Garden picture

Here is a picture of my garden on June 1, 2004. From right to left:

Blue Lake Pole beans
Jacob's Cattle beans
Tomato plants
More Jacob's Cattle beans
More tomato plants

Purty pic!

Gonna really be extra-purty when they start maturing, Big Red!

Be sure to keep a "Before" and "After" pic!

Having fun yet!? I bet you are!!

Shoe, having a blast! I spend most of my time in the garden now that I'm retired and have time to enjoy it. We've already had cabbage, brocolli and green onions from the garden. Next are those baby, new potatoes with green beans, YUMMM!

Don't take too many "After" pictures, usually shows too many weeds ;O)

Just kidding, I'm taking pictures often, with dates, for my records.

Yeh..I know all about dem weeds!

Usually when our gardens look nice no one is around to see them...when the weeds take over people come outta nowhere!

I've been eating onions, sugar snaps, cabbage so far. Haven't checked under the tater hills yet! (Here is some delish Sugar Snaps growing up last yrs okra stalks.)

Shoe.........Are those really Okra stems?? I tried to do some here and had half a dozen nice babies I started from seed and transplanted into the ground then winds tore them up terrible. So I still don't know what the plant grows up to look like.

Yep...those are okra stems/stalks.

Okra can grow from only 3 ft tall for some varieties to over 6 ft tall! I used to pull the stalks out when their season was over but one year, in the middle of winter, I decided to clean up the garden and when I pulled some okra stalks up I discovered bunches of earthworms at their roots, actively working away! From that year on I've decided to let them stay.

Since Sugar Snaps only come on for a few weeks of pickins then succumb to the heat the stalks are perfect for them. By the time the peas are done the okra stalks are very fragile and can be easily turned into the ground with the sugar snap plants. (I admit, some stalks will fall over but I just prop them back up as long as the pea plants are still producing.)

Here is a better pic of the okra stalks...a row of tall skinny "skeletons" to the left of the onions and another row to the right.

big red/horseshoe - i would love to set up a garden like you guys without having to put up a fence. i used chicken wire again but its a real pain. i just ordered from a catalogue something they call deer netting. its poly something or other and its much easier to handle. each roll is seven by 100. ordered two for next year.

Herbie, my wife bought some of that two years ago to keep the deer out of our driveway flower bed.

We had a small fence around it (3 ft high) mainly to keep the chickens and geese out of there. She bought (or found) some 7 ft bamboo and wired it to the existing fence posts and hung the poly fence on it. It works.

Are you trying to keep deer out, or some other critter? Just curious.

horeshoe - just the deer. don't seem to have much trouble with other critters. i have some woodchucks but they don't seem to bother the garden.

Well, that high fence will work for ya then, and it goes up easily.

Only other fence would be an electric one. Or a double fence that the deer can't jump over.

Good luck!

Shoe,

What variety of okra are you growing? I have some Clemson Spineless but it seems to grow very slow, only about a foot high and already starting to bud. Is okra a slow growing plant?

Herbie,

We have lots of deer here, too, as well as rabbits. Someone told me to spread dog 'poop' around in the garden and these critters wouldn't bother. I tried it and it seems to work (so far). The rabbits chewed off two heads of cabbage before I spread it but they haven't bothered it since. Here's keeping my fingers crossed.

Big Red, I grow Clemson Spineless every once in a while, am growing it this year. Some years I grow white okra, an heirloom given to me from a local friend (recently dubbed "Betty's White").

Yes, okra is slow to grow when temps fluctuate ...once it warms up and stays warm you'll be complaining about having to pick it so often!

As for putting dog doo in your garden. Don't! Dog and cat doo harbors parasites that are easily taken up by humans, that is why it is so strongly advised to never use it for composting.

Lookin good fellas, keep those pics coming!

Man, how I wish I could have a garden that big! I wouldn't have to worry about not having enough room for all the things I want to grow. Of course, my family would NEVER see me! Boy, am I green with envy!!!!