Aeries are cropping up on America’s skylines, filled with the promise of juicy tomatoes, tiny Alpine strawberries and the heady perfume of basil and lavender. High above the noise and grime of urban streets, gardeners are raising fruits and vegetables. Some are simply finding the joys of backyard gardens several stories up, others are doing it for the environment and some because they know local food sells well. City dwellers have long cultivated pots of tomatoes on top of their buildings. But farming in the sky is a fairly recent development in the green roof movement, in which owners have been encouraged to replace blacktop with plants, often just carpets of succulents, to cut down on storm runoff, insulate buildings and moderate urban heat.

"These humble little bees have an innate ability to work out the location of a food source from its position in relation to the sun. They do this even on cloudy days by reading the pattern of the polarization of the light, and pass this information to other bees. In the dark of the hive, they transpose the location of a food source in the horizontal plane through the famous “waggle” dance into communication in the vertical plane of the hive."

Looking for another reason why growing some of your own food makes sense? Here's one you might not have considered: nutritional content. While the washed and waxed produce at your local grocery store might look chock full of vitamins and minerals, a recent report in the Journal of HortScience finds otherwise. These findings follow on the heels of others that suggest that supplementing your store-bought veggies with store-bought vitamins and minerals might not be the solution either. When in doubt, grow your own and, if you can't do that, buy from farmers who are taking good care of their soil.

“Dung beetles are the most beneficial insects we have in our industry,” says Walt Davis, a Bennington, OK, rancher who's identified 11 species of dung beetles on his ranch. “They're a tremendous boost to soil productivity and they darn-well deserve our attention.”

Dung beetles feed on manure, use it to provide housing and food for their young, and improve nutrient cycling, soil structure, and forage growth in the meantime. This publication describes dung beetles and their benefits to pastures, and offers management information. It also offers information about building a dung beetle "farm."

A great article about the dung beetle, one of nature's most beneficial insects.

Tips on growing fruits and veggies in Oklahoma.

Also lists native plants attractive to local butterflies.

This website is provided by the Oklahoma Biological Survey to aid persons interested in the study and identification of the woody plants of Oklahoma. The information provided was developed with both the academic and amateur in mind.