It’s that time of the year again
The lovebugs are jumping and it is time to pickle the last of the summer’s okra. We had a great year with this bunch, I hope to get one more week of the tasty pods (deep fried - yummy) before I send them to the compost pile to make room for our fall greens.

Okra Flower
On the front porch in those reusable plastic 6 plant packs we have sown:
• Collards - Georgia
• Mustard - Florida Broad Leaf
• Spinach - Bloomsdale
• Dill - Mammoth
• Lettuce - Salad Bowl, Lolla Rossa, Red Salad Bowl, Black Seeded Simpson and Royal Oak Leaf
As soon as I yank out the black-eyed peas the local deer are in heaven I will sow the first of our Crimson Crisp Radishes.

Our Okra Plants
Recap for 2009
My 3rd spring / summer in Lower Alabama. I must say, I had higher hopes for the garden that we enjoyed the first year vs last years wilt fiasco. Not a great year, but it was not a bad year.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
We had another great year with our cucumbers. This year we went with the “straight eight” cucumber.
A wonderful salad slicer cuke, but we also used them canning our “bread and butter” and “dill” pickles. I am not 100% wild with the dills, but I must say.. My bread and butter’s rock! I plan on putting in more str8 plants next spring. I just need to find a pickler for my dills. Any thoughts?
After last years complete loss from wilt, we decided put our tomatoes into 10/25 Gallon pots. I do believe this is the right approach. Living near the coast, I have to get them started at least a month earlier. My next post will address this.
And now the ugly.. This spring I received a wonderful shipment from ChilePlants.com.
Insane exotics. I received sweet, stuffers, and hot peppers. And than I decided to bounce to the local big box hardware store and buy a jalapeño plant. Rain came and that jalapeño spread it’s fungus/brown spot to my other pepper plants. Grrr.. The only peppers to survive were the hot peppers that we grew in large pots far away from the sweet peppers.