Seed sale

I got an email from New Hope Seed Company. They are having a sale!

I will order Aunt Hatie's red okra, whippoorwill blackeyes (cowpeas = blackeyed peas), and the hardshell melon seeds. I'll also pre-order one of those sweet potatoes.

The red okra is delicious and beautiful. Okra is related to hollyhock, rose of Sharon, and hibiscus. The flowers are gorgeous. The plant gets about 3-4' or more tall. You could plant okra in the back of a flower bed!

Fresh blackeyes are so good. Once established, the plants take care of themselves.

We had that hardshell melon this year. It was very good, although to be honest, I like this French melon better. But the hardshell melon is more resistant to critters.

Last year was the first I'd grown sweet potatoes. I was pretty ignorant about them then. I now know that once you have a crop, you no longer need to buy slips. This year, I wasn't paying attention and both of the varieties I planted, Nancy Hall and O'Henry, were white potatoes. Very tasty but not traditional. So I'll get some orange for next year. Sweet potatoes are so easy it grow.

A word about the tobacco: Cool. I grew tobacco once. I was ticked off that the busybodies in the fairly good sized sort of mid-Western city in which we lived had decided in their infinite wisdom to prohibit smoking in bars and restaurants. I knew the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the street belonged to the city (although I never saw anyone from the city mowing it). So I planted tobacco on city property. Take that! 

Tobacco is another plant that is beautiful as a plant, especially if you let it go to seed.