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One Okra Plant Against All Odds
A garden battle against mole crickets, an eight-foot survivor, and a visiting hoopoe.
I’ve been growing okra for two years now. Last year went really well — the plants grew nicely, and we had plenty of vegetables to pick. This year, though, turned into a complete headache because of something hidden under the ground.
For weeks, my young plants kept dying. They weren’t snapped or broken at the stem. Instead, a healthy little green shoot would suddenly look totally limp, droop down, and collapse onto the dirt by the next morning. It was like all the life was sucked out of it because something was eating the roots from below.
All I could see on the surface were strange, raised lines in the soil, like tiny tunnels running just underneath.
People told me, “Just spray some pesticide and get rid of it.” But I didn’t want to do that. The whole reason I grow my own vegetables is to keep them organic and natural. Pouring chemicals into the soil ruins the whole point of gardening.
The annoying part was that I couldn’t catch whatever was doing it. Whenever I gave the plants…
