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The Joy of Being a Young Bride and Having your Own Home and Garden near Tulsa OK

The Joy of Being a Young Bride and Having your Own Home and Garden near Tulsa OK

A guide to help newly weds grow their marriage and garden in Tulsa, Oklahoma!

Creating a vegetable and flower garden together is quite a romantic effort for newlyweds because it symbolizes growth, nurturing, and shared commitment. It’s a sweet and enduring metaphor for a marriage built on care, patience, and shared dreams. Starting a garden together encourages team work and requires collaboration, from planning to planting and caring for it. This teamwork mirrors the efforts needed to build a strong marriage.

  1. As a couple plants the seeds and nurtures their garden, they also nurture life and their relationship together. Watching plants grow is a beautiful reminder of the love and care they invest in each others lives.
  2. A garden adds a personal touch to the home making it unique to the couple—it reflects their tastes and personalities, giving meaning and ownership of their home and what they can produce.
  3. Gardening together brings peace and mindfulness, creating moments of calm and connection to life sustaining ventures that draws one into nature.
  4. Gardens take time to flourish, which represents a the patience that newly wed couple have to exercise as they stick together with long-term plans and a commitment to building a beautiful life together.
  5. Growing vegetables and flowers means reaping the fruits and beauty of their labor and enjoying the rewards just as working together will have great paybacks as they strive for the same goals.
  6. Flowers bring color and beauty, and caring for them as a couple gives each opportunities to smell and relish their beauty. Bringing them in for a bouquet on the breakfast table and enjoying them blooming until they need to be clipped off to give place to the new blooms. This is symbolical of the ongoing effort to keep romance alive in the relationship by cutting off the bad attitudes and giving room for new positive discoveries and understanding.

Gardening is a wonderful venture for newly weds and below are specific instructions of how to get started and be successful.

Beautiful flower bed of bright colored zinnias ready for picking in Tulsa, OK
Zinnias are ready for a wedding bouquet

Amending the Soil
The first thing I think about when starting a garden is what my soil needs. You can take samples of soil from various places over the garden spot and send it to your local soil testing; a farm co-op does this or Servitech. They can tell you what your soil needs. For example, if it’s too acidic, add lime. If it’s alkaline, add sulfur or white vinegar. There also may be too much, or not enough organic matter. If you want to enrich your soil with organic matter, local farms will be glad to get rid of manure and rotting hay. Spread this on in the fall so it can break down over the cold months. Mushroom compost is also great for enriching.

Planting seeds indoors in Tulsa and thinning and replanting little plants for
Planting seeds indoors to have plants ready to put out


One year I noticed that my early tomato plants were developing the dreaded blossom end rot. After some research I discovered that my soil was so rich that the high amount of potassium was making the plants unable to take in calcium through the soil. I sprayed my plants with liquid calcium and the blossom end rot cleared up immediately.

Planting plants in pots indoors in Tulsa, OK  to be ready to move outdoors
Planting little sprouted plants into pots in Tulsa OK

Starting Seeds Indoors in seed trays under lights

I love to start seeds indoors for multiple reasons. If you save seeds, it saves money, and it also enables us to grow many more varieties of our choice than just buying basic plants from your local nursery. Plus, the awesome experience of growing your own plants is unmatched. To do this you’ll need to purchase the correct lights and trays, and seed starting mix. I use black plastic trays and 6 packs from Greenhouse Megastore.com. You can get great lights for about $25 a piece at Walmart or Lowe’s. Be sure the light is at least 5000 Kelvin and 2500 Lumens. The boxes will have that information on them. For seed starting mix, I like to buy BM6 from my local Amish greenhouse. It’s very fine and soft, perfect for starting small delicate plants. It’s about $17.50 for a huge bag. Plant seeds the instructed depth on the seed packets in damp seed starting mix in your open trays. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and tape to the sides. This provides a humid greenhouse effect inside where the germination is taking place and keeps the soil from drying out. I like to set these on heating pads if the plants are known to have difficult germination, such as peppers, petunias or lisianthus.

Seedlings Thriving under plant light by a Tulsa OK  window
Tomatoes need to be protected from cold in Tulsa OK

Set the wrapped trays under lights, keeping the lights directly above them about 4-5 inches. I usually remove the plastic wrap when the little plants underneath are hitting the wrap. As they grow, keep the lights about 2-3 inches from the tops of your plants to keep them from getting leggy. When they have produced a set of true leaves, it is time to transplant them to 6 packs or whatever you are planning on using. Some plants, like basil or snapdragons, will need to be pinched off when they have 4-6 sets of true leaves, so that they will produce exponentially in the garden. Keep the 6 packs in the black growing trays so you can easily bottom water. I like to pour about ½ inch of warm water into the trays to soak up into the plants. Top watering disturbs the plants and doesn’t ensure a good soak. As the weather permits, I will begin taking my trays of plants outdoors to a somewhat sheltered area to harden them off. The gentle wind will strength their core and make them hardy. Give them a couple of hours every day it is warm and sunny, making sure the soil is not dry when you set them out. The sun and wind can wilt the tender plants so fast. Soak them before setting them out and be sure to bring them in before those colder evening temperatures.

Planting marigolds next to lettuce keeps the bugs from eating the leaves in Tulsa OK
A beautiful garden is the result of working together

Planting in the Outdoor Garden
In early Spring you can set out plants like cabbages and cauliflower, and/or direct sow lettuces, greens, asparagus, peas, beets, and onions. If your temps dip below 32 degrees, I will caution to cover them overnight. I have used the farmer’s almanac for planting by the moon with very good results. Some days are just not good planting days.
Who doesn’t like a delicious homegrown tomato? Tomatoes are heavy feeders. To grow a bumper tomato crop, there’s a lot that should be done ahead of time. Dig a fairly large hole for your tomato plants. (8x8x8) Add a shovelful of compost to the hole. Add:
½ cup blood meal, ½ cup fish meal, ½ cup bone meal, 3 TBSP Magnesium, and 3 TBSP calcium.
You can probably get these at your local farm co-op or farm store. Blood meal and bone meal give an excellent boost to root and leaf growth, while fish meal is extremely nutritious. This recipe usually has my plants loaded with huge tomatoes. Pour in a good amount of water (unless it’s very wet already). Tamp in the plant tightly, planting most of the stalk of the plant into the dirt up to the first set of leaves. This will strengthen the core. As the plants grow, stake them, and pinch off sucker plants. This will cause the tomato plant to put all its effort into huge tomatoes off the core stalk branches, instead of little tomatoes here and there. I like tomato clips to keep the plant attached to the stake or rod, otherwise the plant will fall all over the place as it puts on fruit.
Grow peas and beans in double rows 6 inches apart for a fuller row and double yield. Always grow flowers among the vegetables for an aesthetically beautiful garden. 😊

seedlings can be placed in disposable drinking cups till they are big enough to go into the garden in Tulsa, OK
Little cups make great planters for seedlings in Tulsa OK newly wed gardens

Tending the Garden
While the garden is growing, I am in it every day with my children. They have begun to love it as much as me and they excitedly pick their own varieties each winter when we are deciding what to grow. Let them have “their own plants” to get them interested in gardening. It is so important to have our children working alongside us in anything we do. It instills healthy work ethics in them as well as a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. It takes longer to show them at first, but the rewards are so worth it. I require them to take several rows each to weed or pick vegetables, and then give them a reward. (“If you weed three 100 ft rows each you may all go swimming in the pond.”) Take great delight in the growing plants and see who can find the first ripe pepper or crunchy cucumber. Check for ripening tomatoes daily with them and pick a fresh bouquet of flowers every day.

A garden hoe is the key to keeping weeds cleaned out of gardens and flowerbeds in Tulsa, OK
A good sharp garden hoe for each of you is essential to a newly wed couples garden


When keeping weeds down, it’s best to start when the weeds are tiny. Sharpen your hoe until it is very sharp, (watch for little bare feet!) and drag it across the ground and carefully around growing plants, breaking off weeds with little to no effort. This is better than cultivating deeply with a hoe as that can disturb the plants and take moisture out of the ground. Weeds that are continuously broken off at the surface will eventually be discouraged and die. With the most hated Bermuda grass, dig down and get every root, trying hard not to break it off. Gather up all roots and burn them, otherwise they will root where they are tossed. When plants have grown a few weeks and the weather is consistently warm, you can add a thick layer of fine sawdust in the rows around the plants. These cuts weed growth way down until the plant shades the ground. It also keeps the ground moist which is great in hot weather. DO NOT till in the sawdust, as this changes the Ph in the soil and messes with growth in your plants. The sawdust will break down over the season and become a great compost and will also encourage earthworms which are fantastic for the soil.

Harvest-time, Canning and Preserving
Of course, the best time of gardening is seeing your plants start really producing! Sometimes it’s gradual, other times it’s all at once! The later gives the couple an opportunity to share with their new neighbors to get acquainted and begin community relationships with good interactions.

For canning and preserving, I recommend getting several must-have items if to preserve your garden bounty.
Pressure Canner – Water bath Canner Blanching pot Strainer
Canning Funnel, Jars, Lifter Jars, Lids and Rings (I recommend Ball)
Freezer Bags and Dehydrator (optional)
Older Blue Ball Canning Book (I like the older books because they have more common sense. Today’s version has gone crazy with outrageous rules and regulations for safety.)

Shown are big half gallon jars filled with a variety of canned vegetables.
Big jars are not recommended for newlyweds. Buy pint size jars.


Wash fruits and vegetables before canning and cut off any bad spots. You will want to pressure can low acid fruits and vegetables like squash and pumpkin, green beans, and meats, broths, and soups. You can water bath acidic vegetables and fruit, like tomatoes and pickles, jellies, and jams. There are so many great teaching videos on YouTube on canning and freezing, and countless recipes on Pinterest.
I like to heat my lids in a small saucepan when I’m getting ready to fill jars. (Do not boil.) This gets the rubber seal soft and ready to seal properly. Make sure jars are thoroughly washed with hot soapy water. Do not set jars full of cold fruit and vegetables into the hot canner, as they will burst, unless you are cold pack canning.
Here’s one of my favorite canning recipes, the BEST no fuss delicious tomato sauce recipe. I use it to make tomato soup to eat with grilled cheese sandwich meals, or i use it to make pasta sauce for making spaghetti dishes or pizzas.

Homemade canned tomato sauce can be used in a variety of recipes in Tulsa OK
Tomatoe sauce with a sprig of sweet basil looks so delicious in Tulsa OK

Tomato Sauce
4 bell peppers, chopped + 8 onions, diced
2 ½ gallons of tomatoes, cored, you can leave the skins on or off
1 cup oil, plus additional for sautéing
½ cup salt – ¼ cup dried basil +- ¼ cup dried oregano
2 TBSP Italian seasoning +- 1 TSBP red pepper flakes
2 tsp garlic powder +- 5 bay leaves, crumbled.
3 cloves crushed garlic +Handful of fresh basil, chopped.
12 (6 oz) cans tomato paste
In a large skillet, sauté bell peppers and onions in a little oil. In a large stock pot, mix together tomatoes and remaining ingredients. Add sauteed peppers and onions. Simmer one hour, stirring periodically to keep the bottom of the pot from scorching. I like to take my handheld emersion blender and blend everything in the pot until smooth. Pour into hot clean jars. Wipe rims. Put on lids and rings and tighten. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

The magnificent skyline view near Tulsa from inside Bella Rosa Venue looking East
Skyline views East of Bella Rosa Photo taken Spring 2024

There is a special bonding that happens in a family when you gathering around your own dinner table and share in the harvest bounty and the enjoy the results of all the hard work the of you invested together working the garden, harvesting, preserving, and now eating. When these type of projects are a part of ones home and family, there is never a dull or boring moment. These type of jobs bond couples together without wasting a lot of money in entertainment. Additionally, the landscaping investments you make are not only growing your relationship but is also improving the value of your property.

Thank you for being interested in the success of your marriage by making your home and yard an enjoyable and pleasant place to be. We here at Bella Rosa Venue love supporting your marriage as well as making your wedding day, the perfect dreamy day of your life.

Beautiful asters at a wedding venue near Tulsa, OK
These are Asters in Bella Rosa Venue’s flower bed near Tulsa OK

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