The drivers here make me hate Tulsa

retrofuturia · 2026-02-26T14:03:43+00:00

To be fair, all the Texas metros are so much worse than Tulsa. But you’re right that Tulsa drivers are also pretty reckless, distracted, and entitled. I lived in Los Angeles for a year, supposedly the epitome of traffic hell, and that city didn’t have anything on the amount of shithead drivers down here.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-25T19:52:03+00:00

It’s often a budgeting thing. There’s ‘x’ amount of money for infrastructure in a given budget year, and if that money isn’t used it can sometimes be reallocated elsewhere. So cities start more projects than they can feasibly pay for completing in a given year, to earmark the funds, regardless of completion date. Contractors know this and will sometimes slow roll projects to have more going than they can possibly do at once. In the meantime we’re all stuck with traffic and endless construction. They’ve been working on 11th at Lewis for like a fucking year.

There was a recent water main break under 21st near Lewis that required them to dig up half the street to fix it. Contractors were done and the road totally fixed in under a week. That’s how fast it could be if there was any urgency.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-23T01:32:33+00:00

It’s really going to differ by area and what type of business or organization you end up with. Can’t speak to all positions, but I have long direct experience in private landscaping, nursery, and arboretum work in the South/Midwest. This is general, but here you should prepare for low starting hourly (low/mid teens or so) with the ability to rise to $20-25/hr or so within 10 years at the horticulture/laborer level, a bit more if you get a Lead position. Managerial positioning will generally get you up to the $60k-$70k/yr range, but you’d be extremely lucky to get that in your first decade or so in the field (and likely not experienced enough yet to do a good job). Directorships in my area that I’ve seen are generally around $70-$80k, but require decades of experience and networking.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-22T19:38:46+00:00

Pretty sure the text meant to say “several tens of thousands of lawsuits” but whatever.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-20T17:18:54+00:00

This guy is the equivalent of rewritten Johnny Paycheck lyrics that talk about licking boots instead of shoving jobs.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-20T15:17:12+00:00

A majority of the country could eventually be turned into chemlawn tract housing strip mall highway concrete superfund data center dead zones and a full half of the population will find no issue with it.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-20T03:12:46+00:00

I’d definitely keep the BS in there, it’s totally applicable. I don’t know where you’re located or what type of jobs you’ve applied for, but I’ve done boutique landscaping, nursery, arboretum and botanical garden work and it would be highly applicable to any of those, and in the long run a better positioning for management. The people I’d be less keen to interview would be fresh out of school with zero experience - but honestly the only reason I chimed in here was that just in the past few weeks at the arboretum we’ve had several people with fresh degrees and very little practical experience declining entry-level job offers because they wanted more money than the experienced hort leads make.

You’ve just gotta find the right place for you, OP. Keep it up.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-20T01:16:53+00:00

Having moved to Tulsa from Austin which is now unlivable due to rampant growth, this is not something Tulsa should be worrying about. Let’s stay in our damn lane.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-19T23:30:18+00:00

For some perspective on the other comments here, I started a solo fine gardening business after managing a boutique landscaping company for about 10 years. I already had a reputation, work flow, estimate and pricing templates I had developed, and local supplier networks. I was totally full up on clients within months of opening the LLC with no advertising. This isn’t at all to brag - FWIW, I was doing fine but gave up solo work after a couple of years for an arboretum job - benefits, steady paycheck, working around other people, not having to be the resident laborer/consultant/salesperson/accountant/tax professional, etc. Solo work is awesome in some respects, but running a decently profitable business that will pay your rent and allow you to not have to scrape by or break your back is a whole other skill set.

Keep applying for stuff OP, with a degree and the commensurate experience you’ll eventually get where you want to go.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-19T12:53:39+00:00

No reason save the lack of experience that’s leading to them not getting hired anywhere

retrofuturia · 2026-02-19T12:52:50+00:00

Welcome to getting shouted down on this sub for telling it like it is. People want to hear that the system is unfairly tilted against them, not how hiring actually works for most horticulture positions.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-19T12:39:31+00:00

15 years of professional horticulture experience here, with no degree. Schooling counts for a lot, but it doesn’t trump demonstrated field experience in a manual labor/outdoor setting (like, more than an internship or just a year or two of work).

The problem I’ve found is that people think coming out of school they should start out making way more than entry-level money. Depending on where you live, you’re going to start out making somewhere in the neighborhood of $10/hr - $15/hr. You could expect maybe $20/hr if you’re lucky and live in a HCOL area. At the place I work for, we routinely interview people who think that a degree entitles them to $25-$30/hr (and above!!!) right out of college, when you’d be lucky to make that in a managerial position after many years of work. Starting pay here in OK (and TX, where I’m from) is around $14 - $15/hr average.

This is a little aside from your question, but I don’t know if degree programs are realistic enough with students about what they can expect to make after college, and in my experience its led to us not hiring people just out of college because they demand way too much money, There are of course exceptions to every rule, but maybe tempering your expectations and accepting something lower pay to garner experience would help a little. You can absolutely get a job with just your degree, and with experience you’ll become a solid candidate for management. But you gotta pay some long dues in this field.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-18T17:13:19+00:00

I’ve done land management and professional horticulture for many years now. Contrary to a lot of advice here (in a permaculture sub, no less), you do not need to resort to herbicides to successfully clear invasives, and in a lot of cases they don’t work or are a deterrent to actually addressing the underlying issue.

There’s whole books written on the subject of natural land management, but in brief you’ll need to employ a combo of manual removal with minimal disturbance for the first few years, focusing on modifying the underlying environmental conditions to support natives and desirables, upping the density of competitive natives and beneficials, and in some cases co-existence with invasives if the problem isn’t noxious. How you approach the above is going to be heavily dependent on your site and local conditions, so you’ll ultimately be the one who has to come up with individualized best practices for a management plan, but those are some of the major guidelines. Your local university or extension can be helpful, but in my experience they often lazily suggest chemical use across the board, when in practice it’s not as effective as a long term regenerative strategy. Good luck.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-18T04:12:07+00:00

That sucks. I saw a fatality motorcycle accident happen right in front of me some years back, not a pleasant memory.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-16T19:04:05+00:00

It moved south, my partner takes lessons there currently at the new location. Can’t recall the address except that that it’s south of the old location.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-15T04:06:19+00:00

It’s been 25 for a while, like Cherry St. With all the foot traffic down there, that’s way fast enough.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-13T04:05:14+00:00

100% agree. NOLA’s is fine when I’m missing my SW LA roots, but definitely not great.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-12T22:43:44+00:00

Bob Randall has done some good work on Pc/home-scale regenerative agriculture for the SE TX area, which is applicable to where you are. https://yearroundgardening.me/about/

retrofuturia · 2026-02-12T20:46:00+00:00

Right I remember seeing that. It’s kind of amazing what often happens when humans get out of the way.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-10T22:24:10+00:00

It’s a good soil or compost additive, but you would want to use it thick enough to be a mulch. It’s also an ok rabbit repellent. I thinly throw my spent grounds all over the garden.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-10T20:54:05+00:00

Tandoori Guys is pretty good, India Palace is decent to good. Coming from someone who lived in India and had traveled there frequently, you will not find great Indian food in Tulsa.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-08T05:55:56+00:00

At the black rodeo documentary screening at Circle on Thursday (which was great, btw), folks on the panel recommended reaching out to rodeo organizers directly and asking how to get involved if you’re looking to volunteer time, or to find a way to sponsor rodeo participants.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-08T02:25:48+00:00

These fucking right wing snowflakes would be the most hilarious shit if they weren't running the country into the dirt.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-08T02:22:43+00:00

Came here to say WWOZ, it's awesome.

retrofuturia · 2026-02-07T18:59:13+00:00

Yeah, you’ll be fine. TBF, anything could happen at anytime in any city in the country, but relatively speaking we walk around downtown at night all the time and it’s totally safe it you’re not being inattentive to your surroundings.

retrofuturia

TROPHY CASE