My Okra My Okra-Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

Ok, I admit it's probably not so cool to mess with Bible quotes when discussing the garden but look at this...

I mean sheesh-everything else is doing so well.  But the round #1 of okra-not so hot.  I wonder if it got too dry, if I planted it too soon or if the plants were just junk?  Oh well.  Luckily everything else is doing well--so welcome to your Friday April-um I mean May-is it already May 7th??-Garden Update.

First off the green beans are thriving, full of weeds and ready to be thinned for the last time.  This weekend I hope to thin them, weed them, and then run the vertical stringers.  I usually hate having it look so weedy but last year this same thing happened right off the bat-a bunch of grass started growing (I can't grow grass in the front yard but apparently I grow it well in the garden.)  I am letting it get a little bigger as they are actually easier to pull out when they are taller than an inch or two.  (Taken a few minutes ago after some morning watering.)

Next up, I did decided to mulch the tomatoes and peppers and I really do like the look and the lack of mud when walking around.  That being said I should have laid some newspaper or something under the mulch as the weeds are now coming up through the mulch and will be much harder to pull now that there is mulch.  I do plan to mulch the rest of the garden this weekend (after adding newspaper in the aisles and pulling all current weeds.) I added one more tomato and 3 more peppers yesterday-so 10 tomatoes of about 6 varieties and 16 peppers of about 10 varieties.

The cucumbers, squash and zucchini are doing well all from seed and I added 2 eggplants yesterday.  I plan on thinning these one more time as well (although it so pains me to pull up healthy plants!)  The herbs are also thriving and I enjoy having the mulch there as it really keeps the dirt off the plants.  Who wants gritty dirt in their herbs right?  I added one more basil and two dill plants that I hope to use to make my own pickles later in the summer. 

Finally back to the poor okra.  Luckily okra is cheap and for $8 I bought 18 more okra plants-so okra-round two started yesterday.

So that's it, I'm totally done planting (maybe.)  Check back next week for some "weed free" garden photos!