I bought dwarf okra seeds last spring because I was tired of trying to fetch ripe okra pods that had grown to Jack and the Beanstalk heights. It would be nice, I thought, to actually bend down and pick the delicious okra pods. Bend down my rear end. All seven of Snow White’s Dwarfs could stand on each other’s shoulders and still not be able to reach the top blooms. My dwarf okra … [Read more...]

  I had a decent garden this year, though the mid-summer drought played hell with several of my plantings, like squash. But production was decent – especially with my completely enclosed cage which kept squirrels and rabbits at bay. Overall, we had a good year for tomatoes. Nancy has a small, above-ground enclosed cage for her garden and she always gets a head start since the ground … [Read more...]

  Our son Jimmie gave us some flowers to plant when we saw him in early August. Jimmie worked for Hines Nursery and knows his stuff. He said it wasn’t too late to plant the Dahlias and that we would be impressed with the flowers. They grow to be as big as dinner plates. Well, they sure did. Nancy picked 4 or 5 huge blooms yesterday. They were, as you can see, lovely. Jimmie said not … [Read more...]

“Come look at all the bees!” my wife had called. “What kind of bees?” I asked, wanting to make sure this backyard visit was worth missing part of the football game I was watching. “Honeybees?” she exclaimed. And they were! Real live honeybees, by the dozens, flitting their way between blooms on what was for us at that time an unidentified flowering plant. Our son Jimmie had given us these … [Read more...]

This year I devoted a small row in my garden to peppers – and I really don’t like peppers, but Nancy likes to can some hot peppers for our kids and some stuffed door-knob peppers which I actually do like. So, I planted a couple of jalapeno pepper plants and 4 doorknob pepper plants, but one of them died. On a subsequent trip to the Corner Store Nursery in Ruckersvillle to pick up some seeds, I … [Read more...]

Every summer, Mom shipped me off to Clemmons, NC to spend a week with my Brewer relatives. Several times, they put me on a Greyhound bus and shoved me off solo, sometimes seated next to a soldier on leave. I’d spend a couple nights with Aunt Lena, a night or two with my cousin, Bob, and several nights with my cousin Steve. Steve’s dad, Uncle Bud, had married my father’s sister, Aunt Mary. Mary and … [Read more...]

Heirloom Tomatoes are truly “heirlooms”. Farmers Almanac confirmed that this unique tomato plant has come from seeds that have been handed down from generation to generation. Families and farmers saved the seeds from the tomatoes that tasted best and over the years, perhaps the most flavorful, juiciest tomato of all emerged. The Heirloom  is a purebred tomato, not a  hybrid variety. Yet you … [Read more...]

  I now have corn rows – not in my hair, in my garden. I planted 4 very short rows and am hoping for the best. I needed something to replace my early harvest of sweet peas. Green beans would have been a more sensible choice, but I gambled with bi-color corn. Corn does better when it’s planted with lots of other corn, side by side, so I planted my 4 baby rows about a foot apart. Hopefully … [Read more...]

    Tennessee Ernie Ford had a catchphrase: “Bless your pea-picking heart.” This week I was a genuine pea picker. I started not to sow peas in my garden this year. They seem like a lot of work and garden space for not very much return, but peas are one of just a few vegetables you can plant in March and when rotated, that space can yield two crops in a small garden. I also … [Read more...]