The End of January

 Mid-January, I ran into a fellow who explained that he was going to start his brassicas mid-January, and put them out into his garden mid-February under protective cover. 

That sounded like a good idea, so I joined him. All the brassicas I could think of, and a fair bit of lettuce as well. Some of it is pretty small. Some of the starts How are a couple of inches. 

Clearly not ready to go out quite yet.

This is going to be interesting. If I'm not careful, I might actually learn something new!

Last weekend, I let one seedling bad to get a little dry, and all of my Scotch Bonnets got dried out in wimpy. So I watered them, of course. 

Then I plant a bunch more. By that time all the wimpy ones had turned around, We're going to have a good harvest.

This weekend, I realized I had no red habanero peppers. So I harvested one of the last ripe red Habaneros, took the seeds out of it, and planted them. 

I've got a dozen red Habaneros coming, if it all goes well.

I also picked up some poblano pepper seeds this weekend and planted a dozen poblano peppers. (Poblanos are called ancho peppers when they're dried.)

I've been looking for something that is not as spicy as some of the peppers, something that I can cook with, that I can grill with. This looks like it might be that answer.

Winter Mulch

Neighborhood cut down a tree, and was chipping up the branches. I decided it was the right time to mulch the garden.

Last year's mulch had mostly composted except the top inch. 

The front two beds needed more depth. I scraped off the top inch of chips, added an inch of fresh compost and another inch of well-mulched chips before adding a couple of inches of fresh chips on top.

All other beds got a topping of fresh chips over their existing chips; between 1" and 3" depending on the bed. 

It's going to be interesting to see how seeds and plants do in this environment.

Peppers Update

Middle of January. Hot peppers are doing pretty well. Ghost is very successful. Lemon drop is very successful. Have a few Scotch bonnets a few Jamaican scorpions. Got a fair number of miscellaneous Chiles for sharing; should not be quite so hot. Average size, between 1 inch and 3 inches.

Also pruned back last year's potted peppers.

Christmas 2020 Planting

On December 23rd, I planted more.

- purchased Ghost pepper seeds. 

 

- purchased Jamaican Red Hot seeds. [A little research suggests that these are actually a red Scotch Bonnet.]

 

- purchased yellow Scotch Bonnet. [I've recently learned that these are twice as hot as habaneros. Half the heat of Ghost.]

 

- Ed Hume chili variety pack. ["Included, depending on availability, are cayenne, Hungarian wax, serrano, habenero, hot cherry, and other hot chile types."] I'm thankful for more moderate heat in the pepper mix. 

 

- also started some spinach and lettuce, and some flowers for in the greenhouse.

December 2010: the 2021 Garden Begins

First week of December, planted some peppers.

- Ghost peppers from seeds left over from dehydrating.

 

- Lemon Drop from dehydrator seeds 

 

- Purple Serrano from fresh peppers 

 

- Ghost peppers from very fresh peppers 

 

- Fresno peppers (jalapeño variety) from seeds I'd saved. 

 

- Habanero from seeds I'd saved 

Fresh Ghost pepper seeds sprouted immediately. 

 

Fresh Serrano and saved Fresno also sprouted quickly. 

Heroes of the 2020 Garden

• Tomatoes (Limit cherries to baskets/pots next year.)

• Peppers

• Rhubarb (as usual)

• Zucchini (Don’t plant them again: the chickens got ‘em all.)

• Raspberries

• Carrots were hard to get started, but eventually did very well. 

• Onions did well eventually

  • Lettuce

• Kale (of course)

• Garlic

• Lemons. My little tree gave me two dozen.

• Got a dozen or so baby fish in the fish pond before the heron got the adults.  

Things to cage for 2021

• Winter squash only.

• More flowers.

• Make room for asparagus.

• Add cantaloupe.

• Hot peppers in large pots (3 gallon or so)

July Fourth Update

Progress report for the beginning of Summer.

A lot of good things growing. I pruned the raspberries hard over the winter. They are doing very well.

This is one of the beds that did not get the fresh compost dug-in, so it didn't like starting seeds. The lettuce and carrots are store bought starts. The peas, cucumbers, celery our homegrown starts

The garlic has been growing since last fall, but this spring, I added the peppers To The Ends. Garlic is nearly ready for harvesting. Pepper's doing okay.

This big bed is something of a miscellaneous bed this year. I did get the compost dug in on this, so it handles seeds really well. We have, clockwise from the West, last year's Swiss chard, fresh lettuce, orange marigolds, last year's onions for seed, German carrots, red onions for seed, Beats, another batch of lettuce, spinach just starting down in front here, a great big sunflower, from a weed, several cucumbers, and a couple of peppers.

The cucumbers are worth some attention. I put up a trellis for them this year. Some of them made it up the trellis. Some starts didn't thrive. And some starts are growing on the ground. But I like the trellis idea. I will do this again. 

Tomatoes are doing really well. Every year, I tell myself that I'm not going to overcrowd the tomatoes. Every year I decide I need lots of tomatoes. So I overcrowd every year. Sigh.

One kale plant along the side, for the chickens.

The Brassica bed was interesting. This one did not get the compost dug-in oh, so it was hostile to seeds and very young starts. The cabbage, broccoli, kale was from store-bought starts. Sad. The Swiss chard on this end is a local start. On the far end AR green onions, and I'm growing some brussel sprouts seeds.

I have a great this year. I got a cutting from a seedless concord grape from a friend. But see how this grows.

This bed was full of asparagus last year. This year only one asparagus came up. Very disappointing. Planted several more asparagus roots. Only two of those came up.

But because the asparagus was here, I couldn't dig in the top level of compost oh, so it didn't work well for seeds.

We had a number of tomato plants show up as weeds. So I'm putting those in here. I also have some leftover peas starts, and some marigolds at the end. And one carrot.

Lemon tree is doing well this year. I've harvested three lemons so far this year, there are six or eight more. Lots of new growth.

Of course, this spends its winters in the greenhouse.

The squash bed. All starts our local oh, but you can tell which ones were put out too early. I've already started harvesting zucchinis. Note to self. Don't put squash out until late May. Celery on the ends.

These last bed. Rhubarb is taking over the world. How to have Peas on a trellis, cucumbers on another color, some of which are doing better than others.

 Lots of containers next to the greenhouse this year. Tomatoes and peppers. One ground cherry. Cement in baskets. Some kale growing for seed.