Okay, let’s finish up the tour of what August weather and a Texas-sized drought can do to a vegetable garden. Gird your loins. It’s not pretty.

This year’s okra

Sure, it looks green but it’s midget okra. Last year at this time my plants were 10 feet tall. Now they are small bushes and only clumped together on one of the bed. I replanted the okra three times and it mostly didn’t take.  Here’s the other side of the bed.

Mini Me’s

Little okra that refused to grow like the rest of it. Haven’t got a clue why. Guess I won’t be canning okra this year.

Purple Hull Peas

Not great, but still producing. I get 8 or 10 pods a day and I’ve managed to come up with 3 quarts this summer. I keep watering them in hopes that fall will bring cooler temperatures with rain and they’ll rally before a big freeze. Wow, doesn’t a freeze sound wonderful right about now?

Basil’s hanging on

I don’t even bother to take off the blooms anymore. I’ve got 6 fairly large plants and, though I do need to make some more pesto (check out my Recipes to Diet for to find my pesto recipe), I’ve got plenty here.

This is Thai Basil

One of my girlfriends gave me this plant. She said, “It gets really big.” Boy, she was not kidding. This monster takes up half the bed. I’m just using it as a decoration because the purple blooms are so pretty. Plus the bees love it and it’s always a good idea to have bees in the garden.

Finally, the good news. I’d like to introduce you to the star of our show in the garden this year.

The lovely eggplant

I planted one 3″ pot at one end of my green bean bed. This monster has produced nearly 40 great sized eggplant. Most of this town is eating eggplant these days as I can only whip up so much Eggplant Parmesan for me and the herd. Funny but dogs and cats really don’t like to eat it.

And they’re still coming

Evidently, eggplant doesn’t like to get too wet as it has thrived during the drought. And no big fights with bugs on this plant either. Amazing.

That’s the end of the summer update on The Funny Farm. September will all about ripping things out, getting rid of weeds and preparing the soil for my favorite thing – a fall garden. That’s when I turn back into a lettuce snob.

Next week? Who knows what we’ll get into then. Enjoy your 3 day weekend!

Spreading laughter throughout the world…one chuckle at a time.

Mikie Baker
www.mikiebaker.com