Went outside and was looking at the Balsam and noted how horrible they look. The soil there is just not conducive for growing anything for very long at all. I'm going to have to make that a raised bed area with composted soil and that's that.

BUT what i did notice is that as terrible as they look, the Balsam is putting on little seed pods! wonderful. Not that the seed is expensive or anything, but its always much more fun to grow from stock that i grew previous.

Balsam seed pods

And the Okra is coming along nicely as well. Can't wait till i see its first blooms b/c they're just so pretty (like a white hibiscus). I'm wondering how much better its going to grow in this composted soil as opposed to the crop i grew in just plain dirt from my yard last season. They grew pretty well that time, but I'm sure they're going to grow insanely well in the compost.

Okra beside tomatoes

The smaller ones in the foreground were planted at a later time. I tried to plant them in a "buddy system" with 2 or 3 planted together so that i can braid them together for better support as they grow. It worked well last time so i'm gonna stick with it this time too.