It has been exceedingly hot and dry. It always is this time of year, but even more so in 2022. I haven't mowed the grass in a month. We are watering everything in the garden and the landscape every other day just to keep things alive. It is a good exercise to see what in the garden is able to survive and even thrive in the dog days of summer.
This garden plant wins the contest hands down. Can you guess what it is? I'll show you the flower as a hint:
It looks almost like a hibiscus. That's because this heat and drought tolerant plant is in the hibiscus family. That is an okra blossom. Okra seem to really enjoy the heat. I have a few inches of mulch around the base of the plants, and I'm sure that helps them, but I really hardly ever water them.
They keep producing. The photo below shows okra at almost every stage. You can see the blossom about to come out, small pods, and then finally pods that are ready for harvest. The variety you are looking at are called Clemson Spineless.
The colorful okra you see below are called Burgundy okra. They really stand out in the garden, but when you cook them, they lose their color. The taste is the same as the others.
As I pick a pod off the plant, I cut the bottom-most leaf off and let it fall to the ground. I call that "chop and drop" and learned that from a blogger named the Florida Survival Gardener. Chop and drop employs the usage of the plants leaves to create mulch around the base of the plant. It ultimately forms organic matter that adds fertility to the soil.
Here are the three varieties of okra that I plant (from left to right):
Clemson Spineless Okra
I have three rows of okra planted. Every other day I go out with a bucket and a pair of clippers and harvest a bucket-ful. It seems like the hotter it gets, the more they produce. If it wasn't so hot, I would definitely be wearing long sleeves. Okra always makes me itch something fierce!
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