Pepper Time

We have 17 pepper plants in the garden this year, which, now that I think about it, seems a bit excessive.  We have what I like to call, "Pepper Row" planted on the south perimeter of the garden with most of the peppers.  There is one that is supposed to grow quite tall that is in with the tomatoes.  There are also 2 on the patio in pots.

They include the following:

• Lemon Drop (we tried these from my brother's garden last year.  They were yummy!)
• Serrano Tampequino
• Catarina
• Chichimeca hot
• Aji omnicolor
• Aji amarillo
• Satan's kiss
• Brazilian Star Fish

The two on the patio are:

• Sweet Cute Stuff
• Tobago Seasoning

These are supposed to be especially good to raise in pots so we are going to try it this year.  I have read that you can bring pepper plants inside over the winter and they will do great, even keep their fruit, and be ready to go back on the patio next year.  We will try this with these two peppers and perhaps a few of the others if we like them.  Imagine, having peppers all year round?

These are all from the Hugo Feed Mill & Hardware Store.  They offered around 200 different kinds of specialty peppers difficult to find anywhere else.

We also have a few more traditional peppers that we purchased at the plant sale:

• Thai Dragon
• Jalapeno (2)
• Gypsy
• Poblano Ancho
• Lady Bell (2)

Some of these peppers are hot and some are mild, and I have a couple of bell peppers planted for good measure.

Maybe we'll have to have a pepper tasting party to try them all out!

Let's talk tomatoes

First Tomato Bed

I have 17 tomato plants in the ground:

• 1 Matt's Wild Cherry (plant sale)
• 4 San Marzanos (plant sale)
• 1 Cherokee Purple (plant sale)
• 4 Big Boys (Mother Earth Gardens)
• 4 San Marzanos (Mother Earth Gardens)
• 2 Mountain Fresh (Mother Earth Gardens)
• 1 Red Zebra (Mother Earth Gardens)

I have attached stock pictures for reference - we'll see if ours look the same!

Second Tomato Bed

Matt's Wild Cherry

San Marzano

Cherokee Purple

Big Boy

Mountain Fresh

Red Zebra

I also have 4 tomatoes in pots on the patio from our first planting this winter in the greenhouse, one of each:

• Heirloom Tall Vine Moskvich
• Hybrid, Red Grape
• Heirloom Tall Vine Brandywine
• Heirloom Tall Vine Debarao

I'm not sure which one is which, but I do know that the second one from the right is the grape plant because I have baby tomatoes growing!  They are still green, but they are growing and there are ton of flowers on all four of the plants.  I can't wait for our first tomatoes!

Tomorrow, we'll talk peppers.

Summer is here!

So it has been awhile since my last post, for which I apologize.  The first 2 weeks of May involved a holiday and a work trip, taking me away from the garden for 2 solid weeks.  Upon my return, the garden was a bit dry and the weeds had started to take over, but overall not too bad considering.  Now that I'm back in the groove, I will update in increments...including my foray into annual containers, the tomato experiment, the new additions from the plant sale and of course, the veggies.

But for tonight, a little inspiration.