CLAREMORE, Okla. — Mary, Mary quite contrary has nothing on Linda Compton.
The retired Claremore nurse turned to gardening to stay busy, growing butternut squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.
“I've got mammoth peppers, and there's something funny going on further back with another row of squash,” she said.
But it's this massive okra plant that's the pride and joy of her garden.
“No, not in a million years did I ever think it'd get that tall and then I started looking it up and I said, ‘I’m going to set a record here.’”
An average okra plant is 6-to-7 feet tall, and Linda said the current world record is 10 feet five inches, but her okra is still going strong.
“We're at 11-foot-8, going for 12 feet,” she said at the time.
Planted from normal okra seeds she purchased at Walmart, Linda told 2 News Oklahoma she hasn't used fertilizer or chemicals.
The plants “love the Claremore dirt, lots of water, and one other thing."
“They like my music,” she said.
Linda and her husband measure the plant every three days while she stands on top of a ladder.
Although the okra stands above everything else in her garden, no one really knows about it. Just family and the cable guy.
“The cable guy started taking pictures because he said it doesn't grow that tall, not at all!” she said.
Right now, it's the Oklahoma wind she’s worried could snap her plants in half.
Immediately after the Coweta tornado, she texted Mike Brooks, excited the plants made it through the night and now measure 13 feet 6 inches.
Linda said she's officially submitted an application to Guinness World Records, “I haven't heard back but they said they needed two medias so here's one. So, you're helping me out.”
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