Typing one-handed, holding sleeping baby in the other so won't blabber on but wanted to say Arkansas Traveler is our Ol' Reliable. Even in the worst of years, it's dependable and tasty. When all of the others are struggling because it's too wet or too dry, too cold or too hot, Ark. Trav. just keeps plugging along. I'll never have a garden without it.

Diane

A word of caution on Hubbard squash: it is a c. maxima, and one of the most susceptible to squash vine borers. Growing in containers won't help against borers. If you opt to grow a Hubbard, I'd also recommend you grow a c. moschata, such as a butternut, or Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, in order to be assured of a harvest.

I'd be happy to send you seed of Tarahumara Pink Green Bean. But I wouldn't recommend it as your main bean, at least not for snaps. Its snaps are good. but they go from sweet and tender to tough in a blink. Plus this one won't set any flowers until way late in the year. For a real main crop pole bean I'd recommend something which holds better on the vine and will produce in the 70 day range. Tarahumara Pink Green bean could be a main crop for dry or shellies, as long as one is willing to wait until October to pick. It does produce prodigiously.

Of course, Kentucky Wonder or Blue Lake pole beans will do well for most anyone. But for are real treat, I'd recommend an old time "tender hull" pole bean, of which there are many. Sustainable Mountain Agriculture (see link below) has a fantastic selection of such beans. You might want to read what Bill Best writes about these Appalachian heirlooms. Also, Sandhill Preservation Center offers some good beans, including our Tennessee Cutshort. A long bean should do extremely well for you in your conditions. I gave seed to Georgia Long, to a friend here in Tahlequah, and that's the only "snap bean" he'll grow now.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Sustainable Mountain Agriculture beans

Beth I'll just add a quick word about the tomatoes. And as I'm sure you've read here if you only want a few seeds of something to try send me a pm. Chances are I might have it and can save you some money. If you like them then save seeds. I won't say a lot about varieties as there is already a few threads covering them. I will say that my experience and that of several fellow growers is Pink Brandywine should be grown with plans for a few fruit. If you get more than that feel lucky. I know many feel it is worth growing for 1-5 fruit. As I've stated before one good alternative is Brandyboy. It is a hybrid and you can't save seeds but produces moderately to good. I'm trying a few more strains this year but won't recommend them till I've grown them. You can see on the other threads what has done well for me, Dawn and others. Arkansas Traveler is a good choice. There is a few more that does well for me that are also good for canning. Also when you decide on beans I might have some seeds of them also. Jay

Diane,
Thank you! That's what I need to hear, feedback! I know how it is typing one handed, doing it right now with a wiggly four year old. :)

George,
THANK YOU! I'm very excited to get the package from you! Yes, I'm being silly on my hubbard squashes. I do want to grow as much as I can for eating purposes... but those blue hubbards are just so durn pretty!

Jay,
Thank you for the info on the Pink Brandywine! I've read the tomato threads, but the info does get mixed up in my head now and again. The tomatoes I plant, I really need to be able to save seed from. To make this a more feasible thing to do every year. Between you and Dawn, I'm sure ya'll can steer me right.

ADDING...
You may have noticed there's no melons of any type on my list. I have had THE worst time trying to grow a melon! First year they only got as big as softballs... last summer they turned black on the vine. I know I can grow other things, so I'm just going to devote my space to those. Besides, I live about ten minutes from the Missouri bootheel and I can get melons fairly cheap from roadside stands. AND, all my herbs will be from packets I buy from Dollar General... so no problem there.

Thanks again everyone! I truly love this forum. :)

Beth

Although I don't eat much squash, I love growing it (since childhood) and my kids do also. I love the white squash. I usually just get 4 or 5 per plant before the borers get them.

My two favorite green bells are Big Bertha and Keystone Giant. Bertha is huge, but thin-walled. Keystone didn't get big this year, but had very thick walls. They were amazingly heavy. Maybe I just like them because they are different from the others.

I enjoyed reading your plan.

Hi Beth,

Merry Christmas to you and your family too.

TOMATOES: I agree with Jay that Brandywine might not be the best choice for you if you want a lot of tomatoes. I made a spur-of-the-moment decision and bought two Brandywine plants that already had blossoms on them. I was hoping since they were in bloom in April, maybe I'd get more fruit than usual. Nope, only 3 or 4 or maybe 5 fruit per plant. I won't waste space on them again even though they are the best-tasting tomatoes.

Brandy Boy tastes nearly as good as Brandywine and produces very well in our hot climate like Jay said. I do have seeds of Pink Brandymaster if you want to try it. It is supposed to be a Brandywine 'cousin', so it sounds promising. I am sort of skeptical because many new varieties are promoted as tasting as good as or better than Brandywine and they rarely come close. However, I was skeptical about Brandy Boy when it was released and was pleasantly surprised, so maybe the same will be true of Brandymaster.

If you want a lot of tomatoes for cooking, canning, saucing or salsa-making, I'd suggest you plant a few of the hybrids or heirlooms that are well-known for producing loads of fruit per plant. Some good to great ones are Rutgers or Rutgers Select, Martino's Roma, Jet Star, Ramapo, Primetime, Supersonic, Red Defender and Scarlet Red. Last year, Red Defender and Scarlet Red gave me tons of tomatoes even though they were growing in relatively small (7 to 10 gallon) containers and I used them for canning. For canning or cooking, you can use strictly paste/Roma types, but I just as often use round, red slicing types.

One thing you need to know about making sauce or canning tomatoes is that you need a whole lot of tomatoes in order to make sauce because tomatoes are mostly water and cook down a lot. I'm always amazed at how a big pot of tomatoes turns into a medium or small pot of sauce.

You cannot go wrong with Arkansas Traveler or Traveler 76, and another couple that produce very well for me in August when the others mostly shut down are Bradley Pink, Porter and Improved Porter.

There are many bite-sized varieties available and I grow a lot of them. Two of them that I am never without are Sungold and Black Cherry. This year I am going to grow Sungold Select II in addition to regular Sungold so I can compare them. For red cherries, Sweet Million is wonderful and I grow Tess's Land Race Currant right beside it. Tess's plants get bigger and produce more fruit per plant, but they are very tiny fruit and this plant requires you to spend a lot of time picking the tomatoes.

PEPPERS: There are tons of bell pepper varieties available and I usually plant several of them because I like to let them mature to their full color (whether it is red, orange, yellow, purple, lilac, "chocolate", or ivory). I like to grow mini bell peppers so I always have plenty for cooking and their fairly tall plants (about 4' tall this year) produce tons of small peppers.

With sweet peppers, planting as early as you can (while making sure to wait until soil temps and overnight low temps are warm enough) will help ensure you get an early summer harvest. The sweet peppers may or may not produce well during the hottest part of the summer, but they'll kick back into production when fall weather arrives. Two sweet bell peppers that produce especially well in our garden are Blushing Beauty and Roumanian Rainbow. Both of them almost produce more fruit than foliage.

Hot peppers aren't as picky about the weather conditions and generally produce in flushes all summer long, so any ones you plant likely will do just fine.

SQUASH: With summer squash, planting as early as your weather allows helps your plants grow vigorously and allows them (hopefully) to produce a lot of squash before the squash bugs and squash vine borers arrive. With pattypan (scallop), straighneck, crookneck or zucchini, I usually start more seed for successions plantings at about the same time I begin harvesting summer squash. That way, by the time the squash bugs or SVBs are seriously damaging or killing the plants, I have replacement plants ready.

For winter squash, Geoge gave you excellent advice. Some years it is impossible to get mature Maximas because the bugs love them. Moschatas are a lot less likely to die before giving you ripe squash.

I have noticed I have the least pest and disease issues with all of the buff-colored winter squashes like George's Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, Long Island Cheese, and Seminole than with those that produce other colors of winter squash. Butternuts also are very tough and resist pests and diseases.

CUCUMBERS: I usually plant Boston Pickling or National Picking cucumber. I have seeds of both if you want to try them. For fresh cukes, any of the slicing types will grow and produce equally well.

LETTUCES: Pretty much any leaf lettuce will perform just fine, but once the temps hit the 90s on a regular basis, they all play out in the heat. Don't fall for the hype that some of them are heat-tolerant or slow to bolt or produce all summer long. In our hot summer weather, they just don't. Two that have been very heat-tolerant for me (meaning that they might last until May or even earliest June if May is colder than usual) are Jericho and Black-Seeded Simpson.

BEANS: I think Pole Beans give you the most bang for your buck in terms of producing the most beans possible in the space they use. Because much of their crop is ready more or less all at the same time, I rely on them more for canning or freezing. Bush beans, though, produce earlier, and you'll get several pickings from one planting. I rely on bush beans for smaller batches of beans for fresh eating. I think the ideal strategy is to plant both pole and bush if you want beans for fresh eating and for canning or freezing.

There are many, many good varieties available. For bush beans, I usually plant Provider, Contender, Top Crop, Royalty Purple Pod and Roma II and sometimes others as well. I generally succession plant several times so I always have beans to pick and eat (or can or freeze), except that the July/August heat sometimes shuts down production.

For Pole Beans, there's an infinite amount of varieties out there and I haven't met many beans I didn't like. Rattlesnake is a great producer in hot weather, especially if you have sandy soil. I also like Cherokee Trail of Tears, McCasland, Musica, Emerite, Supermarconi, Louisiana Purple Pod and several of the greasy beans like Cherokee Greasy or Greasy Grits. I'm growing most of those I mentioned this year, and several other greasies and cutshorts too, and Garrafal Oro, which is a new one for me this year. If you want to try some of these varieties, let me know and I'll send you some seeds.

BEETS: These are easy. The hardest part is just getting them to sprout. After that, they grow just fine. I'm not much of a beet person, though, so I don't grow them often enough to comment on the flavor of the various types.

SWISS CHARD: I have seed of some of the colored varieties and will be happy to send you some. I love chard both for its flavor and for its ability to produce well in the heat and its beauty. I often mix it into ornamental beds.

FLOWERS: When you plant flowers with your veggies, be sure to choose more compact flowers that won't outgrow your veggies and compete too much with them. I use lots of the mounding (not vining) types of nasturtiums, and other low-growing plants like sweet alyssum which attracts lots of beneficial insects and pollinators. With zinnias, I usually grow the fairly short (18-24" tall) Profusion series (the original ones, not the newer and taller Knee-High Profusion series) or Magellan or some other variety that stays pretty short. In the flower border where there are not veggies (more or less, sometimes pumpkins creep into the flower beds), I'll plant taller flowers. Marigolds are highly variable in my garden. Some years they are fine and other years they are covered in spider mites. In bad spider mite years, I pull up the marigolds once they are heavily infested with mites, place them in a sealed bag and throw them in the trash so the mites won't spread to the vegetable plants.

I'll be happy to send you some seeds again this year....you know that I always have extras. Let me know if you want to try some of the varieties I mentioned.

Dawn

Dawn the enabler is getting an early start today. LOL. Jay

LOL... now my head is swimming a bit.

Dawn, you are such a peach. I'll PM you my address again and try what you send me again this year, and THANK YOU so very much for your help! Enable me all you want, LOL! George has promised me some pole beans and a long bean, and his beautiful Old Timey Cornfield pumpkin seed too.

I might just have to get Hubbards off my mind. :)

On the flowers, the thought of spider mites has brought doubt to my wanting of marigolds! I might save ordering the Harlequin ones for when I get that cactus bed into better shape, it's far away from veggie plots. I can get packets of Sweet Alyssum in the cheaper seed brand, so I might just go with that.

Thanks again! I have to get back to work now, today is cookie day at my house! Allready did a gallon jar of chocolate chip, now come the gingerbread men. My four year old is having a ball, and so am I. :)

Beth

Happy Holidays to you too!!

This is great!! I love to get ideas from what other people are planning on doing in their garden. Now I have a question on your cucumbers. What kind of netting are you going to use for your wall? When I read that a light went off and I was like, "oh, that's what I want to do!" I planted bush cucumbers last summer but didn't get even near enough to pickle. I had to get extras from relatives in order to make bread & butter pickles and sweet relish. So, since they gave me extras I gave them some relish and pickles in return.

Also, how do you grow green onions from the grocery store? I would love guidance on that bcz we eat a lot of green onions!! I had some chives sent to me. But, they just aren't the same as green onions. I love the green onions in mexican dishes, on tacos, burritos and even sometimes on top of potato soup.

I also want a lot of tomatoes this year to can. I have been wanting to can my own tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, taco sauce, and pizza sauce. I did plant 2 or 3 cherry tomato plants this last year and they did good. However, I didn't get enough at a time for 4 people to have a serving!! Thinking I'll plant more this year. I got some black cherry tomatoes and I thought I'd try them.

I would like to plant more okra this year to freeze for fried okra. My kids and I love fried okra. However, this last year was the 1st year to plant okra so I only plated 4 plants. Not even enough!! I maybe got a quart-sized baggie full. Any suggestions on what okra is best would be great!!

Another thing I'm pawning on is blueberries. I would love to plant some bushes but don't know whether to plant from seed or plant. I found some highbush blueberries which I think I read somewhere on this forum b4 that they are good. My kids and husband love them so I thought I would comply for them!!

Too bad there's not a plant out there for chocolate chips!! lol.

Melissa,

You sound like me... LOL! :)

On the netting, I saw it on the Burpee's website and just knew that was the way to do my cucumbers. I'm going to have to support the "wall" in the middle with a couple of posts, but other than that I hope it's going to work like I'm thinking. I had that problem with not enough cukes last year too, but mainly because I didn't get enough plants planted. I'm hoping that Lowe's will carry the netting, probly will.

On the green onions... hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong about this. I've been cutting off the root end and putting them in dirt. Last year I did this with a few and they did grow back! If this truly is the case, then it seems like an easy way to get green onions, to me. I did try to start some from seed last season, but didn't get them thinned out. Might as well have been growing chives, they were so small.

I had two cherry tomato plants too last year, and mainly ate them myself... LOL!

I'm glad you mentioned okra, because I forgot to mention my okra plan! One, I've got tons of seed from my loofah gourd/vining okra. This grew like gangbusters for me, and I'm doing another "wall" of it this summer. I even harvested a few as loofah/dishcloths with success! I have two gallons of this frozen. On the regular okra, I have had problems starting from seed. So last summer I bought four plants, myself. This honestly gave me alot, my husband and I are the main okra eaters in our house. I put by a bunch breaded and frozen, and just some plain frozen to put in soups. NEXT summer I am going to double up on the okra tho, and do half green and half purple. Hopefully I can have productive plants like last year! When others were saying their's had stalled, mine were still putting on like crazy.

Gosh, I'm on the computer when I should be doing Christmas stuff... LOL! Little Bryan is enjoying rearranging the ornaments on the Christmas tree tho while I am on here. With little ones, you should have an interactive Christmas tree, in my opinion. :)

Beth

Jay,

I had to start early today to fit in some 'enabling' time before DH and I took our darling granddaughter to the mall. We're home now and I am exhausted, but she is still going strong. I wish I had her energy---especially at planting time.

Beth,

You are welcome.

I received your PM and sent you one in return. I'll mail the seeds shortly after Christmas, so keep an eye on your mailbox next week.

I hope y'all have had a fun cookie making experience today. I did my cookie baking and candy making last week. Tomorrow I start cooking because I'm making Christmas dinner for about 30 people.

Don't give up on marigolds because of spider mites either, because spider mites are not a problem every year. Just know to watch for them so you can nip that problem in the bud if you need to.

Melissa,

I'll put my basic plan on this forum sometime next week, and then y'all can declare me officially insane and begin planning to have me committed to a menta health facility. I'm expanding the garden a lot and hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew. I love seeing other peoples plans because it gives me new ideas to try too.

For pickles, plant a lot of pickling cucumber plants. It is not hard to give away excess pickling cucumbers if you have them because lots of folks like to make pickles and sometimes cannot get enough cukes at one time for pickles.

I'm sure Beth will come back here and tell you how she raises her cukes on netting or a trellis or whatever. I usually grow mine on a fence or on tubular tomato cages made of woven wire fencing. I usually plant 2 crops of pickles....one that will produce in summer and then, after it is done, I plant a succession crop that will produce in fall. I like to do as much of the canning as possible in the fall when the weather is cooling because the canning process sure heats up the kitchen. Another way to ensure good productivity is to pick your cukes regularly and pick them while they are fairly small. If you let even one cuke get overly large, the plant may stall. Depending on how many pickles you want to make, you probably should have 15-25 plants at any given time. I don't have a problem with excess pickling cukes because I just keep making pickles until I run out of jars or cukes. If I run out of jars, I start feeding the cukes to the compost pile or chickens.

You can start green onions from the root end of purchased green onions. Just slice off the end of the onion with the roots attached. You can dry them a while and then store them until you're ready to plant them. You also can start them with small onion transplants or from seed.

To get enough tomtoes to can, you have to plant some really heavy producers in order to have lots of tomatoes to can. I generally rely on red hybrids for a large volume of tomatoes, but often add some heirlooms too for improved flavor.

To get lots of okra, plant as many plants as you can squeeze in. I usually have a minimum of 20 or 25. They do take up a lot of space but some of the dwarf varieties (Little Lucy, Baby Bubba and others like them) stay quite a bit more compact. I don't think it is possible to have too much okra. I've liked every okra I've ever planted and there are many good ones, including Clemson Spineless and Clemson Spineless 80, Cowhorn, Hill Country Red, Burgundy Red, Cajun Delight, North and South, and any of the red velvet or green velvet types. Be sure to pick regularly to get more pods. If you let a few pods stay on too long, the plant tends to stop producing.

I would purchase blueberry plants because blueberries from seed would take forever to produce. Scott has written a lot about growing blackberries, including recommendations of varieties. Do a search of this forum using the Search box at the botoom of the Oklahoma Forum's main page and you should get a list of old blueberry discussions. I don't grow blueberries here because my soil and water pH is much too alkaline for them.

I agree about the chocoalate chip plant. Heck, if we are going to dream, let's ask for a chocolate chip cookie plant. There are some flowers and veggies with chocolate in their name, and at least one of the flowers even has a light chocolate aroma.

I read a story once about a man who planted doughut seeds (Cherrios) in his garden with his grandson. When the grandson became concern because no doughnut plants had sprouted in the garden, his granddad told him something like "Sometimes you get the doughtnut, sometimes you get the hole. Looks like this year we got the hole."

Dawn

Dawn,
Okay, so what I'm understanding from what you said to Melissa...

One. It might be good for me to have an heirloom for taste purposes and a hybrid for volume of tomatoes... right?

Two. Cukes should have two plantings per season, because the first one will play out?

p.s. I haven't tried the wall of cukes yet, this will be the first year on this attempt.

Beth

ALSO. I am trying to think of a fruit to grow here, and I'm thinking that a blackberry would be easiest. Thoughts? I'm not going to do it yet, probly within the next couple years tho.

Dawn,
Ok, so now I'm stressing on space issues!!

You said I need about 15-25 cucumber plants....OMG!! Last year I had like 3 or 4!! No wonder I didn't get very many. Well, I'm gonna go for it and go for 15 this year. I would try more but am limited on space. By the way, how close can I plant them?

As far as tomatoes goes, I will do what you said and have some for flavor and some for volume. I do have some Porter and Porter Improved seeds that I got from the swap. Also, I'm trying to get some Arkansas Travelers. As far as cherry tomatoes go, I have some of the black cherry tomato seeds from the swap. I assume that you probably sent them since you're the only one I've seen mention them!?

I'm the same on okra as I am on cucumbers. Guess I'll go with about 15 plants and just space them a little closer than usual. Do you think they'd do ok?

I am excited about the green onion thing. I have some green onions in the fridge right now and am going to keep the bottoms from them. I think I'll do what you suggested and dry them until I am ready to plant them. I'm thinking about mid-January to start them. Do you think that's too early?

And for the chocolate chip cookie plant, I said just the chocolate chip plant bcz my family often just raids the freezer for the chips for a quick sweet bite!!

Beth,
I would love to hear how you bread your okra for freezing.

Also, I'm curious about the loufa gourd. I have got some seeds and want to grow them this year for loufa's to wash with. I saw where you mentioned dishcloth's. Can you use loufa gourd's for dishcloths? That would be wonderful. Let me know!!

I am definitely going to do the cucumber wall. And, I too have vining okra that a friend gave me last year. I'm going to do a wall w/ those also. Thanks so much for the idea.

Till next time,
Melissa

Beth,

Yes, that's it exactly. If you want a huge volume of tomatoes to cook down into sauce, plant some high-producing hybrids (I'm sending you seeds of some). There are some heirlooms that produce fairly heavily, but none of them gives me as many tomatoes as I need in order to make salsa, sauce, canned tomatoes, etc. I mix heirlooms into the canned tomato products as I make them, but I'd say heirlooms are probably only 20% or 30% of the total volume of a batch of tomatoes being canned or frozen for future use.

Cucumber plants struggle because of the cucumber beetles which constantly assault them, so at least two plantings is good. If my first planting produces extremely well, then I might not plant as many for fall. On the other hand, if the spring/summer cukes don't do well for whatever reason, then the fall crop gives me enough to make all the pickles and relish I want. I think that last year more than half my pickles were from the fall crop.

Every now and then (2007 was such a year) I have a year where the spring planting is not attacked by cucumber beetles or by disease, but that is fairly rare. Hot weather can sometimes make cukes bitter, so I just plant in mid-spring and then in mid-summer for the second crop.

I think blackberries are a geat idea. Some of my favorite blackberry varieties were developed there in Arkansas. Depending on what your climate is like, you might be able to grow apples there---assuming you do not have huge numbers of cedar trees that can serve as a host plant for cedar-apple rust.

I almost always grow my cukes vertically because I can fit more plants into the space I have that way. I think you'll be happy with a wall of cukes. I plant my cukes 12" apart if I am trellising them, or 24" apart if I am letting them sprawl and creep and crawl on the ground. One advantage to growing them vertically is that it is easier to spot cukes hanging on a trellis. When they are sprawling on the ground, I always seem to miss a couple that are hiding under the foliage.

Dawn

Melissa, The Porter and Porter Improved Tomato came from Dawn, because I received it in a baggie with your name on it. It had four packs in it with your name and my name on it. I kept one of each (which I shared with a friend) and sent two to you. I don't remember about the Black Cherry because many of us grow that one. If the little round dot on the package has a number one on it, then it also came from Dawn. Unless they came with a name on them, I just tried to spread them out evenly after considering what the wish list said. Man there were a lot of seeds. Most of the tomato seeds came from Jay.

Melissa,
Have you read Square Foot Gardening? I can't remember the author's last name for sure right now, but I think he's Mel Bartholomew or something like that. Very nice way to look at space and spacing issues. I'm thinking on my cuke wall I'm going to have two rows, staggered, with a foot spacing in between each plant. On a fifteen foot "row" that'll be 30 plants! MIGHT be too much weight for the netting, but I'm going to give it a shot. Worst case scenario, I can pull plants if needed. That netting has got me thinking of other spots I can go vertically too... for pole beans.

My breaded okra is still a work in progress... LOL! When I first did it, I just breaded it like regular and froze it on a sheet of wax paper in the freezer. Worked, but the okra was fairly hard when cooked. Last summer I blanched the okra, THEN breaded it and froze it. This turned out better, but still not what I'm looking for. (I figured out it's better to thaw the okra a little bit before frying it on both ways.) NEXT YEAR, I'm going to pre-fry it in a tempura type batter, cool completely THEN freeze. I like cooking projects... LOL!

NOW, on the loofah/loufa/dishcloth/vining okra gourd thing... LOL! Honestly, I have no idea what the "real" name is for these dang things I've been growing. A friend gave me the seed and I just love growing them. When they're young, you cook them like regular ol' okra. Mid size to a bit bigger, I took a steak knife and cut it straight down the length of it and pulled the outer "husk" from the inner fibers. Then I de-seeded it and laid the fiborous part out to dry, and LOW AND BEHOLD, a loofah! This is what I'm calling "dishcloth". I did try to use half as a body scrubber, but it's way too scratchy for me. Works great on dishes tho! It becomes soft when wet, but still scratchy to a point... then dries out nicely and rebounds to it's shape! I loved it, next year I will have many more. I also let a couple get as large as possible and dry out on the vine, with seeds still in them. My little boy uses them as musical "shakers"! I'll try to take a pic of them here today and post it so you can see what I mean. All that from just one plant, I LOVE it. I had them planted along the edge of my carport in a "wall", and the beautiful yellow flowers were a joy to see everyday! The vines were so healthy, they grew all up on the top of the carport. I had a few dried gourds on the top of the carport at the end of the season. THIS will be a regular plant for me, it's just easy and fun to grow!

Dawn,
I honestly do not think I've run into a cucumber beetle... YET. Watch this year be the year for them... LOL! My wall of cukes might just be too inviting for them not to show up.
Yes, I hear of most people around here having either hybrid or wild blackberries growing, so I thought that'd be the way to go for me. Of course, strawberries are also very big around here too, but I don't have the space to devote to a huge bed of just ONE thing (in my mind). If I did, I'd do asparagus first, then strawberries. MIGHT try one of those hanging strawberry bags, but that's another project. :)
The trees around my area are pecan and cedar... LOL! I've never heard of ANYONE having luck with apple trees around here.

Well, we're having a rainy day here. The St. Francis river is up and we're under flash flood warnings too. I live in a higher part of town, so I'm not too worried about us. The farmers that farm along the river might have problems tho. Just been a wet, sloggy year for Northeastern Arkansas! Planting was late due to the wet spring, and harvesting was hard due to a wet fall! I really need to see what our rainfall averages are for the year, I'm betting we've set a record. But, of course, snow would be nice... but rain is better than ice! LOL! We're off to spend the rest of the day at my parent's house... ya'll stay safe, warm and dry! :)

Beth

p.s. My DARLING husband gave me an early Christmas present! It's a Veggie Tales t-shirt! On the front, it's got Bob the Tomato and it says "If you like to talk to tomatoes..."! LOL! I laughed so hard! I love that show... the theme song goes like this.

If you like to talk to tomatoes...
If a squash can make you smile...
If you like to waltz with potatoes,
up and down the produce aisle...
have we got a show for you!

Too cute, huh?

Jerreth blanches our okra and freezes it on a cookie tray before scraping it off and freezing it in bags. She sautes it with no breading at all, just a little salt and rosemary. For oil, she uses olive oil. It's heart healthy and delicious.

George

Melissa,

I think Jay probably has Arkansas Traveler in his seed stash. I just this morning put the last of my AT seeds in an envelope to send to Beth.

You can plant okra plants fairly close to one another if space is an issue. For closely spaced plants, I'd plant one of the dwarf varieties.

I fix my okra, by the way, the same way Jerreth does. I freeze it as is without breading. Sometimes I bread it and fry it, and sometimes I saute' it. I like it either way. Sometimes, after I've blanched them in the oven, I stand and eat them all straight off the cookie sheet and they never make it to the freezer. : )

Beth,

Cucumber beetles are everywhere here, but they visit all sorts of plants and some years they really don't even bother the cukes, but other years they do. I believe they transmit diseases and that's probably more of an issue than the damage they do themselves. There are both striped and spotted ones. I mostly see the striped ones.

We have lots of cedars here too---just wall to wall in many places--so I won't even attempt to grow apples here because they wouldn't stand a chance against cedar-apple rust.

Are you supposed to have snow tomorrow? We are, but I have the attitude that I'll believe it when I see it.

Hope you had a nice visit with the parents.

The Veggie Tales shirt sounds too cute. What a clever idea. I've never seen Veggie Tales but I know what it is.

Hi George!

Dawn

I'm sure I have plenty of the Arkansas Traveler seed. Will try to check tomorrow. Should have some time as it will be too cold to do a lot outside. But know i have some for sure. Just not sure of the amount. Jay

George and Dawn,
I like the sound of your okra better than having fried each and every time. I'm slowly getting the Hubby used to the idea of a non breaded okra by putting it in my veggie soup... he's one of those people who thinks cooked okra is slimy. We've got to eat more heart healthy tho... being in your forties makes you think of these things more, huh? :)

Dawn,
You might like the Veggie Tales cartoons for your little grandaughter! They're Christian based stories, and they're funny too! Bryan and I enjoy them as much as he does...lol! I find the vhs tapes at flea markets alot, so we've gotten a very good collection so far. And the main characters are veggies... you can't go wrong with veggies! :)

Well, I gave ya'll our weather update on Dawn's thread. I'm expecting our internet service to be spotty at best untill this rain stops. But when I can I'll get a pic of those vining okra up so ya'll can see what I have!

Be safe and happy!

Beth

Finally getting some pics of that vining okra/gourd thingy up... :).

It's a beautiful vine!

You'll notice the flowers. The start out as a clusters of buds, then bloom out one at a time, the stem growing out with each bloom. VERY neat looking.

Here's what a small one looks like

And here it is, about ready to be eaten! Some people don't like them this big, but my DH loves them.

Now, having said and shown all that, I DO have seed to share on this. Can do a few packets of 20 seeds. I do need help with postage and envelopes to send this out, tho. Just send me an email if you're interested! :)

Hope everyone is safe and warm! We're going to be eating on the Christmas food for a few days now... LOL! Least I don't have to cook. :)

Beth

Great pix Beth! Thanks.
Regarding Veggie Tales, I've only seen one or two episodes, as they came out after our kids were small. But I can attest that Adventures in Odyssey is quite suitable for adults, as well as children. Our children loved to listen to these when they were little, and we drove a lot, on long trips. Grown, I haven't heard them mention listening. But I DO! I can get the program on the Internet, and sometimes, if I have high speed access during a lunch break, I do take on episode in! It's like an old time radio drama.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Adventures in Odyssey

Thank YOU George! I'm always looking for suitable entertainment for Little Bryan! He allready listens to "The Night Kitchen" on NickJr.com's radio section... so this will be right up his alley. We'll listen to it when he wakes up from his nap. Glad you liked the pics too. I should've gotten a pic of the vines when they had climbed all the way up the carport... LOL!

Another plug for the Veggie Tales... for anyone who has little ones. On www.hulu.com you can watch the entire "Jonah, A Veggie Tales Movie" for free! Good silly fun with a good message to it.

Ya'll have a good day!

Beth