Just ordered my pepper seeds

I've just ordered all of my pepper seeds from the New Mexico State University Chili Pepper Institute, and here's what I'm getting:

• NuMex Conquistador - this is a mild pepper similar to the Anaheim Chili's that I grew last year.
• Cayenne - standard hot cayenne pepper.
• Jupiter - large bell pepper.  I just haven't had much luck with the California Wonder so I'm trying something different.
• Poblano - Thought I'd try this so I can make a nice spicy stuffed peppers dish.
• NuMex Vaquero - This is a hot jalapeno variety.
• Orange Habanero - Hot habanero peppers but more orange than the red ones I grew last year.

Also, one of my wife's co-workers provided me with some seeds labeled "Asian Sweet Pepper".  I don't really know what these are, but I'll give them a try.

Peppers are slow to start so just like last year, I'll start 72 plants in my office using a Jiffy heat pad, probably in the small jiffy pellets.  They'll stay on the heat pad for a week or so.  When they are ready I'll transplant the healhier plants into 3" square pots.  They will remain on my desk under a pair of fairly standard florescent lights.  I have a timer set to turn the lights on at 6am and turn them off at 10pm.  these aren't grow lights but they seemed to suffice last year.  After 6-7 weeks I'll start rolling them outside every day for some actual sunshine.  They'll get 3-4 hours of direct sunlight each day and by the time I'm ready to transplant, they'll be nice and sturdy!  

We can plant or transplant peppers outdoors starting May 1st here, so I will probably start these seeds the week of February 20th or February 27th.  that'll give me 8-10 weeks to really get them going.

Starting my Winter Garden

Here in Raleigh, North Carolina, there are a variety of things we can plant in the cold winter that don't mind the frosts and freezes of Zone 7b this time of year.  Some of them can be planted in January, like peas and onions.  In February, we can plant quite a few more things, including spinach, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, radishes, rutabagas, turnips, and potatoes.  It's only January 16th, but I want to get some things started a little early.

So, I built myself a "Cold Frame" of sorts.  Basically, I spent about $15 at home depot to buy five 10' lengths of 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC pipe, along with six 90 degree elbow joints, 3 T joints, and a 9'x12' 2 mil plastic drop cloth from the paint section.  I'm not going to go into detail here, but here is a picture of the finished project.

I divided the bed into 4 quadrants and planted bunching green onions, sweet spanish yellow onions, romaine lettuce, and spinach.  Of course, prior to planting I prepped the bed by weeding it, dumping in a load of compost from my compost tumbler, and turning it all as well as I could.  And, leftover from last year, there is some very healthy "Garlic Chives" that don't seem to mind the cold at all.

I also decided to plant some sweet peas in a neighboring bed.  Sweet Peas don't need protection so these are planted out in the open.

Still happy in this bed is (from top to bottom), Rosemary, cilantro, and oregano.  The cilantro actually came back as it did not enjoy the summer heat at all.  I knew the Rosemary would survive as it's very hardy and is sometimes used for landscaping around here.  I thought the oregano would die like the basil upon first frost, but it seems to be doing quite nicely.

For my own records... I'm adding the specific varieties here.  All Ferry-Morse seeds...

• Onion, Sweet Spanish Yellow Utah Jumbo
• Onion, Evergreen Bunching
• Lettuce, Parris Island (Romaine)
• Spinach, Bloomsdale (Long Standing)
• Peas, Alaska (Wilt Resistant)

Starting my Fall Garden

I don't know if you've noticed, but it's been a hot summer!  The average high in Raleigh last month was 94.5, and we had 7 days at 100 degrees or higher.  Yuck!

Well, it's time to start planting my fall garden.  I don't have a lot of space so that meant tearing out some plants that weren't necessarily done producing.

Most of my big tomato plants - the Early Girl, Celebrity, and Big Beef Hybrid tomatoes - were done, so I took down the trellis, put the plants in the compost pile, and also tore out the two eggplants and the bell pepper.  I added some fresh compost and turned the soil good, then planted four Snow Crown cauliflower starts, and 2 broccoli starts.  I also planted two broccoli starts in my green self-watering bucket planters.  Here are some pictures:

I also needed a place to plant some cabbage and radishes, so that meant I needed to remove some peppers from the pepper garden.  I left myself with one cayenne, one jalapeno, and one anaheim chili, and made plenty of room for four Tropic Giant cabbage starts, and some radishes.  I've never grown any of these items before, so this is all new!

I've also given up on the second crop of zucchini - the bugs really destroyed the stem of the plants, I don't know what kind of bugs.. squash bugs probably.  Anyway, it just didn't work out.   Also, my bean trellis fell over (broke).  I took this as an indication that it was time to clean that garden out too, so I removed the zukes and beans, leaving only the cukes.  I will probably plant some garlic and onions here soon.

Finally, here's a picture of my growing compost pile!

Summer Garden Update

I re-planted two new zucchini plants (Black Beauty) and some unspecified variety of pickling cucumbers a few weeks ago. I got the starts from the farmer's market.

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The big beef and early girl tomatoes in the raised bed here have reached "maximum height". I transplanted another heirloom tomato in the middle a few weeks ago and it's almost to the point where I need to string it up. Aside from some cracking, the tomatoes have been great! Also in this picture, a couple of eggplants, a bell pepper, and two extremely vigorous Celebrity tomatoes.

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I have been taking huge amounts of peppers off these plants lately! Sent a whole bunch to work with my wife yesterday (I took a bunch to work the week before).

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This is what's left of my Asian Yardlong Beans, aka Asparagus Beans. I harvested most of them a few days ago and froze them. I was very impressed by this variety, it was extremely productive and did very well in this setup. That's a 2x2 with three pieces of 10' galvanized "mason ladder" wire. The beans went all the way to the top!

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Two heirloom tomatoes that I don't have any place to plant. They're in little 4" round jiffy pots and I water them twice a day. They're doing surprisingly well considering how tiny their root system is. As long as I can keep them alive I guess I'll keep them going.

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My container garden - the cherry tomatoes on the left have maxed out their height. The grape tomatoes on the right have another foot to go. The peppers are mostly doing well too except the bell peppers in the pot on the far right are suffering from dwarfism I think! And some of the bell peppers and anaheim chilis have gotten blossom end rot (but not all). The habaneros and jalapenos are doing great though, as is the eggplant (see next picture).

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Compared to the three eggplants I have in the raised beds, this one is doing far better. It's taller, greener, sturdier, and has more fruits. It never suffered much damage from the flea beetles like the ones in the garden.

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My habaneros are starting to ripen up!

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I finally have a canteloupe, too. I only ended up with one last year too, this was a last minute addition and is not in a prime location.. the soil is poor, it's hard to water, and it doesn't get "full sun".

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I must've tossed some rotten tomatoes over here last year because I have a "volunteer" growing. I wonder what kind it is! It's got some small tomatoes on it that just appeared so I'll find out soon enough!

Beautiful Blooms

I went out this morning to check on my cowpeas (Mississippi Silver Cowpeas, a warm weather southern variety) and noticed these beautiful blooms.  Easily the prettiest little flowers I've seen on any of my vegetables!

CSA (Communited Supported Agriculture) finds its way into regional grocery chains

My favorite local grocery store is a Lowe's Foods.  they are a regional chain, with most of its 102 stores located in North Carolina.  They've always had decent produce for a chain grocery store... with some selection of organic and occasional locally grown stuff.

Well, now they're going into "Community Supported Agriculture" and offering locally grown produce all summer long in 7 week pre-paid increments.  The typical CSA model involves a farm selling "shares" of its crops.  One popular local CSA farm is Hilltop Farms in Willow Springs, NC.  Hilltop sells their shares for $495 for a 25 week season, or about $20 a week.  Every week, you go pick up a box of produce at their farm or at the Cary Farmers Market.  You get whatever they have available depending on the season.

Some CSAs offer only organically grown produce.  Lowe's Foods doesn't seem to mention anything about organic produce, they're just going on the locally grown.  And as long as you're not paranoid about some chemical pesticides and such, locally grown is still far better than mass production vegetables usually found in the grocery store.

And the Lowe's offering is $175 for 7 weeks.  It's a little more expensive per week but requires less commitment.

So, if you live around here, check out the Lowe's Foods "Locally Grown Club" or search LocalHarvest.org for a CSA program near you!

The War On Bugs - Fighting squash bugs and cucumber beetles

While inspecting and harvestring zucchini today, I discovered a bug.  I'm a programmer, so I already hate bugs, and now that I'm a gardener too, I hate them even more.  Upon further investigation, I found bug eggs and another kind of bug.  Here are the pictures I took:

The above bug is a squash bug.  So, it's not surprising that I found it on my zucchini.  I found and squished 5 or so more of these nasty little bugs.

This little thing is a cucumber beetle.  Extremely nasty because they spread a plant disease called bacterial wilt, and if your plants get it, there is no cure.  It's the death of your plant.  Even though this is a cucumber beetle, I found this particular one on a zucchini leaf.  Cucumbers and zucchini are closely related.

Also in the picture above, in the upper right part of the leaf, you can see some eggs.  These are squash bug eggs.  I found numerous deposits of them and removed them.  I'm sure there are more.

From what I understand, this is a battle I'll be waging every day now.  Of course one organic tool for battling these bugs is simple removal.  Find 'em and squish 'em.  Another is the use of insecticidal soap.  I have a bottle of orth essentials insecticidal soap but I have a lot of leaves to cover, so I'll be picking up some nice friendly liquid soap of some kind and making a soap spray that I can put in my tank sprayer.  And then, I will probably spray the plants every few days.  Or more.

Another way to fight squash bugs is to trap them.  Apparently, if you put a few small boards in the garden on the ground, at night the squash bugs will congregate underneath the boards, and you can kill them.  Maybe in the morning, or maybe late at night after sundown, I'm not sure of that yet.  I put a few boards out there this evening and I will check them tomorrow night after it gets dark.

The good news is that my zucchini and cucumbers are all very vigorous and healthy, and as long as I keep on top of things, they won't suffer at all.  They could lose a few leaves easily and not be bothered.  Heck, I've removed a number of leaves just to let the sun shine on the beans!