produce bounty

PRODUCE BOUNTY
yesterday i went out to my garden to check on it
since we had been gone for 5 days to san francisco
it was hot there they all said
my wife she and i just smiled when we heard that
yall dont know jack
this weather feels so good
as i recall working in my yard at 900am with sweat pouring
out of every pore in my body
my shirt was soaked so it looked like i had just jumped
in the shower
even my floppy hat i wear was soaked to the bone
so
we enjoyed every hot day there and really enjoyed those days
and nights when it dipped lower into the upper 50s

so back to my garden
i strolled down there
the first thing you see when you walk up is these okra stalks that
are 8 ft high
they look like 10 ft like you could dunk a basketball on top of them

these are the red german peppers that we got from malcom becks
garden the guru of organic gardening in texas
he also started gardenville years ago

these okra are thicker in diameter and have more of a
rib to them
and
ive noticed are softer than the clemson spineless we have

we have a volunteer sweet 100s tomato that has wound its way
up the okra plant using it as a stalk

i then proceeded to pick things looking for veggies to grill
tomatoes lots of juliette small ones
basil
bell peppers
poblano peppers
egg plant
french beans

note the white stuff on the tomatoes is kaolin clay which is sprinkled
over my tomato plants
as the grasshoppers chop on the plants the clay clogs up their mouth parts
and they die
you can also use white flour

the rest of the garden has slowed down a lot
most of the tomatoes have shut down
they will soon be removed
the beans have appeared to have made their last crop
as well as the cucumbers
the empty beds are all growing blackeyed peas as a cover crop

the pea plants will eventually be cut off at the ground
leaving the roots in the soil
the stalks will be fed to the hungry country n chickens
who also yesterday got to enjoy those big ole okra sliced open
as well as several tomatoes that were grasshopper chewed on

we have the new fall tomatoes growing well under shade cloth
in about a month we will uncover them

so i gathered all the crops to make my veggies for the night
using only stuff grown in my garden
heres the ingredients
figs
potatoes red
onions
garlic
egg plant
bell pepper
poblano pepper
green beans
small tomatoes
topped with rosemary and basil
seasoned with olive oil crushed black pepper and sea salt
sips of red merlot wine

this folks is what a mediterranean diet is like
but ill call it the country n diet
home grown

the organicgreen gardener

beating the heat

BEATING THE HEAT
this is the time in the summer garden when its almost
too hot to garden


some things do well right now
like okra the hotter the better

other things in my garden like basal peppers like banana
bell poblano jalapeno and egg plant are doing well
my left over tomatoes from the spring are ending their
tomato producing careers
so


i have placed a solar cloth over them to keep the hot
summer sun off of them
the tomatoes probably will shut down soon but
the other things will continue on until the fall then
take off when those fall temperatures start to drop

in fact in the fall they are more productive and the fruits
are so  much bigger than in the spring

if of course i can keep those pesky grasshoppers off of them
im trying nollo bait which has a fungus in it that infects the
hopppers when they eat it
they die
other grasshoppers will cannibalize the dead ones
the cycle continues

i also have sowed black eyed peas on the beds that have
been harvested like the onions and potatoes and garlic

the peas are a cover crop that fixes nitrogen in the soil
plus if im lucky i will produce enough peas to have a
mess or too for eating with my wife shes cornbread

yes she cooks it in an iron skillet and flips it over
half way through the cooking

speaking of onions
my mom in law is here visiting and one of the jobs
we save for her is to put up the onions
so we had close to 200 onions to put up
how do we do it
we place an onion in an old pair of pantyhose
in the leg
swing it around
tie it off
then add another onion etc etc etc


thats how we get our onion chimes

i know its hotter than hell here but its also time here in
central texas to plant the fall tomatoes
so
i went of course to one of the top nurseries in the us
the natural gardener in austin texas to get my tomatoes
they are hard to find anywhere else this time of year

i planted them in a bed where the peas were growing
i cut off the peas at the ground leaving the roots in the soil
to continue to breakdown and provide nutrition to the soil
i then added 4 inches of dairy cow manure i bought since my
country n compost isnt ready yet
then i added a scattering of an organic fertilizer over the compost
i used ladybug 8-2-4
then i added a light dusting of cottonseed meal
then i gently worked this into the top 2 inches of the soil
sometimes i just plant right in the compost
in the hole for planting i sprinkled the earthworm castings
thats worm poo
then i watered the tomato plant in well with liquid seaweed
then i put a small collar around the base of the base of the
tomato plant with a sliver of wet newspaper to protect it
from being cut down by the cutworm

then i  covered the soil with a thick layer of mulch
which was leaves that had been partially composted
and made that layer about 4 inches thick
to hold moisture in and to protect the soil from the sun and heat

then i set up pvc pipes and covered that with some row cover
to block off that mid day and afternoon sun

then all i need to do is keep them watered until the fall
i use drip irrigation with my rainwater i collect

here is one of my milkweeds i planted this year
i have 5 of these planted
to help those monarch butterflies as they migrate through this area
i am looking forward to the monarch display this fall

so there is stuff to do in your garden right now to get
ready for the fall garden
try getting your beds ready with the compost and fertilizer and
mulch so all you have to do this fall is plant the stuff
remember around here the fall is the best time
to garden in this area

the organicgreen doctor

growin stuff

GROWIN STUFF
ive written about the monkey pod vine
im really not sure what plant it is and what it
eventually looks like but
i was told it has a beautiful flower that grows on it
later on in the year

to review a family friend my med school friends friend
told me about it and gave me some monkey pods to plant
this is my third try to get them to grow
one year i got them to 6 feet but they died when the drought
hit and i had to reroute the water to the garden

this year i have added a dripper to the two i planted in my
garden so that when i water my okra this summer im
watering my monkey pod vine

here is what it looks like before i plant it

here it is early on
its climbing the white string in the bottom right of
the photograph

here its what it looks like now

i cant wait until the flowers bloom this summer
ill post a picture when it does

this is a three year project
ie the first two years failed












here is a picture of an okra bloom
you can see some okra starting to grow in
the background

this is a red heirloom german okra from seed my rainwater brother
got from the organic garden guru malcolm becks wife
in san antonio

these are a larger in diameter okra but are my favorite
okra ive planted
i saved seeds from last years crop










then here is my wife she holding one of our heirloom
tomatoes
i think its a brandywine
these things are so delicious and juicy
we call them sink tomatoes since you have to
eat them over the sink since they are so juicy
and so flavorful

thats what has been removed from a lot of the
tomatoes you buy at the food stores
we picked this one a little early so we will let it
ripen more to that juicy stage


then finally i want to write about that paper mulberry again
dont ever ever ever ever plant one in your yard
you may not ever be able to control the new
mulberry plants that pop up in your yard

most of the yard above was cleared of these trees by
hand
now after the rains they had the paper mulberry
plants now cover all that yard
again
they are about 2-3 feet tall

it is probably one of the most invasive trees to plant
on your property
you will never ever get rid of it totally no matter how
hard you try to

there is no good way that is organic to really get rid of it
you dig up the stumps as much as possible then
carefully apply the r word to any shoots that appear
being very careful to only spot treat them

there ive confessed i used the r word stuff

i feel better now
dont you use the r stuff in your yard

the organicgreen doctor