Okra is coming to maturity so fast we can hardly keep up with it. Looks
like we will run out of space in both freezers rapidly. Wash it, cut off
the bottom, slice into rounds, put on cookie sheets, freeze for an hour
at 0 degrees. Take it out, put it in vacuum bags, seal, put a date on
it, back in the freezer. Looks like a lot of deep fried okra and/or gumbo.

Tomatoes are about played out due to the heat, the little marble toms
are okay as they're big bushes are shading the fruit. The plum and other
tomatoes aren't that lucky.

We're hitting 90+ degrees daily now. Weather folk are saying we have
really good chances for rain for the next ten days but we can only hope.

Nothing else going on garden wise but we can hope for a decent winter
garden some day not to far away. No figs, one pear, maybe get some
kumquat come fall. Got to pull up the Old Maids flowers from around the
pear tree. Finally got through to dear wife that pretty flowers growing
around my fruit trees means no goodies to grow the fruit coming up from
the roots.

Local free newspaper throws one for each house on our area but no one
picks them up. We starting picking them all up and then run them through
the paper shredder and then into the composter. At least they aren't a
eyesore anymore and the shredding helps them ferment and turn into
decent compost when all the kitchen stuff goes in and the dead plants in
the garden.

Hoping this fall that we will be able to take all the homemade "dirt" in
the raised beds and mix in a lot more composted cow manure plus all the
stuff from the composter. I intend to rent a small cement mixer and use
that to mix up all the goodies and then back into the beds. Beats trying
to rock a tarp back and forth with our old arms and shoulders to get a
good mix. Need to add another bale of peat moss too.

George