Throwing Out Tomatoes – Keeping Okra, Cantaloupe, Sweet Potatoes & Garden Cleaning

Garden cleaning, a lot going on with the garden, thinking of changes. Things I’m keeping and things I’m throwing out of the garden. Getting rid of spent tomato plants, keeping cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, okra & adding beans. Checking in on the greenhouse. It is time to think about the fall garden plans.

As an Amazon Affiliate, I will receive a small commission if you click on the link of a product below and make a purchase. It won’t cost you anything extra. You can also browse Amazon elsewhere from these links.

Some Great Links Below:
My Amazon Books: https://amzn.to/3IzuYhA

For The Garden:
BT Worm Spray: https://amzn.to/3UrbRIU
Garden Planting Journal: https://amzn.to/4li6XJK
Neem Oil – Pure: https://amzn.to/3HQIk8I
Eden Vegetables Organic Fertilizer: https://amzn.to/4kVQueC
Fish Emulsion Fertilizer 1 Gal: https://amzn.to/4kcOldu
Best Choice Products – Raised Garden Bed: https://amzn.to/4c4dowh
Vevor – Raised Garden Bed: https://amzn.to/3Ts3n4R
Ground Fabric / Weed Barrier: https://amzn.to/47C44Nx
Ground Fabric Staples: https://amzn.to/42dFnp0

#backyardgardening
#gardentour
#gardener
#gardencleaning

For the longest time, we have peaked out 989. 99 with our temperatures and it feeling like 105 to 110 with tremendously high humidity. Today is different. We’re in a unusual cool down and right now, let’s see, what time is it? I think it’s after 10:00 a.m. and we are only 75° and a nice breeze. Humidity feels like zero. I don’t know what it technically is, but this is a day I’m hoping that I can get a lot done before I can even think about getting any chores done. One of the tires on my tool wagon, which I carry around with me everywhere, is flat. I’ve known it was a bad tire for a few weeks. It keeps going down. My husband picked up a a new wheel for me last week, I think it was. And before I get started, I’ve got to change a tire. This is the flat. Look at that. And actually, this was a tire off of something else. It’s not even the right size. It’s actually a more narrow size that belongs on it. And this is my new tire. And I’m going to replace it. And maybe the two will match. But it did fit when I needed it. uh in a pinch. So, I used it, but it’s dry rotted. Won’t hold air. Before I can even begin to work on my tool wagon, I had to empty all of my stuff out of the wagon. This is everything I carry with me on a daily basis when I’m out in the yard or the garden. No matter where I go, I pull the wagon on the back of the mower and all of this stuff is in there. And that is to keep me from having to walk back and forth when I need something. That pen broke, but that’s okay. I’ve got some more just like it. Better put the air on the outside. I need to get a pen. I got a new pen, cotter pen. And maybe I should have br gotten a a bigger one. I’ve got a variety. This will do. That should keep it from coming out. Put the cap back on. Was that easy? I think it already has air in it. All right, I got my wagon loaded back up and I am back in business. And the first thing that I’m going to do today, I’ve got to do some mowing in my front garden. I’ll show it more closely when I get over there, but that’s the front garden out there. And there’s not much good in that garden. I do have okra that I’m tending to and I’ve got two cantaloupe plants and I’ve got some flowers. Oh, I’ve got some sweet potatoes out there. Everything else is done, over with. History dead. And I need to start pulling stuff out of that garden and cleaning up those boxes. I got this is my sideyard and I got mowed out there. No weeding done. Um, that’s big tree is a plum tree. This little one right here is a plum. There’s two crepe myrtles out there. Two apple trees. This is another crepe myrtle here. And that mess right there. H. That is weeds coingling with my black raspberries. I’ve got other black raspberries in the backyard, but there’s several in there. And what an atrocious mess that is. But I got it weed or excuse me, I got it mowed. Just did not get any weeding done. This mess of grass right here by the driveway, that was a tall mess of grass with a big giant antill in it. I mean about close to four feet wide. It was about a foot and a half tall, but about four feet wide. And I couldn’t weed that grass because there was so many ants. And I mean fire ants, not regular ants. These were fire ants. So I took my tractor, I used the bucket and scraped the hill down. And I’m going to put something on it, try to get rid of those fire ants, and then come back and weed that mess later. I got some of my backyard mode today. I still need to do the goat yard way back there, but I got the back garden and the back drive mode and the chicken yard over there. I got my front yard mode, which is huge. And there’s an oak tree right there. The limbs on that oak were all the way down to the ground and it was impossible to mow around it or under it, I should say. So, I got, you can see over there, pile of limbs that I cut off. I missed one way back there. The wind is blowing it down, but I’ll I’ll get it. I’m just going to walk out to the front. Y’all, this oak tree, it feels like AC standing under this oak tree. I stopped, I don’t know how many times with the mower and just sat here. So, my yard goes all the way to those crepe myrtles down there on the end. Got all that mowed. Got the ditches in the front. I didn’t get up to the road, the top side by the pavement, but I did get the biggest chore of the day, getting up under the tree where it’s cool. So, and I had to mow that three times. Because like I’ve been saying in some past videos, we’ve had so much rain. I wasn’t able to get out here and mow. And this grass grows for nothing and get a little bit of rain on it. Oh my gosh, it was so thick. I had to mow it on three different levels to get it down. I still need to go back and weed eat around the flag pole, but This took me several hours because of having to go over it so many times and then I had to get up all of the grass because it looked like I cut a hay field. Got to weed eat around this tree. That’s how tall the grass was. And it had only been a week and a half, less than two weeks since I had mowed. And I usually have to do it every 2 or 3 days, but because we had so much rain, it just was impossible. Even when it stops raining, it is still wet for several days because uh the grass is so thick. I got this garden. This is the front garden. I got this mowed and I’m in process of weeding around these boxes. And this is just a nightmare really. I mean, everything is grown up. One, the weather has a little bit a little bit to do with it, but what really is going on? Everything is pretty much spent. The tomatoes out here are over and done with. I need to pull those out. I’ve got to clean all those boxes out. I’ve got two cantaloupes. You can see one over there. And this is cantaloupe here. There’s a few cantaloupes that are still on the vines even though the vines are in really bad shape. Like they are so done for and over with. But I’m waiting to see if this one is going to ripen. I just threw two away that the ants got a hold of. I’ve got a few on that um cantaloupe vine over there. I’m pointing way up in the sky. That canal vine over there. That really yellow one off to the left is a bad one. I just tossed it in there to get it up. It fell on the ground, but it’s full of ants. The green one hanging there is still good. I’m going to leave these cantaloupe vines as long as I’ve got good cantaloupes that are trying to ripen. And other than the cantaloupes, I’ve got some okra and sweet potatoes. Everything else out here is done for, dead, and needs to be pulled out. This is that part of the season where things die and become a mess. you know, the plants, they just they’ve done what they’re going to do and they’re they’re done for. This is the part of the gardening time where it looks so bad and everything’s so weedy and overgrown. Honestly, uh I haven’t even tried to come out here and do much because when it rains, this ground is so um it’s so wet for so long and I just don’t care to slop around in it until it dries out. And this garden is old. Like we’ve been here for 14 years. And I put this garden I built this the first year. And the boxes are like the back garden. They are deteriorating really bad. This box with this okra in it is hanging on. This one is hanging on. They’re they’re aging really bad. They they don’t have any life left in them, but they’re not falling apart. That box over there is falling apart. That one is in good shape right there. Um, and the outside box that’s over on the outside, that one is okay hanging in there. But this garden does not make me happy anymore. And honestly, I’m thinking about pulling it all up and not growing anything in it next year and just make this whole yard over here plant more fruit trees or berry bushes or something. But I’m ready to consolidate everything into one garden. It made sense years ago to have these two large gardens. We had there was a time that I had 11 people living here. That’s all my kids, my five kids. And then one of my kids who’s a grown adult. Uh he has three, him and his wife. And the three kids, they stayed with us while they were trying to find a place. I talked them into moving up here from out of town. And for an entire summer, them plus all of us was 11. And I started adding on to the garden real quick because I needed to produce a lot of food. And then they found their place. They they now have their own farm. And then I still had four kids at home and I always called them professional eaters. So I continued on with the large gardening. Now that everybody has left the premises and they are grown, they’re all the last four, they’re all in their 20s and on their own. I do not need this large front garden like I used to, plus the back garden. And let’s face it, I mean, I’m getting older. It’s getting tougher and tougher to keep up with all of it. and I don’t need that much food anymore for just me and my husband. So, I’m just like in the mindset of wanting to tear all of this out. The things I want to keep um transfer to the back garden and just do away with this garden because I just don’t need it and it’s a lot of work. Everything out here is completely overgrown. And that had that’s not unusual. It happens towards the end of the summer garden anyways, but I’m not in uh my youthful shape that I used to be in, and it’s just getting harder and harder to come in here and weed and pull things out and take care of it. Plus, like I said, I don’t we don’t need the food. We don’t need that much. So, I’m going to This is my thought anyways. I’m going to carry on with the okra. It’s doing well. The sweet potatoes will stay in until the end of the summer. There’s a few okra plants over there, believe it or not. They’re producing, but they are mixed in with a lot of weeds. I’m going to clean that box out and take care of that okra. And when these cantaloupes finish ripening, I’m pulling those out. I’m going just start pulling everything out. And um I may just for this season, I’ve got time to plant green beans. I may put some green beans out, but that’s probably it in this garden. Everything else that I want is in my back garden. So, uh, more work, more work, but I need to do that work in order to reduce the work that I have to do. So, this is my okra, and I’ve been getting a good bit of okra every day. Um, I’ve put away a lot in the freezer. I got a little baby okra there. I came in here and and uh got a lot of ochre last night. I’ve got uh one pepper plant over there on the back side. And then there’s some basil that is scattered throughout this box and some flowers right there. The flowers uh they come back year after year. The basil receded itself from a basil plant that I had in here last year and I just left it. I it it actually had a there was a lot of basil. I recently pulled a lot of the basil out, but I left some here and there um hoping that it would help with the insects. Okra is famous for getting a lot of ants on it. so far. And I don’t know if it has anything to do with the basil or just uh good luck for me this year. I don’t know. But my okra plants are not covered in ants. They usually are every year. I mean, for as long as I’ve been planting okra, there have been uh ants um they heard the aphids up onto the ochre plants, but I’m not having that issue this year, and I’m so thrilled that that’s not an issue. I do want to put some hay in this box to try to keep the weeds down. There’s some grass coming up over there. There’s some grass coming up over here. And the only reason this box is not as weedy as the others are is because about a week ago I came in here out here and I weeded this box and pulled all the grass out and some of it’s making its way back. I can see this box is my sweet potatoes and they are very dry. I think I’m going to give them some water right now along with the okra. Okay, I got the sweet potatoes watered. Hopefully I gave them enough. And these are bogard. I got the okra and the pepper plant back there and these basil here. And I trimmed up a few bad leaves off of the okra. Everything’s watered here. I’ll probably get okra tomorrow. I see some small ones on here. There’s a small one there. Y’all know how okra turns into a giant overnight. I’ll probably get some tomorrow, but I did clean them off last night and got quite a bit. On to the next box. Oh, this box right here is full of weeds. Except there is some basil in here that took up residence, receded from last year. I have I didn’t plant any basil this year. All the basil that I have is receded from last year. Oh, I need to give these a little drink of water. Go ahead and water this cantaloupe. These vines are so sick. Yeah, I think I’m going to set me out some green beans. I have time. Green beans are a 60 to 65 day uh to harvest. And for my zone, we have 100 days exactly until our first expected frost. So, I’ve got time. Go ahead and put some out if I can get a box cleaned out and a place to put them. Well, I got a large majority of the weeds out of this bed with the okra. I have a chunk of weed right back there. I’m just gonna give it up for the day because I’m tired and it’s after 5 and I’ve been out here since 10 9:30 10 this morning. Anyways, the ochre plants can breathe. I gave them a drink of water. That big tree looking thing there is weed. That grass tomorrow I’ll come back and finish pulling all of that. This is what I pulled out of that bed. I did get one okra that’s over there on my mower. And this okra has lost all but one leaf. There’s some new ones coming on right there. So, I’m I don’t know. I might not get anything out of that. I have been coming out here and trimming. You know how okra will uh a leaf will die and it’ll turn into a brown thing that looks like it’s been frica seed. So I I do trim the okra and try to keep the leaves well above the soil. But it has produced a good bit. I’ve got a good bit in the freezer. I love okra. How about y’all? Who likes okra? If you do, how do you cook yours? I’m going to fry mine every single time because that’s how I love my okra. But let me know in the comments how you do yours if you eat okra. I know everybody don’t eat okra and it doesn’t grow everywhere. But I do love fried okra. So, let me see what I’ve accomplished. This bed, I got that old tomato plant off of there. I’ve got two more back there that need to come out. Those are full of rotten tomatoes, and I’m just done with those. I’m so over them. So, I got that bed partially cleaned out. I got I got a few I pulled a few weeds out of the sweet potatoes. Got them watered. Did a little more cleaning in this ochre bed and trimmed some leaves. Got the weeds out of that. Watered that stuff. I mowed everything out here as well. And I got some things weeded. Like around this box is weeded. But I still need the weed. But I’m not even going to worry about the weeds at the ground until I get the weeds out of there. I got that cantaloupe watered. I mowed my front yard and sideyard and backyard and the back garden. Oh, I do have these pretty flowers over here. Let me go over here and see. This bed is full of weeds as well, but I’ve got some marshmallow in here. Anybody ever grow marshmallow? It is akin to the hibiscus. It is a hibiscus. I haven’t used it in a few years, but uh this comes back every year. And when I have used it, I’ve dug it up, took some of the root, dried the root, and buried the root back in there. That is um a perennial. My Texas star hibiscus has been doing really well and being very pretty and showy, and I haven’t even had time to to even show it. These things are so pretty. They’re about maybe 9 ft tall going up to there. I’ve got one right there. This is a weed patch. Everything out here in this garden is a weed patch. It’s embarrassing, but you know, it is what it is. It’s what happens. I got purple basil here along with some liies and some weed. Let’s see what’s in the greenhouse. Well, okay. I saw a squirrel. These are doing well. Some of my flowers are doing well. I need to give them a drink of water. We’ll go in the greenhouse. I’ve been working in here a good bit and tidying, y’all. I finally cut that impatient. Do y’all remember that on a previous video how big and wide it was? It got so big that the plant stand started uh leaning and I just knew it was going to fall over. I cut it back severely. It’s doing okay, I guess. Um there was a lot of ants in it and there was some aphids and I have been spraying for that. It looks like um it’s going to make a a bounce back. A lot of these leaves in here are new leaves. And I did a video recently on this hanging basket here that goes up to the ceiling and that way and that way. Um the filo and paos. It’s a combination variegated. This is uh also called devil’s ivy. But I’ve got both of them in that one basket. I’ve got another one over here that I never did show. Um, it’s in this basket here hanging from a rafter. And this is all variegated. I believe this is all the devil’s ivy. Um, you can see I need to get it up higher because all the vines are coming down, curling up, hitting the soil, going back there behind. That one is uh equally as old. This first one is 15 years old and that one is somewhere 14 15 I guess. I got a little basket of oregano here that um is trying to hang in there with the heat. I really need to bring that in the house. It’s so hot out here during the day and I’ve got spider plants everywhere. This is a asparagus fern that was almost dead. It’s doing pretty good, the spider plant. And then this plant here, we got one of these on the porch. And let me think for a minute what it’s called. Well, there’s several nicknames. Umbrella plant, money tree, but that’s not the name I’m trying to think of, and I can’t think of it. So, here’s another impatient that jumped out of that pot and into this pot. This is my big spider plant that I put on that pedestal that I painted. This is a piece lily here that I got in 2016. Here’s another spider plant. This is my aloe. There’s my bugan villa. The lemon tree. I got some baby lemons. You see that one right there? I’ve got a few larger lemons, but they’ve just kind of got to that point and they’re kind of status quo. They’re not ripening. They’re not doing anything. I do have some new blooms. Hello, wasp. And the orange tree. There was two oranges on it, but they started looking terrible. Yucky. I pulled them off. There’s a lot of new growth. This whole stem here is new growth. No fruit on it right now, though. But I have harvested this season a handful of oranges. So that’s about all that’s going on here in the greenhouse. I’ve already pulled out a handful of tomato plants and cucumber. Um, and some peppers over on the far end that’s covered up with weeds now. Those peppers are over and done with. And got some tribes out there somewhere. They’re out there. I can’t think of anything else that I’ve pulled out, but I know I have pulled out a lot. That’s just, you know, it’s time was done. It’s time for uh plans for the fall garden. And um as I said earlier, I have according to our calendar 100 days exactly from today before our first expected frost. And that is on the a week late um that I’m accounting for. We could have 107 days. I don’t know. But our frost always lands in that week. So that’s where I put my calculation. So, I’ve got time to plant a few things for the fall garden if I can get the boxes cleaned out in time and not lose too much time. I have potatoes that are ready to go in the garden. I want to put out some green beans. I want to put out I don’t know. I’ve got things. I just can’t think of them right now. Y’all, I appreciate you hanging with me today. And this is uh going to be a multi-day video because I’ve, you know, I’ve got too much work to do to get it all done. I hope that you will join me on the next one and see where I get with my progress. I appreciate you being here. If you are a subscriber, thank you so much for staying with my channel. I appreciate it. If you’re new here, I would like it if you would subscribe. Hit the thumbs up, give it a like, and hit that notification bell so you can be notified when I put up new videos. Y’all don’t forget to check the description below because every video I put links to some great products, including I have two books that I have put out that are linked in there as well. They’re for sale on Amazon. One is the garden planting journal and one is a children’s coloring book which is farm related with farm animals etc. I’ve actually got five books that I’ve written over the course of since 2022 was my first book, but I have five books that are out on Amazon. And if you will click the link, check the links in the description below, you can follow the lead all the way there and check out my books if you’re interested. And I think that is about all I can think of. Y’all, my brain is fried because while it was nice in the 70s this morning, it got back up hot today and I’m drenched in sweat and a little dirt. I feel some grit in my teeth from the dirt. Y’all have a wonderful evening. I will see you on the next video. Bye-bye.