Each summer the Alva Garden Council features special gardens from local garden clubs. The Tulip Garden Club has selected the country garden of newly elected club president Becky Smith of Amorita, Oklahoma.

Jay and Becky Smith built their residence in 1991 on their Oklahoma Centennial Farm located in Alfalfa County. Becky Smith has always loved gardening. She learned at an early age helping alongside her mother, Glenna Bloyd, at their farm in Aline. Her garden today contains a lot of pass-along plants from her mother's homeplace, and from other friends and relatives, plus many others collected from here and there. Her passion for her alma mater OSU is on display with the liberal use of colorful orange flowers.

As visitors near the Smith home, the Oklahoma Centennial Farm sign greets them from the south. The front flowerbeds were designed with a protective shield under layers of mulch to prevent weeds and plant overgrowth. A large boulder provides texture among the shrubs. This flowerbed features a turquoise birdbath, colorful orange and turquoise chairs filled with annuals mixed in with the gaiety and barberry shrubs, crape myrtles, liveforever, peach drift rose bushes, and spruce and weeping cherry trees.

Along the driveway, a standalone gravel flowerbed showcases her succulent/cactus collection. Various ceramic pots and galvanized tubs hold different types of cactus, foxtail fern, "flapjacks" paddle plant, kalanchoe, and various sedum. A vintage bath tub was recently added to feature more plants.

Becky Smith stands on the back patio overlooking flowerbed with double knockout roses and ornamental grasses.

The southeast flowerbed is transformed into a nostalgic memory garden. Vintage items from Becky's childhood are sprinkled throughout the flowers. These include a tricycle, an old bicycle, little red wagon, a wheelbarrow, bird cage, chicken feeders, an old garden gate, all enclosed by a low white picket fence. Vintage doors disguise the electric meter. Gaillardia, rudbeckia, autumn salvia, bee balm and many types of asiatic lilies are planted among the memory items.

The Smiths' back yard is designed for entertaining family and friends. A dark wood railing encloses the brick patio, and a matching pergola shades the outdoor dining furniture. A terracotta chiminea and small children's picnic table, plus multiple container plants and hanging ferns, enhance the patio. Outside the wood railing, pampas grass, irises from her mother's garden, red double knockout roses, barberry shrubs, pink crape myrtles, and a Colorado spruce tree fill large flowerbeds that also serve as a windbreak. The northwest flowerbed contains forsythia, hydrangea, hosta, Coffee Cups elephant ear, bachelor buttons, coneflowers, pink knockout rosebushes, a variety of double day lilies, ornamental grasses, and a dwarf Alberta spruce tree.

The Smith's garden is constantly evolving and demands a lot of attention. Countless hours are spent buying and planting flowers, deadheading flowers, and watering plants in the hot windy Oklahoma countryside. It was an easy choice for Tulip Club members to select this special garden. More photos of this lovely country garden can be viewed on the Alva Garden Council and Tulip Garden Club Facebook pages.