Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Yes! We Have Bananas!! Oh... psyche.... Veggie Garden Update



Click HERE for all the Year One 2009 Square Foot Vegetable Garden Updates

Haven't posted much on the gardening front here lately so thought I'd catch y'all up on the veggie garden.

Click here for veggie gardening links, or click right ➳here to go straight to the labels to see all of my day by day veggie garden trials & tribulations.

Rather look at some flowers instead? Click here to see my earlier Spring photos from my adventures on the floral side.

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Despite pulling out the big guns, I once again had a major battle of the bugs all season long again this year.

Although replanted several times, the tomato in a bag and the Topsy Turvy gave me zero tomatoes. I think I'll stick with my containers and raised beds. I did end up with a pretty good harvest of tomatoes from the raised beds though - not outstanding, but enough to put some up in the freezer, yay!  I even put up some Creole tomato sauce.  And of course plenty of them went into salads and sandwiches and such too, so I feel very blessed.

I had a good bit of squash, and not nearly as many cucumbers as I should have, but they and the melons all fizzled unfortunately thanks to an infestation of what I think was/is whiteflies, beetles and some kind of moths that seem to be everywhere.  I just cannot seem to get rid of all these buggers.

After fighting an infestation of aphids and having lots of blossom drop, leaf drop, and stunted plants, the pepper plants began to recover and I started to get a few peppers. Finally. They're all a bit stunted, but I'm getting a few!


The eggplants finally starting coming too.



And, surprisingly, I actually have new tomato blossoms, though I don't know if they will have time to do much before it gets too cool. I'm hoping I'll at least get some green tomatoes out of them!


Right now, there are a few small green tomatoes (crossing fingers).


And ... I was super excited when I started seeing these pop up! Aren't they pretty? They are okra blossoms.


Because, while the okra I planted was a late season fluke I never expected to see come up, they did come up and are beginning to produce okra. Nevermind that it is only one okra at a time LOL!  I've never planted okra before, but apparently you have to plant a LOT of okra to have any kind of "harvest" of okra all at once. It's been kinda cool watching 'em grow though!


And ... because we had that late summer cold spell - long gone now - I really wasn't surprised to see the banana trees starting to do this, because they don't like the cold much. At least that's why I think they were beginning to turn brown.


But then wait. What is that?


Well, well.... lookie there...


We have bananas! One of the babies I took from the original mama plant is producing bananas! This is a cool banana tree - it's called "Ice Cream" because the variety has a sort of ice cream flavor to them. Yes, they are edible!



But then in the middle of a rainstorm the other day ... this happened.



Waaaaaa....


I'm not sure what caused it to fall - maybe a combination of the cold a few weeks ago together with all the rain here lately - but we won't be seeing any bananas from this tree. Truth is, they came up very late in the season, so they wouldn't have had time to mature anyway. It takes bananas FOREVER to mature.  So I cut the stalk where it bent and drug it out to street.

Did you know that when you cut a banana tree stalk, it smells like bananas?

At least at the very base on that felled banana tree I found these!!


The baby had babies. Yay!

18 comments:

  1. We had a whole "grove" of banana trees in old N.O. Watch out, the juice turns brown and stains! They would die to the ground each year but come back more the next spring.

    Once had a new Yankee neighbor call the police on my mother's garden. Fools saw OKRA and thought it was an ILLICIT DRUG-PRODUCING PLANT. Okra is mighty tasty but it isn't ILLEGAL. The police almost laughed themselves sick. The only word they could choke out was "Yankees."

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  2. Oh LOL Penniwig! I know it's an odd looking plant, but what the heck did they think it was??? That is sooo funny!

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  3. Loved the garden stories! I live in north Louisiana and I have a banana tree too, but I usually don't get bananas. I'm going to check today when it is light outside! I have okra too. Love it! It's not doing as well now because the nights are not as hot. They love super hot weather.

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  4. For some reason, I'm now hungry for fried okra! ;D

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  5. Aww! That is so sad! But, like you said, at least it had babies before it keeled over. :)
    Loved all your garden pictures and stories. I grew up picking okra from my parents garden. I remember getting my fingers pricked many times. OUCH! But, I love it fried.

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  6. I am so jealous that you have a banana tree! Well, actually the jealousy stems from the fact you have a garden and a green thumb. Next year (I keep telling myself). All your veggies look divine! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I hope to hear from you again, and I hope that I can learn some gardening tips from you. :)

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  7. you have no idea how much I wish I could get my banana tree to bloom and make some fruit! Mine are not edible...but still...I started the seeds a few months back, the tree is about three feet tall now, and I am waiting. I have to keep them inside, as it is too cold here for them to be outside...I am sorry your tree fell...great post today! your garden looks great!

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  8. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    I love your message - we are moving to house with room for a garden soon (I hope!). I hope I can do 10% as well as you - how amazing!

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  9. How fun that you get to grow things like banana's! I am so envious!

    All your other veggies we grow here but not banana's!

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  10. If you have enough green tomatoes you can make and freeze salsa verde or make pickle relish or make fried green tomatoes.

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  11. I had to "borrow" tomatoes from my dad's garden for a few batches of soup this year--the darn hornworms got mine:(

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  12. Wow! Great garden! I have some tomatoe plants out on my deck. Unfortunately they did not do well this season. I think it was a little too cool and wet for them this year.

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  13. hehehe, don't think Bananas would grow in Minnesota :)

    Great pictures. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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  14. Oh My, how your garden does grow. Looks beautiful and puts my to all kinds of shame and embarrasment! LOL... Had a fun visit to your page My New 30 and thought I'd mention that I too have a general interest blog. Would you like to see it? It's at www.spitnglue.com. I so hope you visit, hardly anyone does because I spend all my time with a sandwich. More Later, Thanks, Keri

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  15. I hate the bugs in the south! They are stubborn and way too plentiful. We have those whiteflies too ggrrr I had banana trees at my last home. They multiplied every year. With your green thumb, be looking for more next time around.

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  16. So cool! I wish I were good with things like that. I have to buy my veggies and fruits at the grocery store. :-(

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  17. just wanted to stop by and say hi life is running me ragged lately and I haven't had time to play with you all!

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  18. Hey Moma Mary...Its your Oklahoma daughter Tommie!! I love and Miss you!

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