More Trees!

We have much to be thankful for in the Cherokee garden as Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Just around the corner from our color bed our future Monarch waystation has been seeded and planted with milkweed and our bird feeders are filled (except the yellow one I couldnt get it open, someone with a stronger grip might try) and the scouts from Troop one from First Presbyterian Church have planted 2 River Birch a Live Oak a Redbud and a cottonless Cottonwood, the latter with much heavy equipment! It was great fun to watch them work. These scouts obviously have great leaders and it was wonderful to watch them interact with mutual respect and encouragement as they learned about planting trees and community service. We were lucky to be a part of the 100th anniversary celebration of First Presbyterian and troop one which they celebrated by planting 100 trees from Up With Trees at schools around town. Also the Warren foundation donated the big Cottonwood which will provide a shady spot next summer. This area south of the school should become a haven for bird watchers so first it must become a haven for birds. The trees will provide shelter and food and a place for birds to perch as they take turns at the feeders. The bird seed is in an ice chest behind a shrub and help keeping the feeders full is welcomed. Also I recently planted a deciduous holly which provides food in late winter when birds are most desperate, when most seeds and berries are already gone and insects are not yet plentiful. I didnt do much bird watching while working on the bird garden but I did notice 2 mockingbirds watching me! I wonder if they recognized the birdseed bags or the feeders I was carrying, they seemed intent on watching me!
Benches, a cone flower bed for finches and a bed of hummingbird plants would be great additions to this area. Lets plan on participating in the Audubon Society bird counts in the future as well as doing our own wildlife surveys.

http://www.troop1tulsa.com
http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/kids

Insect Use Not Damage!

You may have noticed a new bed along the south wall of the school. We had a turf stripper for our neighborly task of installing an entry garden at Horace Greeley Elementary School and it seemed a shame to take it back without taking a few minutes to strip turf from a new bed around the corner from our colorful nectar garden. After reading Dr. Tallamy's book "Bringing Nature Home" I will never consider insect use of a plant as damage. Is it lettuce damage when I have a salad? Well of course it is but I would never think of it that way! And when the monarch caterpillars strip my swamp milkweed it does look quite messy but the beauty of the parent butterflies sipping nectar at the same milkweed weeks earlier more than makes up for the mess. And if I am lucky I will get to watch a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis, again payback for putting up with "insect damage". That is why we are dedicating a not so public space along the side of the school to insect use. These plants will be beautiful and common milkweed has a wonderful scent but eventually these plants will be chewed up by monarch caterpillars. Thus our new lesson, how to see the beauty in insects using "our" plants next to "our" school to complete their beautiful and informative life cycle. Long before any building was on this land monarchs and milkweeds were at home here, let's invite them back. Let's have a Monarch Waystation Garden!
https://shop.monarchwatch.org/certificate/waystationcert.aspx

Quiet Time in the Garden

Last time I was in the garden with children painting bird houses and making a toad abode. We did a little math, learned the word abode and talked about what toads and frogs need and why we need toads and frogs. This time I was alone in the garden and very aware that I needed to garden slowly and quietly instead of my usual “let’s get a lot done today” style. I added a lobelia cardinalis and a fern to the west side of the toad abode to provide more shade for the tadpoles and gave the whole area a long slow shower with the hose adding just a little water to the toad abode because I didn’t want to add too much chlorine. I watched a pair of beetles on the log we added to make it easier for frogs and toads to get in and out of the toad abode. I watched the tadpoles wriggle near the edge of the abode catching tiny things to eat and caught a glimpse of a half inch 4 legged frog! The first tadpole I have seen with all four legs ready to take its place in our garden! I added a couple more tomatos and realized our well mulched playhouse was actually too wet in spite of the dry weather. Don’t forget to put a finger in the soil before watering, the mulch may be working better than you expected and a plant can wilt from too much water as well as too little. So let’s learn math, vocabulary, integrated pest management, gardening for wildlife and how to sit quietly observe and appreciate all that is in our garden. Meditation, our next lesson?

Art In The Garden

We had a wonderful time this morning painting gourds to use for toad abodes and birdhouses and planting our toad abode. The tadpoles have been transferred with many cool damp places to hide under logs gourds and stones around their new toad abode,ready for when they hop out. Cattails and horsetail are planted in the garden tote we used for a pond and a water loving canna is planted southwest of the tote for evening shade with a fern to the east. More plants will be added for shade and hiding places for frogs and toads.

We still need more signs painted, we did paint a bright blue chalkboard we can use to announce future events so keep your eyes open and feel free to join us. We also put up our prairie sign so folks will know something grand is coming, I am afraid it won't look like much for a year or two but don't mow it, be patient!

The Tallamy Toad Tote

The Dr. Doug Tallamy Toad Tote

One minute into Dr. Tallamys talk at the Tulsa garden center (Thursday August 19th 2010) and I was picturing our tadpoles, turning into tiny toads or frogs leaping from the wheel barrow and landing… where? And can they jump that far when so tiny?

I know from my own yard that a small body of water can be greatly appreciated by frogs and toads; just an area where I water pots every day is populated with the hoppers. When I placed a plastic garden tote in the ground in my lawn, no plantings, nothing but a bucket of water in the ground I came home the next day to find a frog floating in it! How desperate does an amphibian have to be to move into a bucket or wheel barrow?

Dr Tallamy tells of moving into a new subdivision at age 9 and becoming determined to watch the tadpoles next door turn into toads which he did just minutes before the bulldozer showed up to turn the toad abode into a human home! See the second link below for more of his story.

Of course the home could have been built with a wetland intact (see the first link for why) but even now we just don’t think about giving back some of our yard to those who lived there before we built our home. But my task was clear, give the toads a chance to hop out of a ground level “pond” not a 3 foot high wheelbarrow and leave a little wetland available for them to return to and in exchange they will eat bugs in our vegetable garden.

That’s why I bought the Tallamy Toad Tote! A green plastic 20 gallon garden tote to bury near the wheel barrow and transfer the toads into and why one of our garden art projects (Saturday August 28 2010 8 am to noon) will be to build toad abodes. These can be as simple as a hollow log or a stone with space to creep under or as elaborate as a painted gourd or upside down flower pot with an opening to hop into covering a damp piece of earth. We just water the toads when we water the garden.

Join us Saturday for our art in the garden event and to celebrate our toads with our toad abodes. If you have something we can work into a project (wind chime, mosaic, sign etc.) bring it or just show up we have plenty of projects you can help with.

www.bringingnaturehome.net/native-gardening/gardening-for-life


http://books.google.com/books?id=JA45XbUm48gC&lpg=PP1&dq=douglas+tallamy+bringing+nature+home&pg=PA22#v=onepage&q&f=false

It Really Ought To Rain!

My dog Lizzie was not going to go out this morning no matter how much I insisted. It was going to rain! I haven't checked the weather for predictions of rain since I got my Lizzie, she is much more accurate. So the thunder in the distance was not just taunting me, it would rain. So there I was in a cool breeze listening to louder and louder thunder (did i mention the cool breeze?) planting Kentucky Wonder and Royal Burgandy beans, peas, and cucumbers on our garden playhouse (PHROG). As I was scattering radish seeds around the edge of the planting it started to rain. Perfect timing! Unfortunately by 9:30 Lizzie was happy to go outside. For a moment though, I thought I saw St Fiacre smile.

http://www.pittsburgpostgazette.com/garden/20001223clips4.asp

PHROG

Almost finished with what so far we are calling the Play House Re-creating Our Garden or Play House Re-creating Organic Gardens or People Helping Real Organic Goodies or....Ideas? We started with PHOG Playhouse of Gardening but I just love the PHROG or frog motif!

Now that we have photos those who couldn’t picture one cattle panel standing like an arbor and one lying down as a back wall connected with a ceiling of twine can see what I had in mind. The floor is a layer of newspaper then landscape fabric then cardboard then mulch. The house is great for easy harvesting; you can stand or sit in the shade inside the house for much of your harvesting. It also serves as a magnet for young children so their parents can garden while toddlers are enjoying their house. The front yard of the playhouse is landscaped with 2 blueberry bushes planted in amended soil to accommodate their need for an acid ph. Tomatoes (heat tolerant varieties donated by Duck Creek Farms) have been planted on the front arbor and tomorrow or as soon as I cool off I will plant cucumbers and beans on the back wall. Blackberries are planted on the fence nearby and I hope to add strawberries next spring. The weather is cooling off! I didn’t break a sweat till well after 11am and I was soaked last weekend by 8am!
We will need to replenish the mulch periodically to continue to smother weeds and of course replant our annual vineing food crops but this structure should give our students great gardening opportunities for many years.
I have also installed a soaker hose and am trying to make watering easier.
Don’t forget we will be doing garden art and garden chores on Saturday August 28 from 8-10 am and we need volunteers in many areas, let us know how you want to participate.
I will try to post pictures occasionally so you can see our house walls and roof fill in! Happy gardening everyone.

Welcome to Duck Creek Farms - growing quality tomato and bedding plants for over 30 years.

Every School A Garden, Every Child a Gardener: Come Garden Saturdays Aug. 14 and 28 as we make a Vegetable Garden Playhouse at Cherokee

Saturdays August 14th and 28th from 8-10am I will be in the garden at Cherokee Elementary School (6001 North Peoria) getting it ready for back to school and would welcome your help input curiosity and company as we get ready for the fall semester.

The first Saturday I hope to install a vegetable garden playhouse. It will be made of cattle panels set up as a trellis you can walk into, covered with vining crops. One cattle panel will stand as an arbor we can walk under and one will lay down as a back wall with garden twine making a roof. We can lasagna garden this area as an example of this technique that can turn a weedy turf into a productive garden in one season.

The second Saturday let's do an art in the garden project. Bring broken beautiful things from around the house we can put together into art for our garden, a single earing, left over tile, broken plate or coffee cup, anything weather proof and we will put it into a mosaic, wind chime, or other garden sculpture.

Want to work at other times? Feel free to stop by and pull bermuda grass from the mulch as you enjoy the plants. Also I am still looking for a topiary artist and carpenter! Feel free to call if you have any questions or would like to adopt a bed or take on a special project. With enough volunteers the children can count on finding a mentor in the garden most weekends and evenings. Thanks to all who have and who will help our students and to Ms Tell Ms Gault and all the faculty and staff at Cherokee who have been so encouraging.

Serendipity?

There are many lessons in the garden; one is not to leave the wheelbarrow sitting where it can collect rainwater, you will only harvest mosquitoes! So as I was thinking “I need to bring my wheelbarrow up here” I rounded the storage shed and saw a wheel barrow! “I’ll use that” I thought, then realized it was full of water which made me full of anxiety! Sure I would find mosquito larvae wiggling about I peered in, wondering if I had the strength after a long day of gardening to dump out all that water. “But those are tadpoles!” It looked like 3 different stages of development were represented so more than one frog found our little metal wetland. Now instead of dumping it out I wonder every day “does the wheelbarrow need more water?”

Is this a chance to increase our vocabulary? Serendipity? Flabbergasted? Luck? Or learn about the web of interdependence, isn’t it great the tadpoles eat mosquito larvae? What is a larva (what are larvae) anyway? Sharpen powers of observation drawing the tadpoles? Write a poem? Research beneficials in the garden and decide if we want frogs? Have a philosophical debate about protecting the frogs versus letting nature take its course and if it rains they live if the wheelbarrow dries out they die, versus dumping the whole thing and using the wheelbarrow just because I need a wheel barrow! (eminent domain?)

Or simply take a breath smile and know biophilia is the real reason you garden even if you have never seen the word or heard of E.O. Wilson.

Maybe I’ll dig a little pond some day!

Most children have a bug period, and I never grew out of mine.
Edward O. Wilson, Naturalist

Humanity is exalted not because we are so far above other living creatures, but because knowing them well elevates the very concept of life.
Edward O. Wilson, Biophilia, 1984, p. 22

I have argued in this book that we are human in good part because of the particular way we affiliate with other organisms. They are the matrix in which the human mind originated and is permanently rooted, and they offer the challenge and freedom innately sought. To the extent that each person can feel like a naturalist, the old excitement of the untrammeled world will be regained. I offer this as a formula of reenchantment to invigorate poetry and myth: mysterious and little known organisms live within walking distance of where you sit. Splendor awaits in minute proportions.
Edward O. Wilson, Biophilia, 1984, p. 139

Every year I am determined to start a fall garden, it's just so easy to let all of springs efforts burn to a crisp while sitting under the air conditioner but then as fall cools off and you survey what could have been a great crop of fall veges regret sets in! So get out there in the "cool" of early morning and evening or work in short spurts if you must work in the heat and keep those tomatoes watered and picked and start your fall crops! You should have some sort of watering system that just requires you to turn on the faucet and your drip hoses will do the rest. August will require water and you won't want to stay out in the heat too long so make basic tasks like watering easy with drip hoses and mulch. Newspaper, straw, grass clippings and mulch from the green waste site on 56th street north (east of Mingo west of highway 169) all help keep the soil cool and moist. As fall sets in we will want your bags of leaves for Cherokees vegetable garden. We might also compost right in the beds to some degree, we do need more organic matter to help our soil retain moisture better and increase fertility.

I have cleaned out one bed at Cherokee and planted squash and beans while using the lettuce which had gone to seed as part of the mulch. I would love to have some volunteers to help keep the tomatoes going so the students can come back to school and find a beautiful crop of yellow pear tomatoes, the plants will stop producing if we don't keep them picked and watered. Obviously your reward for weeding and watering can be handful of tomatoes!

OSU extension is a great source of gardening information, they should be on your favorites list!
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-1114/HLA-6009web.pdf

Inventory, July 11, 2010

Just took a quick tour of the grounds at Cherokee to help focus our efforts in this hot time of year, hoping to have something to show for our efforts when school is back in session.

vegetables
The volunteer who was going to lead the vegetable garden efforts has not been able to be as active as she hoped so we would welcome help in the vegetable garden. Produce can be donated to the food pantry or handed out when we are giving out free lunches this summer or eaten by the volunteers and their families. We had some corn kohlrabi and tomatos to feed some of our volunteers at lunch today at A Third Place Community Center. We would love to see several Cherokee School families eating out of this garden. Fall planting is a great idea in Oklahoma, we can extend our gardening season. Right now the grass needs mowing and we need to mulch around the fence to keep grass from creeping under and perhaps use the lasagna gardening technique to smother grass and weeds inside the fence. This can be done by covering the ground with a thick layer of newspaper (10-12 sheets or so) then topping that with soil for planting or mulch for paths. I saw 4 squash or similar plants (planted by students before school was out) that are growing into what is taller and taller grass, we need to mulch this area so the squash wont accidentally be mowed.

front beds
the front beds are looking great, recently weeded and mulched but the grass is tall and setting seed which I am afraid will blow into the beds when the area is mowed. Considering the budget crunch it would be great if a volunteer could at least mow a perimeter around the beds in front. We are also looking for a volunteer per bed so we each have a specified area to call our own.

south garden, the bird banquet
the trees planted near the bird feeder south of the school will be a pain to mow around, if we could mow this area very short then mulch and keep filling in with shrubs and trees till its shady enough to have fewer weeds that would be great, we also need benches to help with birdwatching classes.

numbers
while taking the tour i finally got around to counting. We have planted around 38 trees and 52 shrubs. Dont make me count the daffodils perennials seeds vegetables groundcovers....as soon as it is cool enough we will resume filling in the flower beds and planting groundcovers under the shrubs, my goal is thick enough plantings to disccourage weeds.

An Introduction to Lasagna Gardening

J C Raulston and the Leyland cypress

I chose a Leyland cypress to screen a downspout from view not just because it was on sale but so we can talk about J C Raulston when we are in the garden and teach students words like ubiquitous and irony and the importance of diversity. How ironic that one of his introductions became ubiquitous! This tall narrow tree (Cuprocyparis leylandii) has been used commonly as a screen mainly due to its introduction as a screen at the arboretum Raulston established on the campus at North Carolina state university in 1976. Later the arboretum would be renamed the J. C. Raulston Arboretum. He realized we used the same plants over and over again and many fascinating plants were not available at nurseries. At the North Carolina State University Arboretum that this Oklahoma native (OSU graduate) was directing he was able to introduce many new plants to the nursery trade and therefore to gardeners. He allowed nursery owners to take cuttings from any of the arboretums plants and encouraged propagation of many plants that were not available to the home gardener. The irony is that the Leyland cypress was quickly overused and due to that was often destroyed by diseases that found it easy to move from tree to tree. But Dr. Raulston who kept introducing new plants until he died in a car accident at age 56 had other plants to suggest by the time the Leyland cypress became so common that disease could spread easily through the community. His generosity energy and passion for diversity are why we can have so many different plants available at local nurseries today.


JC Raulston Arboretum - J. C. Raulston

Tulip poplar

The evening before our planting extravaganza last fall I was loading up plants to move to Cherokee for planting the next morning when suddenly I was heartbroken, the beautiful little tulip tree I was so proud to donate and eager to watch grow was nearly leafless, one last leaf clinging to the top. “ Oh well it will be ok” I thought, loaded it up and expected recovery by spring but gave up on a little fall color (reportedly yellow!) How silly I felt the next day when Katie brought me the pot our tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) had been in and said “Aunt Bonnie what is that?” I had to laugh at myself, I wanted the tulip tree to teach the students about the host plants for butterflies specifically the Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucas), Oklahoma’s state butterfly. There on the side of the flower pot was the source of carnage, a swallowtail pupa! We want butterflies without losing leaves? My dream had come true and I almost missed it!

http://www.butterflygardening.org/tips/growhost.html

American wisteria

A friend gave me what appears to be an American wisteria so of course I planted it at Cherokee on faith that an arbor sturdy enough for this vine would appear before the vine overruns the bed! My hope is that a bench/arbor at the back of the bed can not only host this vine but give the students a place to sit and observe butterflies in the butterfly host plants in front of the bed or consider color theory in this mix of perennials. They can also observe the differences between Chinese and American wisteria and consider why we have so many plants so similar to plants from China. They may even study the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain Massachusetts for its mission to collect plants from China that will grow in Massachusetts. But I still need that arbor, anyone up for carpentry?
Arnold Arboretum - Boston China Summer

The lessons (and mysteries) of the Franklinia

Every plant in the Cherokee garden has many lessons to teach but the Franklinia tree is one of the most thought provoking. I planted it as much for its place in Americas plant history as for it's beauty. Why is this tree extinct in the wild? What does it mean that thanks to John Bartram we still have it? This link says it best.


America's 'First' Rare Plant: The Franklin Tree, by Lucy M. Rowland : Articles : Terrain.org
www.terrain.org

PLANT LIST



trees and shrubs

Yellow twig dog wood (Cornus sericea ‘flaviramea’)
Victor crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica ‘Victor’)
Sioux and Tonto crapemyrtle
Variegated dogwood (Cornus alba ‘argeneo-marginata’)
Purpleleaf Sand Cherry Bush (Prunus x cistena)
Little Giant Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Little Giant’)
Dwarf Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica)
Leyland cypress (Cupressocyparis leylandii)
Bird of Paradise (ceasalpinii gillesii)
Beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis)
Hibiscus (red pink and texas star Hibiscus coccineus)
Redbud trees (Cercis canadensis)
Amur Clump Maple (Acer ginnala amur)
Tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
Crabapple (Malus halliana)
Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
Franklinia alatamaha
Chicago lustre viburnum
cottonless Cottonwood
River Birch Betula nigra
Live Oak Quercus virginiana
Deciduous Holly Ilex decidua

Perennials


Salvia Marcus
Veronica spicata ‘Royal Candles’
Meadow Sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Snow Hill’)
Walkers Low Catmint (Nepeta faassenii)
Sunfire Tickseed (Coreopsis grandiflora)
Silver Dragon Liriope
Blue salvia (Salvia farinacea)
Homestead Purple Verbena (Verbena canadensis)
King Alfred daffodils
Drumstick allium
Stella de oro daylilly
sedum
mums
yarrow
native wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)
columbine
dianthus
coral berry native honeysuckle

Gardening At Cherokee

HELLO

It's about time I started a Cherokee School garden journal. I love to garden, hate to journal, but you need to know what is happening in the garden so here goes!

Our Past Work At Cherokee

Let Turley Bloom, working with A Third Place Community Foundation, http://www.turleyok.blogspot.com/, started with one small bed of native plants which was later moved due to work in front of the school to solve drainage problems. We then added a bed inside the courtyard for color and variety including a variety of stones. This bed is on the west end of a north facing wall so it gets shade much of the day but hot bright sun in the evening so I am proud and amazed when I see how beautiful it is! The stars of the show this spring were the columbines which are happily self sowing in the bed and I gathered some seed for our seed/plant exchange.


In the fall of 2009 we tackled the front of the school where there must have been a very up to date landscape at one time but only the occasional shrub remained, looking a bit random. We gathered shrubs on sale and from gardeners who had more than they needed and, using a turf stripper to establish the beds, filled in the foundation plantings with Yellow twig dog wood (Cornus sericea ‘flaviramea’) Victor crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica ‘Victor’) Variegated dogwood (Cornus alba ‘argeneo-marginata’) Purpleleaf Sand Cherry Bush (Prunus x cistena)
Little Giant Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Little Giant’) Dwarf Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) Leyland cypress (Cupressocyparis leylandii) Bird of Paradise (ceasalpinii gillesii)Beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis) Hibiscus (red pink and texas star Hibiscus coccineus)Wine and Roses weigela(Weigela florida, forsythia, And along Peoria by the parking lot we put in redbud trees from a grant administered by Steve Eberle with The Indian Health Care Resources Center, Food For Life program, http://www.ihcrc.org/healthEducation/foodforlife.html

We also planted an assortment of trees along the ridge south of the school and established more raised beds in the fenced in vegetable garden (thanks again to the grant mentioned above) which had been abandoned but thanks to the interest of Ms. Gault is now an outdoor classrooom again.

A Tulip poplar, bald cypress and crabapple were added in the front in round beds filled with flowers and a large triangular bed on the southwest corner was begun with blue and white salvias of various sorts, coreopsis (perrenial) yarrow and native wisteria.

Spring of 2010 we returned (in the rain) to plant crape myrtle along the east fence, more trees along the ridge, and bird friendly trees near a bird feeder along the south wall of the school. Our goal is to make this area a bird banquet so bird watching will be one outdoor classroom use of this area. We also added a southern magnolia just for fun.

Weeding and adding mulch will be major chores as the beds fill in, but as the plants become thick enough to shade the ground the weeds will be less of a problem. Watering was not much of a problem this year as it seemed to rain mostly when we needed, just as i was thinking i really need to water....how lucky!

The Future and What Is Needed Now, and How You Can Help

We can easily divide the school yard into areas for adoption by Cherokee friends and family. You, your friends, your family, your church group can take a bed or area of the school and no gardening experience is necessary. If you see a bed or area you would like to take responsibility for let me know. If you are new to gardening we can find an experienced gardener to work with you. Every inch of every school should be an outdoor classroom and two of the most important lessons can be how to learn and that learning never stops.


Some goals I have that you may find interesting and may want to adopt as your part in our landscape (in other words here are several ways even beyond gardening itself that you can be a part of this school and community building project) include:

regular gardener hours so students and new gardeners can expect to find a mentor in the garden say every Saturday at 10 am for example

a garden curriculum, I am sure many are available but one tailored to our garden would be nice

a photo album of the garden

quizzes or scavenger hunts in the garden

host a wildlife count

self guided tour to help encourage visitors to the garden

garden signs to help the tour, identify areas of the garden volunteers have adopted "this bed cared for by..." and highlighting certain plants

developing the summer program in the vegetable garden, maybe including cookouts

Let Turley Bloom hosts a seed/plant exchange every spring and fall. The first one was at O'Brien park, then at A Third Place, then at Cherokee; and our next swap will be held this fall at Greeley Elementary School on North Cinncinati and 63rd. Just as good neighbors have always swapped plants Cherokee wants to be a good neighbor to Greeley and help them get their garden going.

Stay tuned for all the exciting news. Come to our Let Turley Bloom meetings every second Tuesday at 6:30 pm at A Third Place Community Center, 6514 N. Peoria Ave.; we have a free meal, talk about gardening around the area or in our homes, and watch a movie or documentary about taking care of the earth and one another.

Let Turley Bloom has also transformed the Welcome To Turley signs, has started the roadside wildflower plot by Highway 75 in Turley along with the Dept. of Transporation and the Native Plant Society of Oklahoma, and has planted wildflowers and native plant flower beds at businesses and along public spaces and abandoned intersections in our area. We also have removed grafitti. It is all a start, but the seeds are planted and we are seeing our area begin to bloom in many ways.