![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IMG_1160.jpg\" "\\"OK")
<\/a>Irene washed and blow-dried the okra plants in the Lorelei<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/a>Where are the okra plants? (hover the cursor over this photo for the answer)<\/p><\/div>\n
I was a tiny bit shocked when I first saw them leaning like that.\u00a0 I thought: finally they were starting to produce okra and now, this.\u00a0 Argyle Schield had groused in his August Garden Report<\/a> that though vigorous, they weren’t making many little okras and I’m glad he did because that’s probably what made them start, just to spite both of us.\u00a0 My wife and I had even eaten some for supper while the storm raged (here’s a taste treat: take uncut okra picked no longer than 3 -4 inches, rinse with water, dust with corn meal (don’t use egg: the water will make enough stick) and fry it in olive oil for a couple of minutes.\u00a0 I think I’ll call it Okra Irene).\u00a0 But now in the aftermath of the storm it looked like I had a little cleanup operation of my own.<\/p>\n The answer of course was to stake the plants, as if I didn’t already have enough of a stake in my gardening venture.\u00a0 Thankfully, I found plenty of unused poles and bamboo, enough to meet the need.\u00a0 I was intrigued to discover that many of the plants didn’t need staking.\u00a0 I only needed to gently push them back to an upright attitude and press some soil and mulch in the little stem-sized trough they made while being blown around.\u00a0 I staked the larger plants to give me a little assurance their leaning days were truly over.<\/p>\n Backfilled, staked\/ Standing straight\/ Okra garden\/ Ain't it great?<\/p><\/div>\n I promise this next bit of waxing eloquent will last only two or three lines.\u00a0 The okra plants withstood 50 mph winds over a period of several hours and were hardly worse for it.\u00a0 Sure, things like floods or a herd of stampeding cattle can ruin your plants for good but for the most part, a garden is very resilient.\u00a0 It can take a good deal of abuse, problems and imperfect treatment.\u00a0 It can even, like the okra, take a blow and survive and maybe, I hope like the okra will, continue to do well.\u00a0 I like that about gardens: they are resilient in the face of adversity.\u00a0 It’s a nice object lesson.<\/p>\n I’d like to close by commenting that shortly after righting the okra, I found myself writing the okra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t want to belittle any suffering, any serious property damage, any major problem or cost or sorrow anybody suffered because of Hurricane Irene.\u00a0 I really don’t.\u00a0 I mention that because I want to tell you about the “damage” the … Continue reading <\/a>