GARDENING

beauty in yards and across the native prairie where we often find them along creeks.

If you love the flowering bulbs you enjoy this time of year, remember to plant them in the fall or early winter so you can enjoy their color in your yard next year.

If you love any of the flowering shrubs or trees you see in bloom around town now, you can buy container-grown plants at your local nursery or garden center and plant them now or anytime this growing season to enjoy for years to come.

The brave and daring (or just plant crazy) vegetable gardeners are starting to gamble on planting out tomatoes, peppers and other warm-season veggies.

It is best to wait until about mid-April to safely plant the warm-season vegetables and ornamentals as our last average freeze date in central Oklahoma is about April 7-10.

Many folks aspire to have the first fresh vegetables in the neighborhood and bet they can beat the last few weeks of freeze risk. Some years they get away with it, some years they freeze out.

If we only get a light frost you can protect these risky early plantings with Hot Kaps, a wax paper dome, Wall-O-Waters, a plastic pyramid filled with water, row cover products or even boxes, sheets, old milk cartons or old water bottles.

When you are using covers,