Okra, Iraqi Bamia

 

Common Name: Okra

 

Other Common Names: Common Ivy, Gobbo, Gumbo, Ivy Gum Plant, Ladies Fingers, Ochro, Okro and, Nkruma.

 

Botanical Family: Malvaeae (The Hibiscus Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Abelmoschus esculentus

 

Description & Habitat: The original species of Okra is believed to be native to the area of the country now known as Ethiopia in Africa. Given that Okra is not cold hardy the chances of you encountering it in the wild are low unless you are near the Equator possibly in zone 12 which is Hawaii or Puerto Rico. Generally speaking Okra is an upright plant that can grow up to ten feet tall in cultivation but this can vary based on if the plant has ideal conditions and how it has been bred. For example the ‘Iraqi Bamia’ in today’s sample has been bred for business via heavy branching, so it may not grow any taller than five or six feet tall. In last year’s crop one specimen had the central stalk dominance genes and grew to nine feet tall. This tall type was not allowed to produce seed because its height made harvesting pods more difficult. In general though Okra has a roughly palmate leaf that can be up to eighteen inches across with a similarly long petiole, depending on the specific variety the color of the foliage can vary, Red Crimson has red foliage of course, some varieties have a bit of red in the stems and a red splotch where the petiole meets the leaf. Iraqi Bamia is a solid green color, but the pods mature to a white color that seems to be a biological response to preventing the seeds inside from getting sun scorched. The color unsurprisingly does not hold up in cooking but probably might if the pods are pickled.

 

Special Toxicity Note:  There are no known toxicity issues with this plant.

 

 

When & What to Harvest: With Iraqi Bamia you want to harvest pods when they are 2-4” long and visibly a white color.

 

Related Plants: There are many varieties of Okra out there.

 

Recipe:

For this post I’d like to link to a basic Gumbo recipe. Gumbo can be made a lot of ways and starting with a basic one is the best way to figure out what you want.

 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/216888/good-new-orleans-creole-gumbo/

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/abelmoschus-esculentus/

 

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/iraqi-bamia-okra

 

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

Fresh Foods

Peppers, Hybrid Lemon Drop

Figs, Magnolia

Figs, Kadota

 

Herbs

Basil, Sweet Genovese

Oregano

Prickly Pear, Spineless

Sage, Common

 

Summer Plants

Calibrachoa, Caliburst

Dahlia, Figaro Mix

Madagascar Periwinkle, Tattoo Blueberry

 

Fall Plants

Collards

 

Garden Supply

Live Mushroom Compost, 1 Gallon

Live Mushroom Compost, 3 Gallon

 

Plants Coming Soon:

-More Fall Food Plants-

 

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1): Red Brandywine Tomato

 

With all of the updates, blog posts, community announcements and the main topic handled remember that Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’s meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is August 22^nd at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, or at North South Brewing on the same day between 1:00 and 5:00pm.

Fort Liberty Series – Dwarf Bristly Locust

 Note from the Author: New wild plant!

The flowers are simply stunning, so much so we had to stop and examine the plants up close.

 

The foliage is pretty nice, one can only imagine what this plant might look like if it was cared for in a garden.

 

Note the leaf litter is mainly pine needles, these plants seemed to only be found under or near pines.

 

Even younger stems seem able to bloom, this is because it is part of a colony and thus less resources are needed per stem.

 

 

 

Common Name: Dwarf Bristly Locust

 

Other Common Names: Sandhill Bristly Locust, Dwarf Pink Locust.

 

Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The Pea/Bean Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Robinia nana

 

Prior Botanical Latin Names: Robinia elliottii, Robinia hispida variety nana.

 

Description & Habitat:

          Dwarf Bristly Locust is a low growing native perennial shrub that spreads a by underground runners forming potentially dense colonies. The specimens seen on our excursion were in loose enough groups that the stems as seem made them appear to be individual plants but a small amount of digging/examination proved they were colonies of plants. Individual stems are 1-2 feet tall wile a given colony can have a width of 2-4 feet. This plant also gets its nickname ‘Bristly’ from the copious amount of fine bristly hairs on the stems which seem dangerous at a glance. The bristles are stiff but pose no real threat to your skin and are not coated with any sort of irritant. On the hike we handled these plants a little bit with no ill effects so externally they are safe to handle. You will find this plant in full or partial sun areas in well drained sandy soils that are outwardly of poor fertility. All clusters seemed to appear right by the side of the trails and were in full bloom in April suggesting that seed could be collected by mid-may if not June. The flowers do not seem to be aromatic, but they are strikingly pretty.

           

Special Toxicity Note:  

          Some sources suggest the flowers are edible, but all other parts including the seeds and seed pods are noted to have toxic toxalbumins which are poisonous to people and pets.

 

When & What to Harvest:

          I do not advise harvesting this plant for food or medicine.

 

Related Plants:

          Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia),

 

Recipe:

          I cannot verify this plant is safely edible.

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/cust/20222/main.php?pg=show-taxon.php&&family=Fabaceae&limit=1&offset=618&taxonid=2930

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

             Seed for this native is very hard to find as are live plants. The only vendor I can find is Woodlanders.net and they no longer sell these plants.

 

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

Fresh Foods

Peppers, Hybrid Lemon Drop

Figs, Magnolia

Figs, Kadota

Figs, Petit Nigra

 

Herbs

Basil, Sweet Genovese

Oregno

Prickly Pear, Spineless

Sage, Common

 

Summer Plants

Calibrachoa, Caliburst

Dahlia, Figaro Mix

Madagascar Periwinkle, Tattoo Blueberry

Milkweed

 

Garden Supply

Live Mushroom Compost, 1 Gallon

Live Mushroom Compost, 3 Gallon

 

Plants Coming Soon:

-Fall Food Plants-

 

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1): Cherokee Purple Tomato

 

With all of the updates, blog posts, community announcements and the main topic handled remember that Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’s meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is August 15^th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, or at North South Brewing on the same day between 1:00 and 5:00pm.

The Garden Tour 2026 Part III

          On the blog for a few weeks we’re taking a break from the Fort Liberty series to talk about an event that happened in June.  There was an event at the Trial gardens, garden tour which is a yearly event held in the spring. You can see the full details of what the tour is, when it is held and other information about it on the July 16^th post at the link below.

 

https://bl2-litfm.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-garden-tour-2026.html

 

 

In today’s post we’re looking at the reconstruction of the Tall bed. Now despite what you see in the photos, this bed used to be even taller. Erosion of soil and the sinking of masonry caused it to lose height as I removed layers of bricks over the years. The only good solution was to use the same raised bed kit that I had used on the vegetable beds. Since it was a modular kit with a couple of standard shapes it could fit the shape perfectly.

 

The existing survey of plants in the bed with measurements based on old notes.

 

As the saying goes, measure twice cut once. I took a second measurement after I did the sketch just to be sure. That document in the  picture is the info pamphlet that comes with the modular garden kits and the cat is Kiki, she's the neighbors cat who comes over every time I'm in the garden.

 

Technically this isn't part of the process but, Kiki likes to ride around in then wheel barrow.

 

 

The next phase was brick removal, and at first I was moving them by the wheelbarrow load.

 

Then the supervisor got involved.

 

Finally I just started piling the bricks off to one side. This  is partially because I needed to see how deep the bricks had sunk into the ground.

 

Due tot he weight of the brick border the entire thing sank two full bricks in. this was both a good and bad thing because it wasn't too deep but also it still meant I had to carefully get a trenching shovel under the deepest layer to get them out.

 

The next step now all the bricks have been removed was to install the new raised bed kit. This is part of why I did extra measurements, I needed to know what the internal and external area of the bed was to make sure the raised bed kit would fit and what you see with that small amount of gap is exactly what you want.

 

The bed has been back filled with a mix of soil and mushroom compost in this picture.

 

 

This is the final product, hanging baskets, and the whole nine yards.