I'm going to retire soon, and I'm going home where I grew up, in Guthrie. One of the things I want to do--besides teach (I'm a music teacher)--is gardening. I remember how beautiful both sets of grandparents' gardens were. I have been collecting seed catalogs for this purpose.
Problem is, I can't figure out what growing zone Guthrie is in, whether it's 7a or 6b, since there's a little bump in the chart, just above Oklahoma City where Guthrie is. (In the Stokes catalog, for example.)
Connie, The differences between zones 6b and 7a is minimal. Maybe a 5 degree or so average winter temperature. This will not make much difference in survivabilty of your plants. Rthese zones are based on AVERAGE winter temperatures, so even though somone may be listed as zone 6b, for example, they may have several zone 7-ish winters in a row.
To make things even more complicated.. the USDA is having to revise their charts due to global climate changes.
Bottom line... You can grow both zone 6 and zone 7 rated plants with Zone 6 being more ....'surviveable'
Yeah, those fires are really bad, aren't they. But stuff happens everywhere. Tornados, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, no water, terrorism. There's no place on the planet that's safe, as far as I can see.
] I'm going to retire soon, and I'm going home where I grew up, in ] Guthrie. One of the things I want to do--besides teach (I'm a music ] teacher)--is gardening. I remember how beautiful both sets of ] grandparents' gardens were. I have been collecting seed catalogs for ] this purpose. ] ] Problem is, I can't figure out what growing zone Guthrie is in, whether ] it's 7a or 6b, since there's a little bump in the chart, just above ] Oklahoma City where Guthrie is. (In the Stokes catalog, for example.) ] ] Anyone know about this? ]
Hi Connie,
No, I don't really know about your zone. But thought I'd say "hi" in a different group, anyway. :)
I assume you'll be establishing a new teaching practice, so how does that count as "retirement?" I can't imagine you'll be any less invested in the little horrors. :) (meant entirely lovingly, of course!)
Re the zone, I'd consider it a risk to try zone 6 plants, as apparently you will be quite close to the fuzzy edge. Although you will of course learn more about the real micro-climate when you find a place.
Hi Emery! "Retirement" from being on the road. Yeah, it's interesting that there is a little dip going down from the Zone 7 zone into the county where Guthrie is, so it's uneven, to say the least. It occurs to me that we usually visited the grandparents during good weather, so my memory of the beautiful gardens must have been mainly during those times.
Play it safe and go to a local Greenhouse. Don't go the Wal-Mart route where they start the plants in FL. and they don't care what zone they go to. GOOD LUCK
On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 21:25:27 GMT "Travis M." wrote: [] ] If she is on the zone 6/7 border zone 6 plants should be no ] problem. The smaller the zone number the colder. ]
Yes, of course. Pardon the typo, and thanks for the correction.
I am in Kansas, zone 5, and planted glads on the east side of the house as annuals. They have come back for two years, and NO they weren't the hardy glads. I would give it a try as though it was a zone 7.
I know some of the McBane family who came from Guthrie. We were in the service together in 58 - 63. Then I lost track of him until about 9 years ago. He lives in Sparks now and we drive past Guthrie at least once a year. I also have a cousin that ropes out the big arena there.
I am doubtless much older than you. Both of my parents grew up there, and married there. They were depression era/WWII era people, and both passed away over the last five years. They're both buried in a cemetary in Guthrie.
Guthrie has changed a lot, though, I suspect, from the way it was when I spent time there as a child; looks like of yuppy, and they featured a few years ago on Good Morning America.
I don't know though; looks like most of the music is the folk/county type, so maybe I have something to offer them. I started violin on my mother's violin, which was purchased at the same shop that still exists in Guthrie.
I have this romantic notion that if I go there, I can see the old homes they lived in, and maybe get some notion of what their lives and culture was like. I may be entirely mistaken in this regard. I just miss them so much, and I myself am rather ill and looking for a quiet place to retire.
I think it did for the most part; I think there was a house on the near edge of town that was burned down, unfortunately. Maybe more than one? I don't know. But not the town proper. No one was killed -- not humans anyway.
homes were damaged by grass fires northeast of Oklahoma City, residents assessed the damage and counted their blessings.
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GUTHRIE, Okla. -- Passers-by were able to get an elderly couple out of their home minutes before it was engulfed by flames from a grass fire.
Gary and Dama Maker were passing by Albert and Wilma Clayton's home in Guthrie Sunday night when they noticed the couple were inside, there was no car at the house and a grass fire was spreading across their lawn.
Albert Clayton, 99, and Wilma Clayton, 87, did not want to leave.
"We told them they had to get out of the house quickly," Dama Maker said. "It took a lot of convincing. If we had to pick them up and carry them to the car, we would have."
After they got the couple into the yard, Gary Maker began spraying the fire with a garden hose, which allowed Dama Maker to coax the Claytons into the car. Then, a burst of embers from the fire ignited the fence and, soon after, the house.
"We basically had to trick them to get them into the car and leave their home," Dama Maker said.
The next morning, the Makers went back to find only charred remains.
Ken Smith, Wilma Clayton's son-in-law, said the couple shopped for some new clothes on Monday and will eventually progress to house hunting.
"They got out of the house with their two walking canes," Smith said. "That's all they got out with -- their two canes."
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