![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/IMG_0621.jpg\" "\\"Off")
<\/a>On July 26: Late but vigorous<\/p><\/div>\n
I didn’t procrastinate too much this year garden-wise except with okra.\u00a0 I started the seeds late, choosing to plant them in cells under lights even in mid-April when the last frost day was near.\u00a0 I like the control you have under lights: water, temperature, light I can bend to my will, unlike outside where I have little control over the sun, the wind, the rain.\u00a0 Though last year’s seeds, they germinated like gangbusters, almost 100% peeking out from the soil saying, “Here we are, ready or not.”\u00a0 And it seems I wasn’t quite ready.\u00a0 They grew well under lights and continued to grow well transplanted into pots and set outside.\u00a0 And when I finally set them in the ground in and around the Lorelei, they shot up like Jack’s beanstalk, maybe not to the clouds but fast and green and lush.<\/p>\n
<\/a>August 20: Gorgeous, lush, but scant fruit<\/p><\/div>\n
I never saw such okra plants.\u00a0 The leaves were full and wide, easily 14 inches across and from stem to stern.\u00a0 Like my tomatoes, they quickly became a rainforest of vegetation, a healthy, happy, vigorous jungle.\u00a0 I was thrilled with their growth, their progress except for one thing: they were not bearing fruit.\u00a0 Hardly a flower appeared, though some of the stalks were nearing a half inch thick or more on plants quickly overtaking three feet in height.\u00a0 I knew that soil with too much nitrogen will produce a lot of greens but not many flowers, but that couldn’t have been my problem.\u00a0 Most of the okra, the healthiest, actually, I had planted in new garden space I had enriched only with rotted leaves, good for making soil lighter and healthier, but not particularly a source of nitrogen.<\/p>\n
<\/a>September 2: Blossoms and young okra glore<\/p><\/div>\n
By the time mid-August arrived, I wondered if I would get any okra before cooler weather would discourage flowers and fruit from forming.\u00a0 I didn’t need to wonder long.\u00a0 It seemed to me, completely suddenly, the plants were filled with blossoms, beautiful flowers that resemble hibiscus because, in fact, the two plants are first cousins.\u00a0 Soon, we were picking a mess of okra every three or four days.\u00a0 Once the fruit has set and the blossom falls, okra grows fast.\u00a0 A few times, we picked even more than we could use in one meal, one of my favorite signs of small-garden success.\u00a0 And the stalks had grown so tall, I had to stand on my toes or else bend the plant down to pick the fruit off it.\u00a0 Picking okra is another fun hide-and-seek game because it blends in so well with the stalks and stems around it.\u00a0 Several times we found an eight or ten inch okra (okra is optimal at three to four inches) because we had missed one the last picking.<\/p>\n
<\/a>October 9: Photo snapped holding the camera at my eye level. I am 5'9", so many of the plants are well over six feet tall<\/p><\/div>\n
Last year almost like flipping a switch, cooler fall weather seemed to shut down the okra plants.\u00a0 Not the producing machines I grew this year: we enjoyed it throughout October, eating a mess of the stuff as late as the 27th.\u00a0 Though blossoms remained on those towering bushes, many of which were nearly seven feet tall by now, a 33 degree night on October 29 finally stopped those mighty plants.<\/p>\n
<\/a>A single harvest, enough for two meals.<\/p><\/div>\n
We ate the okra in some stews or cooked with tomatoes, but mostly we ate it fried, (naughty us) and gosh was it good, even only rolled in a little corn meal and tossed in the hot olive oil.\u00a0 It will be a long, lonely winter, spring, and part of summer before we get to enjoy what has become one of our favorite garden products.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another tough farewell, I pulled the okra stalks, once lush, tall, proud bearers of pounds of okra, now frost bitten, dried shells of their former glory.\u00a0 I hated to say good bye, but I couldn’t bear to see them like … Continue reading