stubbed toes and mud pies

[Vanalpaca]

I keep getting waylaid by lack of energy... day of work, day off. We did a feed run this morning and are sitting down since. Still need to drag myself up and go heat up some soup...

 

[flowerbug]

i got half the peppers planted. the 2nd half will be easier when i can get back to planting as the garden soil is better and it is a single row i just have to get it done - but that won't likely be tomorrow. have to mow and then something else for the afternoon, but i really want to get these planted so perhaps i will manage it.

 

[flowerbug]

i did not get peppers planted but we'll see if i can get them done in the morning... pretty hot and humid out there today and i did have to stop and take a break and cool off before finishing.

mosquitoes are starting to appear in numbers. it's ok, i don't enjoy getting bit but they are a part of nature and feed frogs, toads, bats, etc. so far i haven't been bit at all.

 

[Decoy1]

plants got picked up. onions got planted and watered.

i have an entire tray of Beaver Dam pepper plants. if i grow all of these plants i'm going to have to give a lot of them away!

I’m growing Beaver Dam peppers this year. I’d never heard of them before I got some seed, but have read their interesting history.
My two plants are quite small and delicate still. Is that typical for the variety? I’d love to know a bit more about them. Are they favourites for you? I believe they’re quite mild?

 

[flowerbug]

...My two plants are quite small and delicate still. Is that typical for the variety? I’d love to know a bit more about them. Are they favourites for you? I believe they’re quite mild?

the starts i have are usually about 15-20cm tall and already have some flower buds starting to appear. they usually end up getting to be about 50-60cm tall by the end of the season - i've never put supports in for them but they might do better if you do.

the fruits are not thick walled, but are what i'd consider medium thickness, about 8cm wide and 15-20cm long with a ridge around the top so if you get frequent rains you may have some water collect on the top.

quantiity in our heavy clay soil is plenty with two to three crops.

heat level is about the same as a jalalpeno.

flavor is different than jalapeno but good to me but they are certainly not hatch chilis or red pepper or green pepper flavor - unique to them i guess i'd say. if you want them to be milder (as usual with some hot peppers) you can remove the seeds and veins when prepping them.

as for a favorite, i like that they are productive in our garden soils when jalapenos are usually not very good for us.

the downsides are the above mentioned ridge and then with the long fruits and how deep i plant them they often are dragging fruits on the ground (they might do better with bigger starts but so far i'm not getting those from the greenhouse - since they are doing these as a favor to me i'm glad to get the plants at all - i don't have good pepper starting conditions here at home). to get bigger starts get them going a month or more earlier than usual?

 

[flowerbug]

i'd mentioned to Mom that until i was done planting beans that i wasn't really available to help her with projects until the gardens were planted. i've already been pulled away from planting about a week extra due to the glass being blown out of the lighthouse and other things she's needed help with, which is fine and it is what i'm here for, but they are not emergencies and so the gardens are not getting planted...

yesterday Mom came back from her caretaking and said that she hired someone to come help her with her project that she's started (which i had no plans on doing at all) that she never said she was going to do up until the day she decided to do it (which was also the day we picked up the garden starts for onions, tomatoes and peppers).

the front gardens have a few rows of lavender plants that are old and woody so she wanted to take all of them out and replace them with some other plants. we picked up ten plants for that and now we need to have wood chips brought in for those to be replaced. i think we may just end up having a pallet of bags delivered because she can handle those a lot easier than having to shovel them from a pile into the wheelbarrow. so that's likely the plan for the woodchips, but first the lavender plants need to be removed and she's not able to do it all so the person she got ahold of will be here to help her out with the rest of it.

i would get to doing it eventually but it won't be for a few weeks yet at the soonest.

it is pretty humid and wet out at the moment from the rains we've had but i hope i can get out today and get the last of the peppers planted.

 

[flowerbug]

peppers all planted, on to the rest of the gardens, all need to be weeded in some ways but they're not too bad.