be careful about raising beds too high here. We do not get the rain you might have been used to in NY. A lot of people complain about our clay, but it does help maintain soil moisture.

On the north side of town, TLC is the chi-chi place for most things, but they can be quite expensive. But it's a wonderful place to wander around and I frequently do.

I make most of the compost I use, and I do use the lasagna method for starting beds. To buy compost...hmmm. I have heard good things about Minick's. When I do buy compost by the bag, I usually use Back to Earth which is a cotton burr compost. I like it. I buy it at the Edmond Feed Store, TLC and Horn's Seeds.

Shannyn,

I forgot to link the planting guide above. So, I've linked it below.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide from OSU

I've nothing useful to add but wanted to say welcome! I live down in the southeastern corner of the state.

Diane

Hey group! I wanted to mention that there is so many great threads on here, they have really been helpful. Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and responses. Especially thanks to Dawn and George for the extra thoughtfull replies.

I want to add a few things: Many of the seeds that I have and have ordered for this season won't fare well in this weather apparently. (Rutabega, Brussells sprouts, etc..)Not to say that I don't enjoy growing new things, but as some of the non-native Okies on here might recognize, the regional food varieties are foreign (ie. okra) LOL. I look forward to the challenge. I am finding that I need to diversify to say the least. George, I planted Scarlet Runners last year with no luck. They germinated nicely but when I transplanted them they croaked, I guess due to the heat.

Dawn, one of the tomatoes that I am excited to try was the Black Krim. That was on your list of heirlooms, is that because it is a favorite or that it does well here? I did do well last year with cherry varieties last year. My 2 year old had a plastic swimming pool with a crack so I filled it with dirt and at least 12 plants. NO joke. I expected them to not do well for the lack of depth and crowding, but no kidding, those things grew well over 8' tall! Normally I wouldn't do such a thing but I got these plants late season for $3 because they were half dead.

One of my primary motivations for insisting on a successful garden season is so that I might spark an interest within my sons. So that they learn to become more self sufficent, as well as EAT the harvest. LOL. I have better luck with them trying new foods when they are involved in growing. I personally just prefer heirlooms, but I suppose that I should lean toward more hybrids this season for the sake of production and keeping the boys engaged.

I want to say thanks again to everyone! Momfryhover we should cruise around and check out some nurseries together!
Thanks again,
Shannon

With some of those things you like to grow, and which are difficult here, you may well succeed with timing them. I am going to plant rutabegas in August and try to get them going. I believe they will probably make a crop that way. Also, I've grown parsnips successfully and most folk around here have hardly heard of them. The key is to forget planting in March, like we did up North. Plant the seed anytime between November and the middle of February. It will come up when "it's ready to."

Do try okra! We grew it when we lived in Indiana and also when we were back in NJ. It's so dependable and good! Jerreth and I don't bread ours. We just cross cut it and sautit in a little olive oil. Jerreth adds a bit of Rosemary. I just do it plain. Either way, it's delicious.

You are wise to instill a love of gardening, and a wider taste in foods, in your sons. That's the best way to do it too.

George

Shannon,

As George pointed out, you still can grow your Rutabagas and Brussels Sprouts, but you'll have to start them in the summer for a fall harvest. The fall gardening season is usually very long and mild and is a great time to grow crops that need to mature in cooler weather. As you've probably figured out by now, Oklahoma warms up too quickly for Rutabagas and Brussels Sprouts to mature here in the spring but they'll have time to mature in cooler weather in the fall. I usually start posting "fall gardening" planting dates and reminders in July to remind everyone we have a "second chance" each year for cool season crops.

Black Krim is both a personal favorite of ours and it produces well here for an heirloom. Having said that, last year I grew Black Krim and Cherokee Purple (both long-time favorites) side by side with True Black Brandywine and Indian Stripe, and the latter two outperformed the first two both in flavor and productivity, so this year I have dropped Black Krim and Cherokee Purple and replaced them with True Black Brandywine (heavier producer than Black Krim) and Indian Stripe (heavier producer than Cherokee Purple and better flavor, I think).

I hope you'll try okra too. It is very versatile and grows like mad in our heat. Another true heat lover would be all the black-eyed peas.

It is terrific that you are instilling a love of gardening in your boys and I hope they learn to love their veggies too!

I always grow a mix of heirlooms and hybrids and have found that, depending on the heirloom, I get the same production from many heirloom veggies as from their hybrid counterparts.

Don't forget that many heirloom veggies come in unique colors--like lavender and orange eggplant, pink, purple, yellow and orange tomatoes, purple "green beans", yellow or white cucumbers, etc. and kids often love to grow veggies that are different colors from those found in the grocery stores.

I hope you're planning on coming to our forum's potluck lunch/plant and seed swap in April. You'll get to meet everyone and I know that I, for one, will be bringing my "extra" tomato plants which will be a blend of heirloom and hybrid types.

Once you adjust your planting schedules to our hot weather, I think you'll love gardening here. Even though we have somewhat cold winters, you can usually start planting in Jan. or Feb. (onions and potatoes) and, with careful succession planting, you'll still be harvesting in November or December of most years. You start with cool-season plantings in early winter, then plant warm-season plantings beginning in late March or early- to mid-April, and succession plant them for months, then plant cool-season crops again beginning in August. It sounds like a long growing season, and it is, but mostly it is a bunch of "mini-seasons" packed into the longer growing season.

I'm going to link the website of The Tomato Man's Daughter. Without going into too much detail, Darrell Merrell was the Tomato Man and he was a long-time gardener who introduced many Oklahomans (and others) to the wonder of growing heirloom tomatoes. Although he passed away last year, his daughter carries on their business and you might enjoy seeing the varieties she lists because they are some of the heirlooms that do especially well here. You can click on the top ten list to see her most highly recommended tomatoes or you can click on the 2009 veggie list to open a PDF file of everything they grow and sell. Even if you are going to grow your own, Lisa's lists are a great introduction to heirloom types that grow well here.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Tomato Man's Daughter's Website

Hi, Shannon, I'm in the process of becoming a newbie to Oklahoma, too, and will be "commuting" between Texas and Oklahoma for the next 3 years until we finally move there permanently (I have another post about that). Actually, I lived in Norman as a child, but haven't lived there in over 30 years, and never really gardened there, so I'll be learning along side you.

Dawn, that's a great website! I'm going to want to visit their place, I'm sure.

Sally

Sally,

Glad you like the website. If I lived at that end of the state, I know I'd go there!

Dawn

Yep, Shannon, that would be great!