Our 2016 Vegetable Garden

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I took this pic of my corn patch today. It's growing very fast, I have pole beans planted in there with the corn, so I'll get two big crops out of this spot. This will be the first year with no chemical fertilizer used at all with the corn, I've added and worked in a lot of composted horse manure and composted leaves this spring. I figure the corn has all the nitrogen it needs as it is.

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I took this pic of my corn patch today. It's growing very fast, I have pole beans planted in there with the corn, so I'll get two big crops out of this spot. This will be the first year with no chemical fertilizer used at all with the corn, I've added and worked in a lot of composted horse manure and composted leaves this spring. I figure the corn has all the nitrogen it needs as it is.

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Wow that's looking good, Are your pole beans limas or snaps?
 
Wow that's looking good, Are your pole beans limas or snaps?

Snaps. As far as I know, you can't grow limas in corn. The limas take longer to grow, and what will happen is the corn stalks will die and fall down before the limas will be ready to pick. With green beans, the beans start coming in not long after you harvest the corn. This is about the only way I'd consider growing pole beans, having to put up pole bean trellises is a lot of work, it's so much easier just to let the corn be the trellis.
 
Here's my okra today, I've got 'em separated a long way from my other garden spots because of blight problems, probably being spread into them by my tomatoes. I've been cutting all the lower leaves off that are turning yellow and brown from blight. Apparently the same fungus's that attack tomatoes also attack okra, and it happens the same way. Fungus spores in the ground infect the lowest leaves and then it spreads up the plants. This is why I've been planting so much because in past years I've had problems with stunted, infected plants and reduced yields. I've been making up for blight problems by planting what would be way too many for most other gardeners. Spraying helps some but it's a big hassle and I don't like fungicides on my food, even if it is relatively non toxic copper formulas. The spray is expensive and the time spent spraying isn't much fun. I've seen other growers cutting the lower leaves off their plants so I'm trying it this year. If it works I should get a *lot* of okra this time. I picked my first bag full this morning. So far they are doing well.

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Really nice patch, Did you plant them with a push seeder or by hand? The spacing looks perfect to me.
 
Okra a yellow Burmese type https://www.southernexposure.com/burmese-okra-4-g-p-131.html on the right and Waltham butternut winter storage squash on the left. 75ft. rows about. We've been picking okra for about ten days now and it should bear until frost. Burmese is a great okra and if other okra is not growing nearby seed saving is easy. Non slimy type.

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We've been growing small, colorful sunflowers for several years now and saving seed. We make no effort to prevent cross pollination and save seed from the flowers we like best and also choose for as much variability as possible. Lots of goldfinch activity, the one in the photo is watching me closely. Lots of bees, too. We get a metalic green bee but I don't know what it is. Seem rather tame. The photos don't show it well but these bees are loaded up with pollen. All photos taken a few minutes ago.

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I believe this is a swallowtail butterfly. Butterflies love the sunflowers.

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Here are some various shots of sunflowers and insects:

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Okra a yellow Burmese type https://www.southernexposure.com/burmese-okra-4-g-p-131.html on the right and Waltham butternut winter storage squash on the left. 75ft. rows about. We've been picking okra for about ten days now and it should bear until frost. Burmese is a great okra and if other okra is not growing nearby seed saving is easy. Non slimy type.

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Never heard of Burmese variety okra. How blight resistant is it? I'm getting ready to go 0ut and water my okra right now. We're having hot temps and no rain - typical for this time of year.
 
We've been growing small, colorful sunflowers for several years now and saving seed. We make no effort to prevent cross pollination and save seed from the flowers we like best and also choose for as much variability as possible. Lots of goldfinch activity, the one in the photo is watching me closely. Lots of bees, too. We get a metalic green bee but I don't know what it is. Seem rather tame. The photos don't show it well but these bees are loaded up with pollen. All photos taken a few minutes ago.

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I believe this is a swallowtail butterfly. Butterflies love the sunflowers.

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Here are some various shots of sunflowers and insects:

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Very good photos! Can I repost these on my facebook page? - I've got friends who do flower and bug photography, they'd like to see these........
 
Very good photos! Can I repost these on my facebook page? - I've got friends who do flower and bug photography, they'd like to see these........

Sure, go ahead and repost my photos. Be sure to click on them first as it opens a slightly larger file and that is the one you may be more interested in saving. I had 3.5 mb files but I reduced the size and didn't save the originals. Some photo were taken in 'micro' mode. I use a cheap 10 year old digital camera, the Canon SD790 IS

I've never had blight on okra so maybe Burmese is naturally resistant......or maybe blight isn't in my area.
 
My okra did great this year. I've produced way more than I can personally consume, so extended family and friends got plenty this time. Last year had a poor okra crop, and this wasn't just me, it was statewide. Last year was wet and cool, and my okra succumbed to fungus diseases and did poorly. This summer was different, hot and dry. Fungus doesn't grow well under hot and dry, so my okra stayed healthy. I just harvested a bucket full this morning, and I anticipate daily harvests going on for the rest of October. I never had to weed my okra patch, I laid down a thick layer of leaves that have prevented weed growth and kept ground moisture from evaporating. I eat fried okra and sliced, fresh, garden tomatoes almost every day.

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