October in Oklahoma is a beautiful time with amazing weather! Hopefully by now all your pumpkins are ready to be harvested and you can be festive for the fall holidays as well!
Keep in mind when you carve your pumpkins for Halloween that you can save the seeds to make roasted pumpkin seeds. All you need to do is season clean, dry seeds and lay them flat on a baking sheet in the oven for 30-45 minutes. Not only do they taste great, but they have amazing health benefits! Check out our app for more recipes and ways to prepare your foods that you are growing in your garden! Don’t forget to use put all your leftover pumpkins into your compost as well!
Here in central Oklahoma, our average first fall frost date is late in October. Make sure to be keeping a close eye on the weather. When a frost is predicted, you will want to make sure that you harvest everything from your warm season plants because they will most likely be dying off. You can help to extend your growing seasons by adding row covers on top of your garden beds. Check out our YouTube channel at youtube.com/fromseedtospoon to watch how we added covers on top of our wooden raised beds.
When we have a frost predicted, we typically have the issue of an overabundance of food! We start to preserve it quickly so it doesn’t go bad! One of our favorite things to make is pesto with our herbs that we have collected. Pesto can be frozen and preserved for longer-term storage. Another way we preserve our herbs is by adding the chopped herbs to ice cube trays and filling them with oil. We freeze these and pull them out anytime we want to already have oil and herbs all ready to go! We’ve also been preserving a lot of our abundant peppers not only by freezing, but by drying them as well and creating our own homemade crushed red pepper. This way we have peppers all winter long! Check out all the ways that we preserve our food we grow in our free app!
We will be harvesting a lot of sweet potatoes this month! We always plant all types of potatoes in Smart Pots to make harvesting much easier. By having fabric sides, we can dig through the dirt easily or simply dump the contents into a wheelbarrow for a scavenger hunt! Sweet potatoes taste so incredible! Our favorite way to eat these is to saute them with chopped carrots in a cast iron skillet then roast in the oven. You can make them even tastier by adding in some cinnamon basil! There are so many nutrients in all of these! Check out the health benefits to each plant in our free app!
Fall is the best time to plant your garlic! Garlic is one of our favorite things to grow and eat! We add it to almost every meal for both its flavor and its nutrients. When planted in the fall, garlic will go dormant through the winter, and then will come back in the spring to be harvested in the summer-time! Check out more info about how to grow garlic in our free app!
If you have beds that you are not planning on using over the winter, a great way to keep the soil fresh and full of nutrients is to plant a cover crop in them. Our favorite and easiest cover crop to plant is peas. This will help to fertilize your soil for free and protect your soil over the winter until you plant again!
Carrie Spoonemore, co-founder of “From Seed to Spoon,” stands as a beacon of inspiration for gardeners and health enthusiasts alike. Her journey alongside her husband, Dale Spoonemore, in creating a platform that demystifies gardening and promotes a healthier lifestyle, has made a significant impact on individuals around the globe. Through the “From Seed to Spoon” app, Carrie has dedicated herself to empowering people to take control of their health and environment by growing their own food.
With a profound belief in the power of gardening to improve mental and physical health, Carrie’s contributions to the Seed to Spoon blog reflect her holistic approach to wellness. Her articles often focus on the nutritional benefits of homegrown fruits and vegetables, organic gardening practices, and the mental health benefits of spending time in nature. Carrie’s expertise in health science shines through in her detailed discussions on how specific plants can contribute to a balanced diet and overall well-being.
Carrie’s passion for gardening is deeply intertwined with her commitment to family and community wellness. She frequently shares personal stories of how gardening has brought her family closer together, offering practical tips for involving children in gardening activities and making it a fun, educational experience. Her writing encourages families to explore gardening as a means of spending quality time together while learning about nature and sustainability.
In addition to gardening advice, Carrie’s contributions to the blog include insights into the use of technology to enhance the gardening experience. She has played a crucial role in designing the “From Seed to Spoon” app to be user-friendly, ensuring that users of all ages and backgrounds can navigate the complexities of gardening with ease. Her vision for the app is not just as a gardening tool but as a vehicle for change, inspiring individuals to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle by growing their own food.
Carrie Spoonemore’s presence on the blog is marked by her compassionate approach to teaching and her unwavering belief in the transformative power of gardening. Her work continues to inspire a community of gardeners to pursue a healthier, more sustainable way of living, proving that with the right tools and knowledge, anyone can become a gardener and advocate for their health and the planet.
2 thoughts on “October: What We’re Growing in our Backyard Oklahoma Urban Garden”
This is the time of year that I start to miss Oklahoma. We arrived in October of 2012.
Thoughts about using LOTS of green tomatoes? ?