Growing vegetables in Oklahoma’s red dirt, especially in Oklahoma City and the Great Plains part of the state, can be hell − it can seem like it anyway, with the high heat, high winds, and relatively low rainfall.

Gardening success boils down to the basics: soil quality, a reliable water source, and good sunlight but with some shade, said Julia Laughlin, Oklahoma County OSU Extension horticulture educator.

“In the Great Plains and the Cross Timbers area, our soils are not fantastic,” Laughlin said. “You may get close to a river bottom, or somewhere you’ve got some sediment and some organic matter. You may live in a certain part of our state where we’ve got a lot of old forests and there’s a lot of organic matter. But other than that, you’ve got to build your soil.”

How to improve gardening soil in central Oklahoma

Build the soil? Sounds daunting. But it’s not, once you know what your garden soil needs.

“You really can’t just start with the soil you have − or you can make raised beds and put prepared garden soil in,” Laughlin said. “I recommend, before you do anything, is to get a soil test, whether you’ve built a raised bed and put a media in from a local company, or made your own media out of bags from the nursery or the garden center, or you’re working in the native soil that you have.”

Soil tests are inexpensive, she said, just $10 in Oklahoma, and handled by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service’s Soil, Water and Forage Analytical Laboratory. Soil samples are taken by the extension office in each county in the state.

“You can find out what your pH is, your nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and once you know all that, if you know how to meet the needs of the plants you’re growing, you can grow anything,” Laughlin said.

Central Oklahoma vegetable gardening takes a lot of sun, a little shade

“Almost any kind of vegetable you’d want to grow, at least in this part of the country, you’re going to have to have at least six hours of direct sunlight. Six to eight is ideal,” Laughlin said. “You can have six to 10 or 12. But it’s great if you can get an afternoon shade because it cools the plants down.

“But you want direct sun, or it’s just not going to work for vegetables.”

Vegetable gardening in the hot, dry weather of Central Oklahoma, takes a lot of water a little at a time

“You’re going to have to irrigate, with our hot, dry weather. You’re going to have to have a water source,” Laughlin said. “Drip irrigation is the best because you can put the water source right near the plant and drip irrigate.

“It’s worth investing in a nice little drip system that you should be able to use for years.”

Five top books on growing vegetables in Oklahoma’s red dirt and the hot, dry, high winds of the Great Plains

Laughlin recommended these book for both beginner and seasoned vegetable gardeners in the Oklahoma City area.

• “Oklahoman’s Guide to Growing Fruits, Nuts, and Vegetables,” from Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture.

• “Growing Vegetables in the Great Plains,” by Joseph R. Thomasson, published by the University Press of Kansas.

• “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible,” 2nd edition, by Edward C. Smith, published by Storey Publishing LLC.

• “All New Square Foot Gardening,” 3rd edition, by Mel Bartholomew, published by the Square Foot Gardening Foundation.

• “Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long,” 2nd edition, by Eliot Coleman, published by Chelsea Green Publishing.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Growing vegetables in the Great Plains takes soil, water, sun, shade

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