Cool-er change

We've had a little relief from the heat last night and today. Believe it or not, it rained today! Not enough to register as rain or even make anything wet, but enough to give us hope that it may come again soon. According to the weather reports, it could be as soon as this weekend! Crossing fingers!

The garden isn't looking too shabby, either. The corn almost seems invincible! I'll know to plant more next spring for sure.



Next to the corn there is an awkward spot, so a week or so ago I planted it out with a mixture of flowers. Dahlias, Marigolds and Zinnia. I planted them quite close together, since I wasn't expecting many (if any) to actually come up. Surprise!



The beetroot seem pretty tough. Despite looking sad on occasion, they spring up again when the weather cools off. These are almost edible!



The flowers I planted near the beetroot are doing well. They're one of the three flowers (Dahlias, Marigolds or Zinnias), but I can't remember which one. Never mind, they look like they will be providing some colour soon!



Sunflowers are amazing. What seemed like delicate little seedlings to begin with have grown strong and healthy. We only have these two right now - the others succumbed to pests or lack of water - the soil there is almost completely sand - so these ones are tough!



The carrots are also surviving quite well without any shade-cloth or any mulch!



This pic shows the sunflowers on the left, beans in the middle, and you can just see some beetroot on the right. Behind the beans are the carrots.



Same veggies, different angle. :)



On Saturday we went to the local market and brought some more plants. We just couldn't go past the basil. Basil like being with asparagus, so Spartagus has some new friends! I had to add quite a bit of sheep-poo, blood and bone and mulch to the dry sandy soil. Basil is an annual herb that tastes great, deters nematodes, and repels flies and mosquitoes!



(Ah, yes.. Spartagus is looking a little worse for wear.. I assume it's the heat and the end of his season anyway. Lets hope so!)

I also planted the rosemary we got from the market. Rosemary likes to be with beans and carrots, so I placed it right between the two. Rosemary is suppose to repel moths and flies, it's liked by bees, and again, tastes lovely.



Given the lack of rain (and the possibility of rain later in the week!) we are getting impatient waiting for plumbers (we've been told by two separate plumbers that they will do the job!), so Marty and I have begun the process of hooking up the water tanks ourselves. So far, we've taken off the section of old downpipes from the side of the house, and reproduced the section in plastic. This is done so it can be sealed to force the water down then back up into the water tank. We're hoping to finish this first section tomorrow so at very least, if it rains, we can collect it in the water tank in the front garden.



I'm sure this is one of the few times we can feel confident about having no downpipes on the house for the time being. :)

On that note, I'm off to paint the new plastic pipes green (the same colour the old pipes were). Until next time!