Thursday, June 25, 2009

Dwarf Snapbeans Indeed!

After nearly 7 weeks away, I came back to a pretty decent garden. Shortly after I left, I told Richard to harvest the sweet potato leaves and eat them up. Instead, of "harvesting", he cleared them all. He just pulled them all out instead of just cutting the longer stalks off. Luckily, he proudly told me of his accomplishment that night and I got mad early enough for him to retrieve some stalks for replanting. By the time we came back, the sweet potato patch was full again.

My okra started flowering a few days before I left. At that time, they were only as tall as my knee. Right now, they're nearly 6 feet tall and full of okra. Another success!

Finally there is my Dwarf Snapbeans. I've been trying to grow them since last year but they kept dying or getting diseased. Before going back to Malaysia, the plants that I had there were alive but in no way flourishing. I really didn't expect anything from them and only hoped they wouldn't die again.

Surprise! Surprise! When I got back, the plant looked similar, perhaps with a few more leaves here and there. But, the underneath was full of skinny little beans. I was thrilled of course but when the pack said "Dwarf" I really didn't expect them to be this tiny!



This is what the photo on the packet looked like. Wouldn't you expect bigger beans too?



I took great pleasure in cooking up that handful last night. Unfortunately, they were already old and chewy. So, next time, I'm going to harvest them when they are even tinier.

The funny thing about growing my own vegetables is that no matter how they turn out, I'm always more than happy with them.

3 comments:

Mike said...

Hats off to you for your ability to eat okra. If that's all there was to eat I would probably starve to death. Some friends were talking about okra the other day. I had to leave the room.

Bilbo said...

I'm with you on this one - it always seems as if the things we grow in our garden taste better than the same things bought in a store. I just wish I could grow vegetables as well as herbs...we have plenty of parsley, basil, tarragon, rosemary, and chives, but the animals just keep eating up any vegetables we plant. Maybe someday I'll be able to get enough okra to grow to send a care package to Mike...

Bilbo said...

Oh, and by the way...surely you don't expect your veggies to look like the picture on the seed package??? They hire stunt beans to pose for those pictures.