Okra and a Makeover

I'd grown Okra in years past but never really had much luck doing it. But those times I had direct seeded it to the garden. Last year I started the okra seeds indoors using egg cartons. The seedlings grew quickly but were tall and leggy so when I transplanted them I put them in rather deep. Here's a picture of them about a month after planting outside.

I planted them on the south side of the garage along with some squash that I'd started in peat pots.

Here they look like they are competing with the squash vines but they quickly grew taller and taller.

The leafy bronze plant is Canna that came up on its own. I lifted that tuber in the fall and I hope to replant it this spring. But look at that Okra! It was about 5 feet tall at this point and with beautiful blooms.

In fact I was so proud of the flowers that I sent a photo into the local TV station and was selected as the winner for that week.

This area of the garden was perfect for the sun loving okra. I couldn't keep up with the harvest of the pods.

Now in regards to the makeover this is what it looked like on the south side of the garage last year. 

BEFORE THE MAKEOVER

On the left hand side you can see the Russian Olive bushes. These bushes/trees became overgrown and hard to manage. So we had them removed and ground out and then installed a fence in their place.

This photo is late summer showing the fence and garage after the makeover.

AFTER THE MAKEOVER

This was a rather small part of the makeover. We also had two large Silver Maple trees removed from the east side of the property. This spring I hope to post some before and after photos of that extreme makeover.