Kelley,

There's nothing wrong with being a newbie. We all were newbies once and we like newbies here.

Anything that will grow in the ground will grow in containers, but a few things (like pumpkins and watermelons) need such large containers that you'd go broke filling up containers with soil for them.

My advice is to grow what you like to eat.

The veggies that give the best yields in containers probably are tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, Swiss chard, pole beans (not bush beans...pole beans climbing a bamboo teepee or trellis is a pot are much higher-yielding) and greens like lettuce. You also can squeeze in a few radishes (once the weather cools), green onions and carrots into each container. Just plant them around the perimeter of the container, an inch or so from its edge, while the 'main' plant is in the center of the container.

For fall crops you either plant warm-season plants with relatively short Days To Maturity (DTM) or cool-season crops that tolerate some cold weather. Doing that increases your chances of getting a good harvest.

For example, if planting fall tomatoes, it is better to chose varieties with DTMs of 55-75 days than those with 85-95 or longer DTMs. There's nothing worse than having tomato plants covered with green tomatoes that are a couple of weeks away from ripening when the first frost arrives. If that occurs and you cannot cover up pepper or tomato plants that are heavily loaded with fruit, you can pull them up roots and all and hang the plants upside down in an insulated barn, shed or garage (I've used the tornado shelter too) where they have some protection from cold nights and most of the peppers and tomatoes will ripen on the plant as it hangs there. Or, you can pick them and line them up on a table or counter surface and most will ripen.

Our autumn weather is very erratic (ha! like it isn't erratic the rest of the year too) and, since moving here, we've had our first autumn freeze as early as about Sept. 28th or 29th and as late as mid-December. So, I always plan for the first freeze to arrive around mid-November where I live, but I know it will do as it pleases, and not as I expect.

In the year the first freeze was arriving early (it was our first year here and I was REALLY surprised by an early frost in Sept.), we used some 1" x 2" lumber and 6 mm clear plastic from the home center store and constructed a temporary, spur-of-the-moment 'greenhouse' type structure over one bed that had 8 tomato plants in it. It was nothing fancy....took us maybe 15 minutes. We also threw old blankets over the plastic that night for extra protection. That little structure saved most of our plants although some froze wherever they touched the plastic, and we had tomatoes for a good long time because the next freezing night didn't occur for several weeks. So, you can cover up and save your plants even if cold weather threatens your plants very early.

Do you know when your first freeze typically happens there?

I'll link the website of the Oklahoma Climatological Society and you can use the menus there to look at their autumn freeze data to give you an idea of what to expect.

Someone else here who gardens in the Tulsa-Jenks area probably will tell you when they normally see a killing freeze.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Website of Oklahoma Climatological Society

Dawn

You caught my eye with your statement concerning watermelon in containers, is it possible to grow some of the small varieties in a container?
What size container would be successful? any thoughts?

Charlie

Charlie,

You could grow Sugar Baby or Bush Sugar Baby because their vines only run a little over 3' long. You also could grow Black Tail Mountain which is larger but produces more melons per plant and has superior flavor. For a container, I'd use either a whiskey half-barrel (or a large molasses feed tub), which would allow the roots to go deeper, or a child's 3' diameter or 4' diameter wading pool with holes punched in the bottom for drainage. The pool would let the roots go wider. Your melon vines could travel outside the container and that would be OK. Or, you could grow them on a STURDY trellis inserted into the container, using cheesecloth slings to help support the melons as they sized up.

If you have or can find an old galvanized metal stock tank lying around, it would be a great container. This year, we grew beautiful red, blue, purple and white potatoes in a 4' diameter stock tank in our granddaughter's garden, with ornamental sweet potatoes planted around the edge to trail over the side and shade the tank. Maybe next year we'll try watermelons in that tank instead.

Growing melons successfully means they need ample water early in the growing process in order to make good plant growth and set melons. Once the melons are enlarging and ripening, you need much less water so their flavor will not be watered down. So, I think growing them in containers is an ideal situation because it gives you a lot of control over how much moisture they get....well, unless it is raining day after day after day.

You can be creative (very creative!) with container gardening and use anything as a container as long as it has drainage holes. I've seen plants grown in old clawfoot bathtubs and that looked quite beautiful.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds of Blacktail Mtn/Bush Sugar Baby here

"My advice is to grow what you like to eat".

Dawn, if she could grow margaritas and cake, I am confident she would (so would I)!!! :D

Kelley, I bet kiddie pools will go on clearance soon...time to expand!

I'm going to grow the stuff I always grow...herbs, tomatoes, greens, beans...

I have a TON of seeds over here if you want to pop by on Monday and grab some.

BTW, I feel a Sam's trip coming on. I'm dying to see if the raised bed kits have been reduced any more.

Jo

Jo, That was TOO funny. I'm hoping she eats more than cake and margaritas though.

When you girls get ready to expand your horizons with Boiling Water Bath canning (so simple a cavewoman could do it), I have recipes for.....

Champagne Blush Jelly
Berry Wine Jelly
Blackberry Liquer Sauce
Red Wine Jelly
Inferno Wine Jelly
Herbes de Provence Wine Jelly
Brandied Apple Rings
Brandied Fruit Mincemeat
Oranges in Cointreau
Spirited Apricots (apricots in brandy, amaretto or port wine)
Spirited Grape (grapes in orange liquer, kirsch, port or sherry)
Spirited Pears (pears in Kahlua, cognac or creme' de memthe)
Spirited Peaches (peaches in Dubonnet or peach schnapps)
Spirited Blueberries (blueberries in Grand Marnier)
Spirited Cherries (cherries in Kirsch, cherry brandy or amaretto liquer)
Summer Solstice Preseves (fruit with Kirsch or cherry brandy)
Brandied Apricot Preserves
Blueberry Jam with Cointreau
Kiwi Daquiri Jam (with rum)
Wine Mustard
Microwave Winter Pear Amaretto Jam
Spiced Wine Peach Jam
Plum Amaretto Jam
Brandied Cranberry Conserve
Apricot Grand Marnier Conserve
Blood Orange Port Marmalade
Peach Amaretto Jelly with Almonds
Sherried Rosemary Grape Juice Jelly

....and so much more.

You see, there is more to gardening than just gardening. There also is "putting up the harvest". And, there is much more to putting up the harvest than just freezing green beans and corn, and making fruit jams and jellies or salsas.

Sadly, I know of no tested, safe recipe for canning cake.

Making jam and jelly and such might keep you out of Sam's. lol

Dawn

My son asked me to plant a Tootsie Roll the other day because I need to start growing some chocolate.

Dawn, that is QUITE the list of recipes. I like the way you think.

I am terrified to can, because I read that if you mess it up, you can get botulism! My Mom always canned but I never paid attention and I am scared that I will kill us all.

Jo

Jo,

Honestly, as long as you follow the directions from the NCHFP website or from the Ball Blue Book precisely and make no subsitutions, except for allowed substitutions that they specify, you are not going to kill anyone with botulism or anything else. The recipes have been repeatedly tested and refined and as long as you follow them precisely, the odds of you having a contaminated anything are pretty much zero. People get in trouble by not following the guidelines precisely or by failing to use only safe, extension-approved recipes. There's always stubborn people who want to use an old family recipe that is not an approved canning recipe and that's where trouble develops. Or, if people use the wrong process, like canning green beans in a boiling water bath (generally a no-no except if you're making dilly beans, which are pickles) instead of in a pressure canner.

It is almost impossible to make a contaminated batch of jam or jelly which is why they're great for beginners, as long as you follow the directions precisely.

I guarantee you that once you try and make one batch of jam or jelly and see how simple it is, you'll be hooked.

If you don't want to can using a boiling water bath canner or a pressure canner, you still can make freezer jam using Ball's plastic Freezer Jars (sold on the canning aisle) and freezer pectin instead of regular pectin. It is just so simple.

If I can do it, you can do it. I can hundreds of jars of food every year and have never poisoned anyone.

Remember, the government has the approved recipes refined to such a point that if you follow those recipes, you aren't going to have a contamination issue.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

First of all, in my defense, Jo's statement is only partially true. I don't drink tequila; I prefer wine.

Secondly, Jo, you must grow Tootsie Rolls. This isn't optional.

Thirdly, if you manage to grow botulism, couldn't you just set up shop giving organic botox injections?

I'm in such a goofy mood today, pardon me. :)

I think the idea is to use the booze as an ingredient, before you test it out for taste. You want to make sure you have enough for the recipe. LOL