Growing Okra

For the past several weeks, Susanne from Aloha has called to report on her okra crop.  I have never seen okra growing in Oregon and have not heard of a home owner trying it.  So getting the call about okra from Susanne was a surprise and very interesting.  I think of okra as growing in the south and a plant that needs lots of heat to mature and it is certainly not a common crop in Oregon.  However with our current heat wave, perhaps it is just what her plants need.  Susanne started her plants from seeds by soaking the seeds in water overnight and then wrapping them in a wet paper towel until they germinated.  She then planted the germinated seeds in small pots and kept them inside and waited until warm weather before planting them in the ground.  Her plants are in a full sun location and are now flowering and producing pods.  Susanne has done some research and learned that the pods should only be about two inches long when picked.  With the hot weather we are currently experiencing, I would think her okra plants would thrive.  From the photo she sent me, I think Susanne is going to have a good crop and I’ll be interested to hear her continuing experiences with growing okra.  Susanne thanks for sharing!

Have you ever grown okra?  If so, let me hear your results.

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Bee Hives

You may have heard me mention several weeks ago that I was going to try raising honeybees and getting my own honey.  This will be quite an experiment and experience for me as I have never done anything like this before.  My neighbor has had several hives for the past 3-4 years and he has been encouraging me to try.  So, this spring I am.

 

This is a picture of the bee hive as it will be in our garden.  My neighbor gave me the hive boxes and they were painted white, which seems to be the typical color.  After taking a class at Ruhl Bee Supply, I learned that they do not necessarily have to be white and my wife thought the color you see would blend into the garden better than white.  I call this my designer color hive!

 

I have all (I think) my supplies; bees suit, gloves, smoker, tools, etc and today (Friday, April 6) is ‘bee day’.  The bees arrive at Ruhl Bee Supply and I pick them up in the afternoon.  I was quite surprised at the quantity; approximately 10,000 bees plus one queen.

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INSTALLING SPRING/SUMMER...

My friend Mike Snyder, who lives and gardens in Beaverton, recently sent me this.  It made me smile and I hope it will do the same for you.


 

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Tomato Indigo Blue

While the weather might not make you think of spring, it is time to begin thinking of getting seeds started indoors for a summer garden.  Tomatoes are the most popular home garden vegetable (although technically a fruit), and they need to be started indoors.  By the time our soil warms up, it is too late to sow tomato seeds.  I figure that you should start tomato seeds indoors about 6 weeks before you would plant them outdoors.

One to try this year is a new introduction from Oregon State University called ‘Indigo Rose’.  This tomato has high anthocyanin which is a naturally occurring pigment that has been shown to fight disease in humans.  The skin is almost blue and is about 2 inches round.  It looks like clusters of purple plums.  

Developed by OSU so it is adapted to our Willamette Valley conditions; seeds are available now from Territorial Seed Company, www.territorialseed.com.

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