Thursday, August 9, 2012

the garden -note to self


We are really enjoying the okra this summer.  It's new for us to grow, and has been easy.  I have two plants, but next year, note to self- we will have three or four.  I will need to look into other ways to cook it next year, frying is the only way we eat it currently.  I was told by a friend that one plant is all you need, but I'm not sure if it's my issue or theirs.  It is a constant producer, but I need more that 2 pods (is that what they're called?) at a time.  I have to save them up in the kitchen and a few get soft before I have enough to cook up.  I think they're a funny plant, the okra appears to grow upside down. 


The corn is gone, next year I'll stagger the planting more.  This was our second year to plant corn, our first to get to eat it, so it was a success regardless.  Note to self- next year more corn and stagger the planting.  The stalks are still up because they are the poles for some beans.  I tried the 'three sisters' method (except the bottom sisters -god rest their little green souls are dead).  I won't bother doing this next year because it's hard to get in through the stalks to check the beans.


The tomatoes are peaking, but I am having the same trouble as last year.  My plants get so heavy that I end up with a maze of fabric strips holding things up.  The whole garden gets laced for support making my picking a crawling task.  Literally, I have to crawl from plant to plant.  Next year, I'll use stronger cages or reinforced steel bars or something.


I'm pretty sure I'll be using some poison on the squash next year.  I lost the last one to vine boarers.  That's two years in a row those stinkers have robbed me of a freezer full of zucchini bread. They were the bottom sisters to the corn and beans.


The peas are doing well.  The pole beans aren't as great as the bush beans, next year more bush beans, less pole beans.


I will plant more green beans for sure.  We can have them for supper every few days.  I've boiled them, grilled them, pan fried them and cooked them in other dishes, and I have to say fresh from the garden beans are better than any other green beans, no matter how you cook them. 


1 comment:

JoAnna said...

No poison!!! I ddi some research on vine borers because I have them again. I didn't trick anything by putting them in a different garden. The simplest way that I found to avoid them is to plant the squash later. There is a specific window when they emerge from the soil and if there is nothing to eat, they won't hang around. So, the best advice was to either do successive plantings and get as much as you can before the plants die and then you'll have new ones right behind them, or just wait and plant none until later. For me, I think I will wait. I don't want to give those buggers any more free lunches than they've already had. Do some research and see what it says for when the caterpillars emerge and see if it's something you can wait for. They may have gotten into one of my pumpkins too, but there are some younger ones that don't seem to be affected. And they dont' bother winter squash, apparently.