BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 11:16 AM

Most arborists I've met are a tad on the chainsaw-happy side...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 10:03 AM

It's fucking hot down here, an ironic term since it's too hot for fucking . . . :-/

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: MMario
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 09:21 AM

I have alot of crisp brown plants....

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 08:02 PM

It is really unclear, SRS. Some unholy alliance between beetles and fungus. Plus, there are other, more benign fungus that infect the stressed trees and it isn't always easy to tell the benign from the not so benign.

The arborist who took down the big oak was recommended, but I wasn't impressed with his knowledge, and when I did further research based on his comments and recommendations, I realized this was a fellow who had not kept up with the research and knowledge base in his field since he graduated from arborist training, a good 30 years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 10:35 AM

The disease called oak wilt is most common in the Midwest and is rather selective about the type of oak tree it will attack.

More likely, the problem is oak root fungus, which will kill other types of trees including pines. It produces brown mushrooms at times.

It is tempting to water the tree in the summer when it looks stressed but that usually helps the oak root fungus more than the tree.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 09:29 AM

Janie, is that oak wilt that you're experiencing? Here is the oak wilt discussion at the DirtDoctor.com site I use all of the time.

Yesterday I put in another batch of mulch around the garden -this time around some tender young plants. It seems when I pull weeds that displaces the mulch, so I have a continual cycle of weeding mulching weeding mulching.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 17 Jul 11 - 05:06 PM

Another spate of blistering temps headed our way, but this weekend sure has been nice. Cleaned out the raised beds and hope to seed fall kale in the next week. Finally got bags of topsoil and compost dumped where I will eventually move some ferns and the bloodroot. The bags had been laying beside the shed (too small to move them inside unless I want to move them everytime the lawn mower comes out) in a very unsightly heap since early February.

Due to a spate of car problems, (picked up at the mechanic's Monday night, and had to have it towed back to the mechanic's Thursday night - now waiting for parts to come in,) I have been home 3 weekends in a row. I really hate I haven't been able to get up to Charleston for Mom, but must say it is nice to feel half-way sane, even if only for a little while, and being able to do a bit of work in the yard and garden is the main contributor to that sanity.

I think the same tree fungus that killed the big oak is showing up on some other trees. Apparently there isn't a whole lot that can be done. During the 3 year severe drought they got really stressed, and in the past two years, while the drought has eased, yearly rainfall is still below normal with frequent periods of less extreme drought, and they really haven't been able to recover their full vigor.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Jul 11 - 02:13 PM

Arggggggggghhhhhhhh!!!

Tomato horned worms!!! Found about 8 already and took them off to the pond for fishing & getting eaten by bass lessons... lol...

Finally got all trees planted (mostly youngish Japanese maples)...

We had 2.1 inches of rains fall and it all but filled our pond... Another 1/10th or two and it would have been to the spill pipe and the duck weed would be gone rather than covering the entire pond...

We finally have gotten enough stuff for our two-chamber compost tumbler so we should be getting our first decent compost in a month or so...

Like Magz, we have our asparagus planted and mulched and hopefully happy... We'll know next spring...

Happy gardening...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 11 - 01:10 PM

My red Lasota potatoes finished weeks ago, and are stored in a bin of peat moss in the house, as are the onions. I have okra in the spot where the Irish potatoes were, a couple of more weeks and they'll probably start blooming. There is a lovely hedge of sweet potatoes coming up in the keyhole garden, those will be ready probably late August.

Tomatoes are standing there doing nothing, it doesn't cool enough at night for pollination and hand pollination hasn't worked. Melons are being picked now, another half-doze in various sizes on the vine. Herbs look good, and I have some small chard coming up in the keyhole garden.

Eggplant like this heat and they're setting fruit now. Asparagus is in for the first year and the shoots are growing, but I need to pay more attention and keep them happy in order to get any next year.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 05:50 PM

Ok, I'm writing all that down...

The old standard pattypan variety called various names such as "white bush scollop" grows much larger than most varieties. Not white but very pale colored.

It stays tender enough to eat up to about 5 1/2" in diameter. I have several recipes for stuffing and baking them. Last year I had only one plant and so they never got that big 'cause I was in a hurry to eat 'em. I try to have three varieties in a pot each cut to similar size pieces.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 05:31 PM

I love pattypan squash.

Favorite southern country meal - lightly breaded and fried pattypan squash and green tomatoes, corn-on-the-cob, lightly marinated cukes and onions, cantalope, slices of ripe German-Johnson 'maters, green beans and cheap cut of meat.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 05:22 PM

For supper last night: fresh beets and sauteed beet greens. For supper tonight: new potatoes! A neighbor gave me a bunch of perennials, which in my garden are leggy and awkward looking, but next year should be fantastic.

And my "Floribunda Animaterra" rose is blooming for the second time this year! I call it that, because my chorus gave me a gift certificate to a local nursery, and I bought a huge floribunda rosebush.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 04:26 PM

Well, a crookneck squash flower raced into the lead to become the first bloom of the year. I had to get a male flower from my neighbor to make sure there would be a bouncing baby crooknek in the future.

Today a zucchini produced its first bloom, also pistilate. Had to bum another staminate flower from the neighbor.

There are three kinds of pattypan squash and, as usual, they are a bit tardy, but the hybrid called Sunburst is growing like a champ and should bloom in the next few days.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 03:39 PM

What a great time for the garden.

Lots of beets, carrots and turnips safely stored away in the refridgerator veggie bins. Lots more to come.

Last 6 kohlrabi were the size of baseballs and they were picked today. Could be planted just for their "beefy" greens.

One tomato plant has set three pea-sized tomatoes and one of the zucchini has one female flower just starting to grow.

A few snow peas, but the plants are just getting big enough to tie to supports.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:51 PM

I've pulled the soaker hose from one garden where simply nothing will thrive, if it manages to grow. I think the tree nearby has something to do with it - not the shade, but perhaps the ability to be toxic to other plants nearby. It's a theory I'm working on.

Cantaloupe continue to grow, the rest of the garden just bakes in the heat. I picked a couple of buckets of wild mustang grapes last week and some this morning, and have steam juiced the lot to get a gallon and a half of juice for jelly. I bought a flat of peaches to can. Good thing the freezer is still full of a lot of stuff, and I still have a few jars of tomatoes I canned in the fall of 2009. I need to finish those this year, and hope for a good fall crop here to refresh my supply.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 07:33 PM

My daughter and husband have sowed their hay. Last year it was constant rain at harvest and much of it moulded, but they hope for better luck this year. Usually they can sell some that isn't needed for their horses and even make a little profit.

This spring-early summer is wetter than usual, and plants are more lush.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 06:26 PM

Thanks, Janie...

Ol' flat-lander hillbilly and Mr. Kabota been in the creek all day picking up dark colored rocks to build a large raised bed for rhodos, hostas & azaleas... Wore both of us out but I'm sho nuff getting to know the creek purdy well...

We have a lot of shale which concerns me about the raised bed because it's going down right on top of the shale... My gut feeling is that I should take out about 4 inches of it and put gravel in and then landscape cloth and then the mixture that will be the soil... I'd hate to kill stuff because it rots in a wet bowl??? I donno... Gardening here is going to be challenging to get it right...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 08:30 PM

Bobert, it is in the parsley family - home to carrots and Queen Anne's Lace as well as water and poison hemlock. Wikipedia cites it as being highly phototoxic - a very noxious plant - and we all know how readily parsley family plants self-sow.    I'm just hoping that like Angelica, it doesn't like heat and so will be unlikely to migrate down my way over time.

Thanks for the heads-up, maeve.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 07:12 PM

Must not be the same plant, maeve...

We have finally come up with a couple design/planting ideas for alot of our hostas, a couple rhodos and some select azaleas... It's going to be an omeba shaped raised bed roughly 35 X 25 with creek rocks bordering it to hold the bed in place... I spent a couple hours today on the Kabota and with tons of "tractor and front bucket abuse" now have cut a ramp down into the creek bed itself and can get the tractor in the creek... This will make it a lot easier to collect the rocks and get them back to the proposed bed... I also found an ara on the ouside of one of the curves in the creek that has some of the finest looking top soil deposits that I've seen here and "harvested" 7 1/2 yard buckets, dumped it on top of the screened topsoil we bought and mixed it with the bucket... This stuff is looking purdy decent as a planting medium... The raised bed, however, will require about 10 yards and we're trying to figure out how we want to mix the various soils and amendments... The folks we buy it from will mix it any way we want...

Found a major patch of "yellow bell" down by the creek... Maybe bring some out and start us a yellow bell bed???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 03:25 PM

A shrub rose, Rosa acicularis is making a big show in our back yard. Also known as the "Alberta wild rose."

Years ago, a doctor in the little *French town of Legal, Alberta, saw a specimen of this wild rose that had a few extra petals, a mutation. He started making selections with it and produced a double variety.
He named it Therese Bugnet for his wife; now it is grown in many gardens in western Canada.

*Immigrants from France, not French Canadians.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: maeve
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 12:14 PM

I don't think so; at least, I know there's a datura called pigroot, which is a terrible nuisance but not the same as Hogweed (aka Giant Cow Parsley).

Here's the article to which I linked earlier:
***********
"Giant hogweed might sound like something out of Harry Potter, but it's straight out of New York. This noxious weed has spread across the state, threatening humans with sap that causes severe burns, blistering, permanent scarring and even blindness.

The outbreak has grown so bad that the N.Y. Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has issued a giant hogweed warning and set up a hotline.

Giant hogweed is native to the Caucasus region of Eurasia, and was brought to the United States in the early 1900s. The gargantuan plant blooms bunches of tiny white flowers the size of umbrellas, which made it a showpiece in ornamental gardens, including one in Rochester, N.Y. In the century since it was planted there, it has spread across the state, with 1,004 confirmed sightings so far this blooming season.

In the words of Charles O'Neill, coordinator of the Cornell Invasive Species Program, hogweed is like "Queen Anne's lace with an attitude." Specimens of the megaflora grow "more than 10 feet tall with two-inch thick stems, flowers two or more feet across and leaf clusters as wide as you can stretch your arms," O'Neill explains in the New York Sea Grant's official giant hogweed fact sheet.

If you see it, "stay clear!" O'Neill warns. Hogweed is New York's most striking, dangerous and invasive plant, and its sap "can make a case of poison ivy seem like a mild itch." [Gross Image: Click to see a hogweed sap burn ]

"If the sap gets on your skin and it's exposed to sunlight ... you end up with third-degree burns, oozing and scars," Naja Kraus, the DEC's giant hogweed program coordinator, told the press. "If it gets in your eyes, you can go blind."

The DEC urges people to phone the Giant Hogweed Hotline to report finding a specimen of the dangerous plant. They'll immediately dispatch a crew to dispose of it.

This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @LLMysteries."
**************

This Wiki article includes more information and some photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Hogweed

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 12:08 PM

We've had it in our (Norfolk UK) garden.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 11:58 AM

Is that the same as pigroot, maeve??? If so, it is hatefulest weed I know... No, thistle is but at least the sticky buds are purdy...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: maeve
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 11:17 AM

Warning: Giant Hogweed on the move in New York state:
http://news.yahoo.com/dangerous-10-foot-megaweed-invades-york-195602542.html

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 09:40 AM

Having a very good garden year, been picking Toms indoor for 3 weeks Sweat Peas wonderful Cabbage excellent,Artichokes looking good. However I planted the Runner Beans 5 times as I had "Black Root Rot" caused by not cleaning out the water butt that I had added Horse Muck to last year. Washed it out and bleached it and now everything is O K. We had 8 things out of the garden for tea last night. LOVELY

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 07:40 AM

We started our tomatoes a bit late this year as we are still in the earth-moving business as regards the layout of the garden (and will be for the rest of the year at the present rate).

Do rabbits eat tomatoes? We don't know whether they'll try nibbling them even if they don't like them (like they did withthe onions).

It will be next year at least before the garden can be rabit-proofed, we saw six of them on the lawn yesterday and they will let you get within 15 feet before they shuffle off! The fox doesn't seem to catch many.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 09:16 PM

Our asparagus is about 4ft high now. Have to wait till next year to pick some more. We've played about with the area it is in, I think the decision is now that we will be adding 5 or 6 new crowns next year - March I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 09:08 PM

Asparagus is best grown from dried roots... Buy 'um in the spring, plant 'um and in two years you'll have asparagus... The roots are cheap... One that I dug up and brought down was over a foot round with hundreds of roots... All are planted in compost now and should be fine for next spring...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 06:14 PM

Tomatoes can be grown under glass or outdoors after the risk of frost has gone here (Norfolk UK). They grow rather more vigorously under glass. A big problem I have with outdoor growing is late blight. I often wind up pulling plants up before we've had 1/2 the crop. Ferline, one of the varieties (there are also 4 cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets) I'm growing outside is supposed to offer very good resistance. I'll be interested to see how it does.

Another new to me one I'm trying (under glass) is Roma VF. Last year, we turned a lot of our tomatoes into ketchup - I think the first time we've tried it and it was a very successful. I thought it would be interesting to try a plum variety which is "designed" for ketchups, soups, etc.

---
Had some garden produce for tea today. Baby turnips and new potatoes in/with a vegetable crumble and stewed rhubarb with custard.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 03:10 PM

Some growers here raise tomatoes under cover, but most varieties need a longer season than offered in Calgary. Tomatoes 'on the vine' from British Columbia are sold here, and we use those, or sometimes get the varieties grown under shelter.
We like BLT but with added cheddar- calorie count be damned ! Tonight we are having burgers made with lean Canadian beef, tomatoes, cheddar, sliced onion, and spiced with oregano and Hy's seasoning salt and finely chopped onion.

Calgary, east of the Rockies and on the edge of the foothills, gets the chinook cloud condition- Winds from the west are lifted by the mountains, and a cloud forms over Calgary. Look to the west and the mountains are in sun, look to the east, and see the edge of the cloud some 20 miles east.
Moreover, at 3500 feet altitude, the growing season is short. Go 200 miles north to Edmonton, a thousand feet lower, and more plants reach maturity, tomatoes (still not all) do better. We had a little farm near Edmonton and we could grow strawberries in the field.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 01:33 PM

Picked 1st 3 tomatoes of the season today.
Burpee 4th of July.

Russ (Permanent GUEST in DE)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 12:50 PM

No ripe tomatoes in our garden yet. There are some green ones but they need to grow a bit more before ripening.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 12:39 PM

I had my first BLT (bacon lettuce tomato) of the season (I don't know why I bother to spell it out, except that maybe someplace else it has another name, 'butty' or whatever). Homemade bread, homegrown tomato. It doesn't get any better.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 03 Jul 11 - 09:06 PM

Lettuce (the Little Gem variety we grow anyway) are sort of spring through to autumn for us. There were a couple left in the ground last years very cold (for us in the UK) winter. They did survive it - just went into a sort of "suspended animation".

Our own garden thins out towards the end of autumn through to spring but a couple of things we should have for winter harvest are leeks and sprouts. A hope with us for us (and perhaps others in the UK - not sure off hand if it is a "tradition" or not is that your sprouts are ready for Christmas dinner.

I;m really not sure what the status is with cabbage family and our garden since Pip took in some of "friendly neighbours" plants that soon looked to have club root are year or two ago. The sprouts we have in are supposed to be a resistant variety and at the moment are looking very healthy.

Fell out with Pip over club root the other day btw. She took some more cabbage family from the same neighbours ground and this time planted them in some large tubs that had fresh soil. Now I don't know if that's going to be "polluted" or not. Anyway (and she is the gardener) our difference of opinion at least from my side of the story is that cabbage family simply aren't worth the risk unless from a trusted source. Hers (from my admittedly biased POV) appears to be not upsetting the neighbours and not "wasting" plants should come first...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 03 Jul 11 - 08:34 PM

Just checked the weather station site...it shows a hunnert degrees as of 4:56. First time since September. Prediction is mid ninties for a week or more. Every day in July may beat 90 F, not unreasonable. Summer squash plants have some of the buds that develope into squash. Summertime...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Janie
Date: 03 Jul 11 - 07:18 PM

It is always so interesting to me to mark the difference in growing seasons among all the climate zones represented on this thread.

The time for sowing seeds of any sort is long past here in my climate zone, and the only two things I would even think about planting seedlings of right now are basil and tomatoes.

Okra? I may live in the south, but there are two southern foods I can not abide - okra and grits.

Back to different climate zones - one thing that I know little about, but which I think factors into what we can grow and when is day length. Some of you northern folks have much shorter growing seasons in terms of first and last frost date, but those longer summer day lengths have got to make a difference. Here in the USA, coastal Washington and Oregon are much further north, but are in a milder climate zone because of ocean currents, and I think that may be true for the UK also.

Stilly, can you readily grow fall crops of lettuce, broccoli, etc.? You have a longer fall day length than do I. By the time temps cool enough here to fall-seed lettuces and cabbage family plants, the day lengths are too short for the plants to reach harvestable size before it gets too cold for the plants to grow to harvestable size. They over-winter well (lettuce and mesclun mixes need a cold frame, but not cabbage family plants) for early to mid-spring harvesting the following year, but not gonna get fall salads or kale from seed sown in late summer or fall.

When I read about gnu and pdq and carrots and asparagus germinating in July, it boggles my pea-brain.

Love it.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 03 Jul 11 - 05:07 PM

I planted 84 seeds in the new asparagus garden exactly one month ago, June 2nd.

A few days back, there was no evidence of any germinating. There were a thousand small weeds coming up, thanks to the good soil and my flood-watering, but all the plants were dicots, except a pesky grass that is easily recognized.

Early this morning with the sunlight coming in at a sharp angle, I could see as many as two dozen tiny plants coming up. They they look rather like a single hair extracted from a boar-bristle paint brush. A few may have a tiny bit of branching starting at the top, but not many.

This variety has the oh-so-romantic name of UC 72.

The 72, I suspect, refers to the average age of the plant owners when they get a real crop of big fat asparagus spears from their seeds.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jul 11 - 04:14 PM

Cool. Thanks, bud. If I get my patch going again I'll give it a try. Gave it up a few years ago but I miss it.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Jul 11 - 04:07 PM

gnu, didn't measure exactly, but I used one large navel in roughly two quarts as it was simmering on the stove.
Like a lot of 'additions', put in a rather small amount and taste before adding more.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jul 11 - 01:59 PM

Oranges? Never heard of that. I may have to try it. Quantities, Q?

I replanted carrots after using some of that ant killer liquid placed on a plastic Marg container lid. Hmmmm... I wonder if I will get carrots but with toxins? I kinda think not because I doubt if the ants' (there are at least two colonies) nests are in the plot as the soil is essentially potting soil which wouldn't be stable enough for tunnels.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Jul 11 - 02:30 PM

Gathering rhubarb today.

With stewed rhubarb, cut up oranges (rind and all) and add to the pot. Remove peel before serving or use in other dishes.

Cold stewed rhubarb, with a good vanilla (or preference) ice cream is a fine warm weather dessert.
(Can't say hot weather, Calgary never gets to Mumbai levels).

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Jul 11 - 01:03 PM

Yuck!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 02 Jul 11 - 05:02 AM

Try a plate with helpings of meat, rice and stir-fried okra.

I'm unlikely to have it with meat as I live with two vegetarians but I'll (if we get any next year) try it stir fried.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 09:38 PM

The only way I can eat it is fried or baked... Baked is better... No slime...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 08:05 PM

A place in Houston had okra sliced and fried, served as a vegetable. Very good! I tried to duplicate it at home, but it turned out limp and not so good.

Here in western Canada, it shows up occasionally frozen, but no fresh pods.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 07:28 PM

Okra is abit like liverwurst in that you get a huge amount of vitimins and other healthy ingrediants that you cannot get elsewhere. Stir fry fresh medium-sized okra pods for a couple of minutes and ad just a little salt. Try a plate with helpings of meat, rice and stir-fried okra.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 06:11 PM

Thanks for the tips Bobert. I'm not sure if we will make the conditions but I'll try the plastic and straw and give it another go.

As for eating it, I only know it in Indian dishes, particularly bhindi bhaji which I love. I don't know where the Indian restaurants get it from but it is not something I could get from a local farm shop or the supermarket.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 06:01 PM

Okra like hot air and warm soil, Jon... If you don't have both then forget it... If you live in a cooler climate than black plastic needs to go down before planting to warm the soil and hold the heat at night... Once you get it going then mulch with 8 inches of straw...
Also likes sandier soils so if your soil is like woods dirt then no good...

BTW, if you are growing it so that you can see what it tastes like I'd suggest buying some from a farmer to see if it's worth it to you... People either love it or hate it... I am some where in between...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: pdq
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 05:11 PM

Check out this related species in Olympic National Park...

               
                                                                                                 Avalanche Lily

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners report - 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 05:07 PM

Lovage, a large celery-flavored plant (but much stronger flavor) has bee growing well for me, although some guides list it for warmer zones.
All parts of the plant are edible.
It grows to 6 feet, so I have it on the back fence.