Black Gumbo

We've had some serious rain, 10 inches over a day or two, and then again we had 4 inches in a day just this past week. Today we got another 2" overnight and the garden seems to be handling it just fine. Its a good thing these are raised beds for good drainage. The tomatoes love it, since the water drains out quickly and leaves good, untreated, natural moisture behind. At the week 8 mark, I've managed to snap some photos between thunderstorms. The beans are starting to pick up the pace a bit, and the greens are still strong. I'm eating them as I thin them, very tasty and mild. I moved my bell peppers out of a rather sorry potting mix I had bought and re-potted them in the same stuff the tomatoes are growing in, hopefully that will save them from the difficult time they were having. They were yellowed and stressed and lost their leaves. Now they are yellowish green, stressed but are putting on new leaves. The potting mix I used did not retain moisture well, I believe.

My Star of David Okra plants have come up even though I had assumed they were goners. They are growing in the midst of four tomato plants that I did not want to get rid of, so we'll see who wins the plot. The okra will eventually overtake the tomatoes, but perhaps the tomatoes will produce fruit before that happens.

Our basil is being harvested as needed and we have tiny little jalapenos forming. The beets are beaten up by the rains but seem to always come back, their leaves are looking a bit haggard and old now. Hopefully the roots will begin packing in the storage soon. The carrots are probably going to test me too long, but for now they get to stay until I need the area for more beans.

Here are the latest pics. The grass needs cutting but its either been raining or we've been busy every weekend. This weekend the grass gets cut!

Plumping up nicely!	An overall view
Lushness	Cluster of tomatoes

Here's our basil, man what a great smell! We used some just last night in the spaghetti sauce and I have visions of a Roma-Basil pizza in a month or two.