Sprouting carrots

I have seen this growing 'investigation' in children's gardening books, but recently I read (ok, saw on Pinterest) that the carrots will actually grow again from their sprouted tops. Let's see how it goes!

These are carrot tops from home grown carrots (from seed), sitting in a tray from my "sprouts alive" sprout growing system.

Gate to the patch

The gate to the patch was looking a little dull, so we have added some colour.

Record keeping

I am terrible at remembering what I have planted when it come to seeds. If I don't label it straight away, I'm lost by the time the seedlings come up. So this time in my trays, I am putting labels and taking a photo with the seed packets so I know exactly which ones were sown. The idea being, that when I forget I can go back to the correct seed packet for planting and growing advice!

Pinterest, the great time waster

I have recently started using Pinterest. So many interesting things, so much inspiration. I suppose instead of watching tv serials in the evening, I'm now being inspired with house and garden ideas, which surely is more productive, right?

Time for a wash

Well it certainly looks like it is time to give Issy a wash. The thing is, I only washed her 5 minutes ago...

Hot and dry

It has been a hot and dry summer. The plants are sweltering and so am I. Since I last posted in December I have managed to tidy up the plants that had gone to seed and get a few more seeds in. They are coming up, which is surprising given the lack of attention they have been getting... watering every few days and the odd bit of new mulch.

This picture is of one of the most successful beds at the moment. Sad, I know. The mulch is due to go down in this photo, so you can see the new watering system I am trialling on some of my beds. This is a sprinkler hose turned upside-down, to direct the water straight into the ground rather than up and into a gorgeous mist, perfect for running under if you are 4 or 6 (or 33 and it's a really hot evening). A layer of mulch can be used to cover the sprinkler hose and soil and keep the moisture in.

The big tank has now run dry, so I am at the watering dilemma. It hasn't run out this early in the season before. We are now on town water for watering the vegies, which is not ideal.

The carrots are doing surprisingly well and the corn should give us a crop. I do have some capsicums and chilies ripening up and some nice looking tomatoes both in my garden and in the self-seeded patch. The pumpkins are creeping and looking promising, although I lost the first plantings of zucchini, cucumber and sugar baby watermelon (caught out by a few hot days). More zucchini and cucumber went in, but we won't get a long harvest season out of them as they are not yet even flowering.

So we'll continue to spend the days out of the heat and get some gardening done in the cool of the evenings. And hope for rain.

Onion seeds

As part of our sustainable garden, we let some plants go to seed. Lately it has been a few more than necessary, mainly because we're busy and just haven't had a good day in the garden for some time.

We have had some spring onions go to seed recently and I love their big bauble flowers. I collected a few heads for the seeds and found some lady beetles crawling around in them. What a nice surprise. I love the good bugs in the garden!