Tag Archives: okra

Garden Update – May 7, 2023

My oldest fruit trees along the west side are finally producing fruit! I wish I would have been on top of spraying them for insects though. I lost 7 young fruit trees from last summer’s heat and transplanted the 4 figs that survived in pots last summer.

A few of the blackberries are already starting to ripen. I’m surprised by the number of blackberry plants that have died off. Only the thornless varieties have died, the native thorned variety I have is multiplying faster than I can keep it trimmed. A wasp was occupying the fruit I was photographing.

The raised beds in the front are all doing great. The squash and cucumbers I planted a few weeks ago are all popping up and I’ve already thinned them out. I added a layer of old tree leaves as mulch. We need to hurry up and harvest the broccoli before it bolts. Onions are almost ready to harvest. The peas are putting out fruit faster than we can keep it picked.

In the back in-ground row-garden, all the mellons, corn, okra, and cover crop is starting to come up. I thinned out the melons today and tried to transplant some of them. We should have enough melons to supply the grocery store if these do well.

We planted 4 tomato plants in the raised bed in front of our house. This bed is usually just out-of-control mint. I’m happy to see the start of delicious tomatoes well on their way! We are having a hard time keeping the chickens out of this bed though. The love to hang out and dig around.

tomato
tomato

Warm Season Vegetables Planted – 4/16/2023

I tilled up the in-ground garden and hilled the soil into long rows.

in-ground garden: tilled, then hilled, ready to plant

I planted 14 varieties of melons, some okra, and corn, then spread ‘cover and color’ mix in the remaining area.

Next we moved in wood chips to fill the valley’s / walkways, then we watered the area well in hopes all the seed will germinate.

In the front yard raised beds, I planted 2 varieties of cucumber and 2 varieties of squash.

Melons, beans, okra, cowpeas planted 4/24/21

With the help of Aiden and Amber, we added a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon in the huglekulture bed, along with a lot of cowpeas and beans. We also planted a few okra and cucumber in the front raised beds. Several of my tomato and pepper plants were injured/killed in the late April freeze we had last week.

Hugelkultur Status – April 23, 2020

The seeds I ordered from Willhite finally came in. We planted mainstream cantaloupe, yellow petite watermelon, jackson wonder speckled bush lima bean, Texas cream 8 cowpea, summer melody squash, honeybaby winter squash, and large sunflower mix on the north side of the bed.

We spread straw over the south side of the hill. The cowpeas, okra, melons, and squash I planted on April 8 are popping out of the soil now.

Hugelkultur – Okra, Comfrey, Cowpeas, Melon, Squash – April 8, 2020

I started planting in the hugelkultur bed today, and it was a little strange. Add a little water and you create an avalanche. So I tried a few things that seemed to work ok.

I took out a handful of soil, replaced it with compost, and planted okra in the compost.

hole formed in the side of the hugelkultur mound
hole filled with compost
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Melons and Okra Planted – April 7, 2020

I dug up the huge comfrey (bocking 14) that was in raised bed 3 and split it up into a bucket full of crowns. I planted one at the base of many of the fruit trees, and a bunch of them in the hugelkultur bed. I also planted a few melons (Ice Cream and Kajari), some lima beans, flowers, and 2 varieties of okra.

New Blackberry Plants

Aiden and I went on the tour of Texas Worm Ranch that was set up just for the members of North Texas Vegetable Gardeners. A nasty thunderstorm moved in while we were there and we hung out in the bathroom because the winds were so bad the roof next door was flying off.

After we left the worm farm, we went over to Carol Garrison’s urban homestead and she gave us a tour of her front yard vegetable garden, chickens, tropical garden, rainwater harvesting, greenhouse, composting, and fish. She dug up some of her blackberry bushes and a special okra plant and set us home with these plants! I came home and put them in the ground. I just checked on them this morning and they seem to be doing good so far.

Harvest 8/1/2018

Aiden helped me pick tomatoes, peppers, and a few okra.  The okra are just starting to produce.  We found hornworms on the tomatoes, so we need to check those daily.  I cut the tomato plants way back because they were so overgrown and intertwined.  When planted as close as they are, you are supposed to keep the suckers cut, which I have failed to do.  I had some carrots that should have been harvested months ago.  They were not too tasty.