country n news-garden stories

COUNTRY N NEWS-GARDEN STORIES

several years ago
when touring the natural gardener in austin
i ran into the owner the organic guru john dromgoole
we stopped and talked to him for a few minutes

when i looked up
i noticed we were standing under this vine that
i had not seen before
it had yellow flowers on it
whats that i asked
john said oh its a butterfly vine

why is it called that i asked

well he said look closely at these seedlings
they look like butterflies dont they
these are frequently used in decorations

well i see why i said

so i planted one at our house
its sort of wax and waned over the years
but

this year it exploded into these yellow flowers

which turned into these little butterflies when the flowers dry up

they do look like butterflies dont they

out i went to the garden

this little ladybug was doing its work on our okra

we have used okra in as many recipes as we can think of
i have used a ton of them just grilling them with other veggies
also i have added them to beans and have done an
okra tomato dish in the crockpot
but
my standby when we are out of things to cook
is to dunk them into quart pickling jars with pickling juice
in the refrigerator
having now pickled okra out the ying yang

a few years ago we had the best fall tomatoes ever
we had a late freeze almost not into mid december
which allowed the tomatoes to grow and grow

we are hoping for another crop like these this year
thanks hannah

here is the bed a few weeks ago

here are a few that are much much bigger today

now if i can just keep my wife she from picking them
for fried green tomatoes

we planted all our cole crops like broccoli and cabbage
swiss chard kale bok choy spinach and lettuce
we harvested our first lettuce crop last week
soon we hope to have a regular weekly crop of lettuce and spinach
i plant a small section every 2 weeks so we should have these
until late spring
we shear them a few inches off the ground leaving a stub
so lettuce spinach swiss chard bok choy will regrow more

also when we harvest our cabbage and broccoli
we let them regrow so we reharvest smaller heads of each
well into the spring

our carrots and beets and english peas are also growing

this is the best time to garden around here
especially since our winters are getting warmer
it just takes keeping a close eye on the weather
covering them with a warm row cover
when the temperatures drop too much

bon appetit

the organicgreen doctor