It’s that sad time of year when we have to put our garden to bed. Of course, that won’t stop us from growing things inside! Our latest indoor gardening experiment comes in the form of the Root Vue Farm! I planted the seeds a few weeks ago and we are starting to see progress. If all goes well, I hope to see something like this:

The “farm” comes with a viewing window so you can watch as your carrots, radishes, and onions grow. It also includes a self watering feature, which is nice if you are forgetful like I can be at times. The kit comes with everything you need, including the dirt! It was actually very fun to put together because the dirt comes in pellets that expand when water is added. I’ve always loved that.

• Includes:
• Durable styrofoam growing unit with acrylic viewing window, built-in water basic, and drainage reservoir
• Light shield (to cover plant roots when you’re not observing)
• Eight (8) super-expanding grow mix wafers
• Three (3) packets of seeds (carrot, radish, onion)
• ID labels
• Water wicks for self-watering system
• 16 page booklet with instructions and experiments

Here is what ours currently looks like:

The radishes are growing the best right now, but all the seeds have sprouted. So far we can’t see any roots through the window, but maybe in a few months! The Root Vue Farm would be such a fun gift for the young garden lover in your life. I remember how excited I got when I was given presents like this when I was a kid!

Thanks Think Geek!

To say this year was a bust is a bit of an understatement. The weather was just all wrong, and though we did get 3 pumpkins, they didn’t quiet measure up. Behold the pumpkin of 2010:

Weighing in at over 60 pounds, this was a massive pumpkin! We had a few smaller pumpkins as well, but we were both so proud of this one! My husband even sculpted it (and might I add, he did so without real tools, using only a spoon and a knife). Here is a video of the spooky pumpkin when it was finished:

And now, without further fanfare, here is our pumpkin harvest for 2011:

Three of the cutest little pumpkins you could ever see! These are not from mini-pumpkin seeds however, they are regular pumpkins that just didn’t get any bigger because we had such a crazy growing season this year. I put them next to our Corpse Bride village so you can see just how little they actually are.

Here’s hoping we grow some more big ones next year! Looks like we will be buying a few for carving/sculpting this Halloween. What about you? Do you carve pumpkins? Do you grow your own?

The autumnal solstice has arrived, and fall is officially here. The weather, though cooler at night, it still quiet warm in the day time (in the 80s) and as such the garden is still growing.

An awesome patch of mushrooms popped up. I’m just sad that they aren’t edible, because we sure do have a lot of them!

There have been so many bees this year! It’s great to see it, maybe bees are recovering.

And of course, there have been a lot of spiders this year too. Spiders don’t bother me, as long as they stay outside where they live and don’t come into our house. Check out this funnel web!

Is it starting to feel like fall where you live?

My husband has an extreme love of all things hot and spicy, so of course he was bound to get some “ghost chili pepper” seeds in his Christmas stocking last year. They came in a little soda can that looked like this:

So, when the weather warmed up a bit we started them in our windowsill. This was in May, and to say that they grow slowly would be a bit of an understatement! They finally reached a size where I felt like I could transplant them. Here they are in their new home, hopefully one in which they will be very happy and grow some very spooky peppers!

Apparently this is the hottest chili pepper in the world, with Guinness Book of World Records confirming it with an official (SHU) of 1,001,304 SHU, (SHU- Scoville Heat Rating, is the unit of measure used to indicate the hotness of a chili pepper.). This means it is even hotter than a Habanero which are rated 100,000–350,000 on the Scoville scale. Have you had a Habanero? They are pretty darn hot if you ask me.

I’m very scared to try a ghost pepper, but I can’t wait to see my husband give it a go! Send happy growing vibes our way please.

What about you? Do you like it hot and spicy? What is the hottest pepper you have eaten?