Day 14 Photos - Sunflowers and Peas

Compost Soil - Peas

Potting Mix - Peas

Compost Soil - Sunflowers

Backyard Soil - Sunflowers

Potting Mix - Sunflowers

damn, can't add anymore photos to this post, so i shall add more later. (:

Wow, I feel like I haven't blogged in agesss!
Well, I would have blogged, except my dad pulled out the internet on my computer, so I'm on my mum's computer now. (:
Anyway, quite a lot has happened over the past few days, to my plants.
They've grown considerably since last week and I recorded week 2's results yesterday. I feel so organised. hehe.
And one bad thing happened on the weekend that I was really annoyed about.
Well my dad told me he was going to mow the lawn in our backyard and I specifically told him to stay at least ONE METRE away from my plants. And I said that about 5 times. He OBVIOUSLY didn't listen because when I went outside 20 minutes later, I had realised that one of my pea plants had been completely mowed and only about 1/2 a centimetre was left, growing out of the ground. Then, I went to my dad and he said one word to me; "oops."

Not even a sorry! Well luckily i made repeats for my experiment and he only mowed one of my repeats which is good!

I guess I'll have to add this in my report as human error and say that I didn't plant my seeds in a protected place.
Yes, in the morning of yesterday, all my sunflowers were fine and then when I came home from school, I was out in the backyard ready to measure the height of my plants for week 2. and guess what i see? my sunflowers that were growing in the backyard soil were all bent to one side. I then asked my mum to help me and she told me that it was the wind that made that happen. However, to me, my mum's theory wasn't plausible as ONLY the sunflowers in the backyard soil were bent and the rest of the sunflowers, the ones that were right next to the pot with the bent stems, were fine and stood straight. After telling my mum that, she told me it was natural but again, I didn't believe her because all of the others were fine so I got some toothpicks and some straws (we ran out of toothpicks) and some string and i used the them as stakes for the sunflowers to lean against. My observation is that maybe backyard soil doesn't help sunflowers grow as tall and strong as if it were with potting mix and compost soil as they give plants more nutrients to grow in and with.
Yes, and that's all. Oh yeah, I've taken a few more photos of my sunflowers and pea plants. And also my mowed pea plants.
And if you're wondering why I am growing sunflowers AND peas, it's because sunflowers are used as a backup if the peas don't grow. So, at the end of my experiment, I will choose one with definite results and that'll be my experiment. And then, I can include the other plant as evidence to support my results and conclusion (that's if they both grow with the same hypothesis).

Day 10 Photos - Sunflowers

HEHEHE, day 10 photos.

For some reason, I desperately wanted new photos to be taken so at 9 pm tonight, I went outside to take pictures of them. hahhaha. It was like a sudden urge. But here they are, hopefully fine, after surviving the heavy rain last night. (:

CLIMATE GRAPH FOR SYDNEY

YES, here is my climate graph. Took me about 20 minutes to colour the blue part, haha.

Nevertheless, I did it! I feel so organised for once. (:

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY, COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY.

Yes, so last night, it rained, pretty heavily.
And since my plants were outdoor plants, there were, err, pretty soaked. ahhaha.
Last night at 12, i suddenly woke up when i heard it raining and the first thing i remembered were my sunflowers. However, it was cold and rainy and I didn't really want to go outside in my PJs. So i just hoped and hoped my plants wouldn't die.
I don't think I will be watering my plants that much today. But I don't really see not watering them as a problem because as long as I do the same thing to each pot, it will be a controlled variable and the experiment will work.
So this morning when I woke up at around 8:30, I ran outside to bring my plants into some shelter outside, under the pagola.
Yes, that's all. I just thought I'd share that with all of you. (:

It's Anzac Day; Lest We Forget.

LILY

HOLEY LEAVES.

OMG. This morning, I went out to water my plants and I noticed a lot of the leaves in the compost soil has been eaten away. WHAT DO I DO? DO I LEAVE IT OR DO I SPRAY IT WITH PESTICIDE?
But, i told my mum and she told me not to worry and the plants will still grow.
I don't want to use pesticide because my sister told me that the sunflowers will die if I spray them with it. However, if I do decide to use pesticide, I'll spray all of my sunflowers with it and the pesticide will become the experiment's next controlled variable.
So now, I'm just hoping and hoping that all my plants will grow alright and they don't die!
Oh yes, slowly but surely, my pea plants are growing. Well, most of them anyway. I won't speak too soon just in case they stop growing.

ARGH! I just remembered, my climate graph was supposed to be posted here a few days ago, like I said I would. Damn, I shall do it and post it on here by the end of tomorrow.

sigh, that is all for now.
LILY

Day 7 Photos - Sunflowers

Above: Backyard Soil
Above: Potting Mix
Above: Compost soil

YES, I'm obviously obsessed with my plants. haha, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Who knew planting sunflowers would be so interesting and exciting? :D At least they've grown considerably. (:

So, today, I was really happy with the growth of the plants so I took some more pictures. Here they are. (: And I also reckon that my hypothesis is starting to become clear, well clearer, because my sunflowers growing in backyard soil are growing a little slower than the sunflowers in the potting mix and the compost soil.

Hm.. I think I'll post the ones of the peas later because they have grown a teeny bit.

LILY

Day 5 Photos - Sunflowers

You see, a few days ago, my peas hadn't quite grown then, so really, if I post those pictures of the peas onto the internet, there'll be no point because there were barely any changes.

So, here are the sunflower photos.

And er yes, again, please excuse the unprofessional photos. I'm obviously not good at photography.

LILY

Another Update

yah, so i'm back, hellooo. (:

Well, I've been regularly checking my plants and watering them so they don't dry up and die.

over the past few days, I've been er, i guess a bit protective of my plant and I've been taking quite a lot of photos of them. I guess it's just because I'm excited that they're actually growing because from what I've heard from my friends, plants are really hard to grow when you're constantly monitoring them.

I've recorded my first results a couple of days ago in my experiment book. (It's just an exercise book I found somewhere in my house, hehe)

It still seems that my peas aren't growing that well, to be honest. In my potting mix soil for my pea plants, they've grown steadily since I've planted them. However, sadly to say, my other plants are not as successful as in some of them, only 3 or 4 have grown out of the ground, out of 6 peas that I've planted. Like I've been telling people, I'm just going to wait a little longer and hopefully they grow a bit more.

On the other hand, my sunflowers are growing really well and I've seen a change and growth in height every day.

So, that's all for now. And if something else happens, I shall quickly post it on my blog.

Byeeeeee.

LILY

Update, Day 4

helloo.

Well today, I looked at my plant again for like the 15th time in the last 4 days. hahaha. I think I'm getting obsessed with my plants.

Well it seems as though my sunflower seeds are growing because I can actually see something sprouting out of the seeds. No, I didn't dig up my plants to see if they were growing. Some just happened to be coming out of the soil. I'm actually getting excited because I didn't think my plants would grow at first. However, it doesn't seem like my peas are growing just yet. I'll give it a few more days and see how it goes. Also, the sunflower seeds have seemed to grow a lot faster than I had expected.
Well, tomorrow is school so I guess I'll be off for now. But don't worry, this blog will be updated with my experiment observations regularly, from now on. (:

OH YES, and I shall do my climate graph and post it on here ASAP. Which would be some time like tomorrow or the day after that.

LILY

Photos, Day 1

Above: Sunflower; Potting Mix Soil

Above: Sunflower; Compost soil

Above: Sunflower; Backyard soil

Above: Peas, Backyard soil

Above: Peas; Potting Mix Soil

Above: Peas; Compost Soil

Err, the picture above of the peas looks really bad because I think it's my photography skills. D:

But, trust me, it looks a lot better in my backyard. And if you look really closely, there should be six patches of soil (in the photo just above). (:

Yes, now I admit that I really do suck at photography. haha

Anyway, the pictures below are of the sunflowers planted in the soil.

Below: Left - Potting Mix Soil

Middle - Compost Soil

Right - Backyard Soil

Oh yes, and I shall keep you posted on the growth of my plants, weekly. :D

That is all for today, BYE! (:

LILY

Seeds Planted.

oops, I haven't blogged in a while. But, two days ago, I went to Rockdale Plaza with my friend, Jessica Chan. First, we went to Big W but I couldn't find seeds which could be grown in the period of time between the end of Summer and the start of winter. So, next we went to Woolworths where we found a range of seeds. Finally, I decided to go with the sunflower seeds and the Chinese snow peas.

Yesterday, I found different types of soil in my backyard. I chose 3 which were background soil, potting mix soil and compost.

Since my experiment needs 3 different types of soil, I used those three and in my backyard at the very back, next to the fence, I planted my Chinese snow peas with the same amount of soil and peas in each so the results of the experiment would be reliable. I planted the peas in each types of soil twice, which was done so that my experiment could be repeated and so the results are once again reliable. So, altogether, there were 6 patches of soil where I planted my Chinese snow peas.

I bought sunflower seeds as a backup to the experiment if the Chinese snow peas don't work.

The sunflowers were planted in 3 containers; each container was filled with different types of soil. However, after sowing the seeds in the soil, I realised that I didn't have enough seeds to repeat the experiment, so hopefully, the results of the Chinese snow peas work and the sunflower seeds will also grow with the same hypothesis of my experiment. This will hopefully give me the results that I am looking for in time for the due date.

Also, I am deciding to water my plants every day with 1/4 cup of water because that is what I read on the internet when I researched a little more for my experiment. Furthermore, I am going to check on my plants every 5 days and observe and record my results and observations.

Yes, I did realise that I have planted my seeds in fairly late but my experiment really only needs the height difference so all I really need is something growing out of the ground!

So now, I'm just hoping that my experiment goes to plan and something actually comes out of the soil. But the final submission is in week 9 so by around week 8, it would definitely have grown because on the packet is says it should mature at around 8-10 weeks. Okay, I shouldn't speak to soon or it'll be jinxed.

By the way, in my next post I'm going to add a few photos so that you can get an idea of what my experiment looks like. However, I'm not going to post all of them since there are quite a few and I'm not going to upload them on this blog post because they're not in the position I want them to be. :D