The ever growing garden

The garden continues to grow, so here's an update on the latest.

I felt for sure the little bright green basil plants wouldn't survive the hot conditions of the garden, but I was wrong! They've turned a darker green, and grown! Spartagus the Asparagus is happily growing along with them, too.



The corn are all looking good. They are certainly hardy. If the weather stays warm enough, we may even get some corn cobs from them.



I planted another row of carrots last Friday and used a plank of wood to cover them and keep them moist. Today I uncovered them as some have sprouted (I think!). I planted them on the appropriate moon planting day for root crops, so it'll be interesting to see what (if any) difference it makes to the crop.



The companion flowers have bloomed. Hmm, pink isn't exactly my favourite colour, but even I have to admit, they're quite pretty.



These beetroot were planted last Thursday (also a moon-planting) and they're going crazy. There are 40 paper pots and all have sprouted at least one plant. Of course, I'm going to have to thin them out - but that's a lot of beetroot!



I wasn't really expecting many to sprout, because the seeds I have were cooked after keeping them in the garage during the 40+ weather, so that's why I planted so many. The broccoli, on the other hand, obviously suffered from the heat. 30 broccoli were planted on Friday the 6th (moon planted once again!), and only 3 have sprouted.



I may have to buy new seeds, or keep planting the seeds that I do have in hopes of getting a few more. It's all experience.. I now know not to store seeds in the garage. :)

We took a short trip to Melbourne on Monday and Tuesday and came home with a couple of new additions to the ever-growing plant family. :)

This is Bamboo. He's a 6 metre hedging (clumping) bamboo known as Bambusa textilis "gracilis". We're planning on planting him in a buried water-tank that already exists beside the house. I've been reading about using them for garden stakes, and it just seems to make sense to have one of these beautiful plants already growing in the garden.



We also just had to get these crazy plants. This one is Cephalotus follicularis, aka: The Albany Pitcher Plant, native to Western Australia, quite unique. Little ants and such will go crawling into the pitcher and the lid closes and the ant will be digested slowly. Neat!



The other plant is actually two plants in the one pot - one is Sarracenia and the other is a Drosera (Sundew). Both "eat" insects, too.



We don't have an insect problem as such, just a growing interest in these unusual plants.

Until next time.