Okra, Okra and more Okra!

My last post on this site was October 2011!  Oh my, much has happened since then and I've taken at least a million pictures since then (slight exaggeration) but really I can't believe I'm not sharing them and my dirt digging thoughts!

This year I made all new flower beds in the front of my driveway, my beds by the front porch replenished themselves with zinnias, coreopsis and lima beans by the bookoos!  I'm not for sure about the bookoos - that's a word I've always heard, but have no idea if it's a real word or how to spell it.  I know spellcheck is not happy - haha - oh well, it's my word and I'm using it.

Before I add pictures from the building of the beds to their present great look, I have to share my okra pictures from this year.  Last year I had just a couple of little plants and they made huge okra pods, but never enough to pick at one time for a side dish, so I let them all go to seed and planted them this summer.  I put some in a flowerbed and they didn't do much, but I planted some in pots and oh my goodness!

 First comes the bud, then the bloom and then the harvest.  The blooms remind me of a wild mallow and I wonder if it's the same family, but haven't bothered to check it out!  I've, also noticed that not every okra comes from a bloom - it's almost like there's one pollinator for a group of actual veggies, but I may not be paying close enough attention.  I do know that I get enough for a meal about every three days.  We've never eaten so much okra, but we love it.  I slice it up and cook it in Rotel tomatoes and it's wonderful.  It comes out spicy, but not too spicy.  Of course, it's hard to get it too spicy for us.





This was what I cooked Saturday night for dinner.  We ate a lot and had one serving left over.






The picture below is four of my plants, there's one just outside the picture range.  I have one huge plant on left (also in single shot) and four more average size plants.  All are producing.  The largest one was planted in Miracle Grow potting soil!  Yes, it does make a difference.   I have some pictures of some other plants in Miracle Grow and some not and WOW is all I can say.  And no I'm not paid a penny to say this - it's just the truth!   other beds

So this is the end of my okra post, but I will be posting again soon, sharing my yard and garden with you.

Happy digging!

Catching Up!

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog and so I came in this morning and made lots of changes!  I changed the entire look of the blog and am taking the focus off of just pictures!  The name has been changed from Bev's Photo Shots to Birds, Blooms and Bugs because I want to feature and talk about my garden and how life has changed after 20+ years with an urban yard 70' x 140' to a country yard sooooo much bigger.  We have almost three acres and of course we have our house, my garden shed and my husband's very large "Man Land" building taking up space, but believe me that leaves lots more yard to fill.

Even though we are in the country, we have neighbors and live in a neighborhood od.  When we moved out here the neighbors seemed so far away, but now they seem close and I wish I had more land, but as my husband reminds me, we're not getting any younger and more land, just mean more work!  So what's a girl to do?  Plant and plant and plant!

Back in 2010 when we had first moved in I posted pictures of our property and my feeble attempts to garden!  I was overwhelmed, some days I still am, but I'm getting better and I have to tell you adding a fence made a big difference. We put in a three rail white fence this spring and it defined our property.  At least I could see boundaries, instead of everything just flowing all the way to the next house.  Now in the city we all had these big 7' privacy fences and couldn't see into the next yard, but out here most yards have no fence at all and so there were no visible boundary lines. I would never want those big tall wooden fences again, but I do like the definition of space.

The first year we were here we put in a white picket fence to define an immediate back yard and a place for our little dog, Jack Daniel, to have a place to run and play.  In the fall of 2010 I put in a small areas of cabbage and brussel sprouts and we really enjoyed these winter, early spring veggies.  Last year I didn't plant a fall garden, but we were still picking tomatoes all the way to Christmas!  Needless to say we live in a warmer climate. Winter 2010-11 we had below freeing temps for many days and even had snow!  My winter crops did great.  This last winter we had one or two nights that we had some frost and that was it!  So this year we're going to build some raised beds using the "square foot gardening" technique and will be ready for a fall and winter garden.  While my garden this year has been limited to a few tomato plants (most of which came up from fallen seed) and a cantaloupe plant that came up from fallen seed and some chives that survived the winter and are back!  Oh, and in the spring I had cilantro plants by the million, could never have rated all that came up and now I have millions of coriander seeds.  Isn't that just a mystery how it's cilantro when it's a plant and coriander when it's seed!  What is that all about?  Anyway, it self sows and just like basil I have it growing everywhere!

This blog will cover everything I enjoy about living in the country - the animals I pass as I drive to town, the flowers that come up in the fields, my own beds, birds, blossoms, bugs and soooo much more.  When we get rain in the winter we get beautiful wildflowers in the spring.  I want to share my experiences with anyone interested in gardens and nature and how God is in all of the details!  I have always loved nature, God's amazing creation, but out here it has become even more real with the new born calves and horses in the fields as we drive by, the birds being hatched on my back porch, just outside my kitchen window and bugs and butterflies galore.