Update on Starts and Things.

Because super-hot peppers need a very long time to germinate, I started those seeds the second week of January. I've since learned that this was kind of late for those peppers. Live and learn.

These are the super-hot peppers. At the bottom are Cayenne peppers. The others that are starting are Yellow Reapers, from which Carolina Reapers were bred.

But we're still early. It would be unusual if there were many up yet.

And I still have some growing in plastic starting bags.

These are the medium hot peppers. Fresno peppers are up. Lemon Drops are not (they were slow last year, too); neither are Felicity or Paprika peppers.

Bell peppers are inconsistent, too. Yellow bells are iffy. Red bells are great. Purple bells, also iffy. But these are pretty early.

It's habit for me: I always start peppers and tomatoes at the same time. (I'm beginning to catch on that maybe that needs to change.)

These are the tomatoes that I started at the same time. They're all doing varying degrees of really great.

Legend (determinate, slicing)
Chocolate Cherry x2 (indeterminate, large cherry)
Unknown purple tomato seeds (from 2013)
Brandywine (slicing, from 2013) and again,
Brandywine (slicing, from 2016)
Theoretically, I should begin harvesting fruit off of these late March. I think that's overly optimistic, but mid April makes some sense. And if nothing else, I'll have some really fairly mature plants to put into the new raised beds.


As long as my hands were dirty, I dug out much of the herb garden this year. looks like the oregano and the tarragon didn't make it. But I may still be surprised. I still need to find a home for garlic chives and licorice mint. Maybe this is the answer I'm looking for.