Growing Okra In Southwest Washington State & Other Garden Stuff

I feel like I tend to gloss over what I'm doing with my greenhouse.

First, I'd like to say that, realistically, I'd like to get a couple more greenhouses. The size is good fit for me and I could expand what I grow exponentially. They are tall enough to run a trellis in and with having two doors, at either end, they are fairly easy to regulate as far as temperature goes.

Let's do a quick walk-through, shall we?

First off, here's a livestock report. We have developed a system for these guys. We throw our veggie scraps out in strategic areas of the yard and they seem to leave my garden alone. If they continue to be like that, we can co-exist. 

This guy was across the driveway. He wasn't even scared of Rose! Rose doesn't seem all that interested in chasing them anyhow. I think she tried a couple of times and figured out that it was fighting a losing battle because as fast as she is, they are even faster.

We've inquired about a male Australian kelpie. He's located in Texas. He'd be a rescue. We're trying to find out how much it would be to ship him up here. I'll keep you updated on that.

I'm beyond excited!! I do not live in a climate that is conducive to growing okra. We don't have a hot enough climate for them. I planted out two heirloom varieties, Jing Orange and Okinawa Pink (both are Baker Creek varieties) and, yesterday, I noticed my first okra blossom. Today, I have baby okra. From what I know about okra, it will be this size this morning and huge by tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm very excited about this experiment working out in my benefit. Okra will always have a place in my greenhouse from now on. I am planning on getting another greenhouse that I can dedicate half of it to growing okra. I love the stuff! This is an Jing Orange okra.

This is my Loofah Gourd. It's growing right along. I don't think I'll actually get any production from it but I wanted to see if I could even grow it here. Now that I know that I can, I'll grow it next year but I'll start out much earlier. I only gave the cucurbits a 5 week head start. I think they need double that amount of time, so I'll start them in mid-April in 2023.

This is one of the Okinawa Pink okra. I have about  4 or 5 baby okra on my plants. I think I wound up with 7 plants total. 

Bob's not a huge fan, so this will be plenty for me. 

These are my 4 cucamelon plants. I'm hoping that they will produce. I think I'll have enough time. I'd love to pickle some of these up for this winter.

I grew my first cucamelon last year. I got like 4 little cucamelons off of it. Cucamelons like to be very warm and being in the greenhouse lets me create the perfect habitat for them.

In this pot, I have Tigger melons in the front and Kajari melons in the back. Both are Baker Creek varieties. I know that cucurbits are easy to cross but I am not planning on saving seeds from these this year. I just want to see if I can actually grow a melon in the greenhouse. If I'm able to, I'll worry about bagging some blooms next year to save seeds from. I still have plenty of each variety leftover.

Next to the Kajari and Tigger melons, I have a Siamese Bitter melon vine growing. I had to untangle it from the window screen and wind it around the stake.

This is another one of those things that I'm experimenting with this year to see if I could even hope to get it to produce.
I do love bitter melon soup and Vietnamese stuffed bitter melon.

Here's another view of the 2 melons.

I think that, this winter, we'll use the white vinegar method of killing weeds and then lay down some landscape fabric and cover it with wood chips. I'm really over the weeds. As good of a growing environment that this greenhouse is for my melons and okra, the weeds love it even more!

Here is my Minnesota Midget cantaloupe. I haven't had a good cantaloupe since we lived up in Silverlake and we were buying those Hood River cantaloupes at the market in Castle Rock. They were so delicious. I'm hoping to replicate that flavor by growing my own. I picked a short season variety. I believe these seeds came from MIGardener, which surprises me because I don't usually have the greatest luck with his seeds.
I ordered from him this past year because he was the only seed vendor offering Spring Blush peas. I threw the cantaloupes in on a whim.

They are blooming so we'll see.

Another shot of the Baker Creek melons next to the Cucamelons. All 3 of these varieties came from Baker Creek.

My old neighbor gave me a pot of gladiolus. I'm not sure what variety they are. She may have even picked them up from the Dollar Tree. No matter. They are stunningly gorgeous!

I still have my rose bushes in a pot. They aren't looking the greatest. We didn't get them planted out this year so that's our project over the winter.

Here's the lowest terrace. The hose is stretched down there because we have a sprinkler in the orchard.
Speaking of the orchard, we had a tree full of pie cherries 4 days ago and, yesterday, the birds had completely stripped it clean. We didn't get one cherry off of either tree. We'll have to net them next year, for sure.

I didn't notice the little guy when I was taking the photo, but there's another rabbit down there. LOL. We have them all over. If we drive down the driveway in the morning or evening, we have to go super slow. It's not just because of the potholes, it's because there are so many wild rabbits all over the place.

We also noticed that our wild blackberries are starting to turn red. In a couple of weeks, we should be able to pick some.

And here is yet another wild rabbit. This guy is eating the lettuce leaves that we threw out there for them. Our supermarket had carrots on special, so we bought a pound of them. We broke up a few and tossed them here and there, in areas that are not near the garden. We're hoping that the deer and rabbits enjoy their snacks.

Thanks for taking the tour! Enjoy!

Garden Update, July 26, 2022

 I know I recently posted a garden update, but we've gotten a warm weather streak here in western Washington state (zone 8b) and I've had some exciting things happen in the garden, as well as things that make me want to buy a BB gun.

First off, I have a disclaimer to make. We had some really wacky weather in western Washington state this spring and early summer. We had a late snow in  April, as well. That is something that never happens until now. Then, I got a hold of some subpar garden soil for my containers and raised beds. I've been fighting an uphill battle. This is also the very first year that I've ever grown tomatoes, peppers, cucurbits, etc. from seed. I've grown lettuce, nasturtiums, beans, peas, radishes...those types of things...from seed, but I've never grown a tomato from a seed. So, you'll have to excuse my utter excitement at seeing that little seeds that I started on March 1st setting fruit.

So, let's take a stroll, shall we?

The first thing I want to show you are my grapes. I used to have beautiful, lush grape vines. I had to leave them behind when we moved here. I did some trading and obtained 5 Concord grape cuttings. Bob took on the job of getting them to root. I think he's done an amazing job of that. All 5 took root and have survived. I found someone selling 2 year old grape cuttings on Facebook Marketplace so we bought one from that person, as well, to make an even half dozen. The one that we just bought is a green table grape variety.

You can definitely tell the 2 year old one from the rest. 

Now, bear with me as I try to remember which is which on these tomatoes. I tried to upload in order of how they go in the garden. I have a system that works for me, as far as remembering what is planted where, but I am human and I do tend to screw it up from time to time.
The first photo are a couple of Black Krim babies. Black Krim are my all-time favorite as far as taste goes. I have yet to find a tomato that can beat them in flavor. I didn't grow them for a few years and we really regretted that. I will not be without a Krim in my garden from here on out. We grow these for eating fresh.

These are a couple of Bonny Best. I wanted to grow Bonny Best because, from what I've read, it's a good all around canning tomato. That's what I mainly want to concentrate on growing.
Don't get me wrong, I still want to grow some fun varieties, but the majority of what I grow, from now on, will be for preserving.

This is a Julia Child. I've wanted to grow this variety for as long as I can remember. I bought the seeds from Kim Lund. You can find her in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous. Just give her a shout out. She's got a ton of great stuff for sale!

These are one of my few cherry sized variety and the only tomato plant that I bought from the store this year. This is called Isis Candy Cherry. It's supposed to be super sweet. I wanted to grow a garden snack tomato plant this year and this fit the bill nicely.

You can see how stunted these plants are. I don't really care how big they get as long as they continue to produce. I still have around 130 varieties that I can start for next year. It's all good!

These are a really cool looking variety called Cream Sausage. They are a paste tomato and, when ripe, they are a white variety. I've never grown a white tomato before, so we'll see how these turn out. If they are too weird, I'll just add them into the mix with the red varieties that I have. These are a determinate variety.
With tomatoes, there are indeterminate varieties. Those are the plants that will continue to grow all season long and continue to set fruit until the frost kills it in the fall. Indeterminate varieties can grow 12-15 feet tall if you let them.
Then you have determinate varieties. Determinates grow only so tall, usually about 3 or 4 feet, and they set all their fruit at about the time so that it all ripens within a week or so. These varieties are really good for someone who grows in containers. They may need a bit of support, but a small tomato cage will do the trick for these.
Lastly, we have dwarf varieties. Those are self explanatory. They are short. They are dwarfs. 'Nuff said. If you're interested in dwarf varieties, tag Ken Fry in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous. He's got some pretty cool ones.

Here is a cluster of Cream Sausage. I can't wait to see these white tomatoes fully ripe. I've never grown a white variety.

I have 5 Opalka plants. Opalka is a great tomato for canning. I think that I have fruit set on 3 out of the 5 so far. Go Opalka!! They are a red canning tomato.

This is an indeterminate variety called Sart Roloise. I've wanted to grow this since the very first time I saw a photo of them. This tomato is a blue and white variety. I don't know how it tastes. I don't really care how it tastes. It's a stunning looking tomato. The photo on the Baker Creek website shows a tomato that is half white and half blue. 

Note: blue tomatoes aren't really blue. They are just really, really dark. It's from the anthocyanin content in them. Anthocyanin is an antioxidant. I don't tend to favor their taste like I do with a black variety of tomato. I grow these for the visual. I will eat them, though. Never fear. 

This is a fasciated bloom. These can happen for a number of reasons: genetics, bacteria/fungal/viral problems, the environment or herbicides can cause this to happen. We can toss one of those reasons out right now and that would be the bacteria/fungal/viral problem. If I had any one of those 3 issues, I'd have other plants showing signs of it. I am leaning more toward genetics or environmental. I don't think it's herbicidal because of two reasons. #1: I don't use it and #2: the other plants aren't doing this. 

Anyhow, another way to describe a fasciated bloom is a fused bloom. That means that 2 or more blooms are growing together, much in the way of Siamese twins. I'll have a misshaped tomato. Since this is a variety that I'm growing out for looks, I'm curious to see what this bloom will turn out like, so I'm not going to pull it off. I'll just let it grow.

This is a Bulls Heart Red. This is another of my canning tomatoes. I got the seeds from Ukraine.

This is another tomato baby on the Bulls Heart Red. It's the same plant as above.

These are a new variety that I hadn't heard of before this year. They are called Prairie Fire. They are supposed to be red streaked with yellow. I'm going to use them for canning. At least, I hope they taste good enough to can up. They are plum shaped and those usually indicate a decent paste/sauce tomato.

 

If I remember correctly, this is another one of my Opalka plants.

More Opalkas. I'm really liking what I see so far with this variety.

These are my tomatillo plants. I started 2 from seed and I bought 2 at the farmers market because I wasn't sure if the 2 I started would grow. I cannot tell which is which.

Here is my little volunteer. Now, I cannot claim any great achievements with this as it came up through the bark dust and gravel. We didn't put either of those down. We're just letting it grow.

Side view of the volunteer.

I'm not gonna lie. My eggplants look absolutely horrendous. I might get a fruit or two from them.

This is because I had to hold them in the greenhouse for so long because of our wacky, rainy weather in June.

This Casper variety looks better than the other 3, but that's not saying much.

The rhubarbs are looking spectacular, though. They don't mind cool, rainy weather and they don't mind hot, sunny weather, either.

These are Tongues of Fire bush beans. They are a borlotto type of bean. I've grown borlottos before and we rather enjoyed them.

The damn deer zapped my Dollar Store bean bed. They didn't eat the beans, just the leaves off of the plants.

Tanya's Pink Pod bush beans and a mixed pot of nasturtiums. The nasturtiums are the Alaska variety and I have both salmon colored and red colored planted in there. I haven't seen a flower bud yet.

These are Scarlet Runner beans that I planted to go up over the trellis. The chipmunk and birds got roughly half of the seeds. They are really pretty, though.

They are starting to climb.

When I thinned out my lettuces, I just threw the ones that I pulled down onto the ground in hopes that the wild rabbits would eat them. They missed a couple. These decided to grow in the gravel. I wish the deer would have ate these and left my beans alone.

Here's the other lettuce plant. These are called Bronze Beauty. I got the seeds a few years ago (in 2020) from Baker Creek.

My biggest raised bed is the one that I used for pole beans. They are growing just fine in there for the most part. We put bird netting over this to keep the critters out. We did catch a chipmunk in the net. Bob said he just laid there quietly until Bob got him untangled and then he proceeded to tell Bob off. He hasn't been back in there.

The zucchini plant that I bought from Home Depot is growing. It doesn't look all that great, but it's blooming. So much for that old Washington adage that if you grow one zucchini plant, the entire neighborhood has zucchini, huh?

It looks like my little hybrid cucumber plants might be trying to grab a hold of their trellis. I just don't see myself having enough cucumbers this year to make pickles. I may just buy some at the farmers market and make up some relish and call it good. 

Now onto my happy spot in my garden. I'll give you all 3 guesses as to why I say that, but you won't need them.

We're getting ready to harvest one of them. I need to figure out if I want to make another batch of sauerkraut or not.

This will be the first cabbage to sacrifice itself. I've never grown such a good looking specimen before! I mean...look at that thing! It's picture perfect!

I feel like Tom Hanks in that movie Castaway when he made his first fire!

Now, let's head into the greenhouse. This is another spot that I just am in awe of how it's growing in there. I had no expectations, whatsoever, because the stuff I put in there does not grow here.
This is a Minnesota Midget cantaloupe.

I grew cucamelons for the first time last year. I got like 3 little cucamelons off the plant. I have 4 going in this pot. I hope it produces. I need to start these much earlier next year, I think.

I cannot believe it but I have blooms on my Tigger melon. I got the seeds from Baker Creek. This is one of those things that I think I need to start much earlier than I did.

These are the loofah gourds that I have growing. Being a cucurbit, they do not like to have their leaves wet which makes them a prime candidate for growing in the greenhouse.

And, to show for replicating those conditions, my Kajari melons are blooming.

 

Another plant that isn't conducive to growing in our rainy climate here in western Washington state is okra. Okra loves hot conditions. It is thriving in my greenhouse. I have 2 varieties growing. The above photo is Okinawa Pink. 

This is the other variety that I have is called Jing Orange. If any of you have grown okra before, let me know in the comments below, if those are baby okra or not. 

This is an interesting specimen that would never grow here in our Washington climate. These are my Siamese bitter melon. 

Rounding out my garden tour this morning, I'd like to show you my Lettuce Leaf basil. This basil variety will always have a spot in my garden. The leaves are huge.

This is the orange thyme that I started from seed. The variety is called Orangelo and I got the seeds from Baker Creek.

Finishing up my garden tour this morning, I'll show you my two other favorite basils. The green one is called African Nunum basil (Baker Creek) and the other is also a Baker Creek variety called Persian. I never realized how easy it was to grow basil from seed. I'll never buy another starter plant.

Thanks for taking a stroll with me through the garden this morning. I hope you enjoyed it.