Carrots and Beans

I picked these carrots this morning and I will snack on them later today. They were planted a couple of months ago, but are still chugging along. As you can see, they are small. These are some that I thinned, so the others could grow larger. I planted the Orange Ball Carrots in a bag of topsoil. Their roots aren't very long so they can grow just fine in the bag. [See post 5/6/09]. The other carrots are my Cosmic Purple Carrots. I planted them in a self-watering grow box. They are growing nicely and I will keep thinning/harvesting as I go along.


I am making progress in my raised bed garden. Saturday evening I planted Contender Bush Beans and Bountiful Esther Dry Beans along the front of my garden. I then laid down thick pieces of wet newspaper and on top of that a flake of straw. Lastly, I put some unfinished compost that I have over the planting of beans, down the center of the straw. That will keep the beans moist and keep their paths to the sun easy to get through. You can see a plant right in the middle of the bean row---it's a Bright Lights Swiss Chard that I planted in the early spring that never came up, well at least not until now. I will leave it there and add it to the menu when it gets big enough!

I am working on this garden bed piece-by-piece until it gets done; and I will use the newspaper and straw method over the whole bed. It is difficult for me to cover the weeds now, because the praying mantis' have hatched. They are about 1/3" long and tend to like the crabgrass, where they feel protected and can find a good bug meal! I will pull out the grass and leave it in a pile near the garden for a few days, that way the spiders and mantis' can find a new home, instead of being covered up with no way out. Later I will put the weeds under wet newspaper in my new raised garden bed. With so much to do to tidy up the yard, I will have to divide my time over several projects---but it will get done!