As the story goes...a few years ago, I began reclaiming lawn space building raised boxes, and blogging about my adventures in gardening. I think this is year 6 of the ever-growing garden that officially launches late May every year. The community that @GardenHive has become is for us green thumbs and I think you should check out the intro post here https://hive.blog/hive-140635/@gardenhive/the-garden-selfie-collection-happy-christmas-to-all-the-amazing-hive-gardeners if you haven't yet. My friends @sanjeevm @thebigsweed @farm-mom @lynds and @plantstoplanks are among many in the thriving community and showcasing how they get their gardens to thrive.
This week, there are some new colours and buds making an appearance.
How We Doin'?
Here is how we were a week ago after regular rain and the green returned to make the lawn match the garden.
The lawn is a little shaggy after a week of rain and sun plus I have been away a few days camping. Let's take a closer look.
Peppers!
I have found that peppers take quite a long time to turn red this far north. Sometimes long enough to forget whether they were supposed to be green or red peppers. Well these jalapenos are showing definite signs of turning red. The others are nice and fat so I will have single ones to snack on while the rest of them brighten up for my hot sauce!
My goofy looking King of the North https://www.superseeds.com/products/king-of-north-pep peppers are increasing in size and number. I wonder how many, how big, what colour and the result of the taste will be when we harvest these for the first time this year.
My purple Chinese hot peppers are such a gift with their upward growing and bright hues. I haven't eaten one yet to sample the taste and the heat but I am curious. I will have to sacrifice the biggest one for experimentation and do a little research as to when they are ready. All indications are that they might be five colour peppers https://blog.gardeningknowhow.com/tbt/chinese-five-color-peppers/ and each starts out purple but as it matures runs the rainbow gamut from cream, yellow, orange and finally red when ripe. I am not sure because it was a mystery gift from my little one from the nursery at school.
I took a peak under the leaves of the Ghost Pepper plant and things are getting hot. The ones this year seem to be bigger than last. They are still lush & green and should be til they develop that scary hot orange hue. If they are anything like past years, they will be maliciously hot with cruel intent. These will be fermented up so that it can be added sparingly to heat up milder tasty sauces, or to be used on its own to punish some alpha male who believes they are stronger than hot sauce. Like sport heat.
Plenty More Greens
The kale is still the gift that keeps on giving. We bought 3 scraggly little sprouts and they have done nothing but blast out hearty green leaves which outpace any harvest a family can manage. Next year, I will definitely plant these again and perhaps limit it to 2. Easy to grow, iron-rich superfood is a good thing.
Cucumbers!
We have contact! I pulled a fat cucumber off the vine last week and another this week. Next up will be this one and it looks like I am back in the cucumber business after a couple years of no such luck. These ones are Slicers grown from seeds as I have found it hard to find any english variety the last couple years.
Where there are cucumbers, there are PICKLES! I am hoping it will be obvious which ones will be the little cucumbers I make into pickles because I neglected to label them in the garden. Either way, I may save my reputation and namesake with a good pickle harvest and fermentation this year.
New Sprouts
The first wave of French Breakfast Radishes went so well that I planted the second wave a couple weeks ago. They are going nuts again between the carrots, cucumber cage and pathetic showing of tomatoes this year. Simple, hearty and easily grown from seeds makes for good veggies.
Another late season planting has resulted in a nice little sprouting of Cilantro (closer) and Dill (background.) These were also grown from seeds and seem to love plenty of water and potting soil so far. Gotta have dill for my pickles and cilantro is so good with the spicy Mexican pepper dishes.
Probably the most exciting development for me personally are these little babies. This funky little sprout is my first attempt at growing hops! I visited a local hop farm at https://www.tavihops.ca/ where I was gifted a fantastic tour by the owners. Followers of my beer blog here will know I am a huge fan of IPAs and the hops that contribute to that bold flavour.
I was able to pick a rhizome (root of the plant) of the New Zealand Rakua variety https://yakimavalleyhops.com/products/rakau-hop-pellets which is known to contribute to the fruit forward, stonefruit with hints of lime and pine. I simply threw it in the ground and hoped for the best. Seems I have a couple sprigs popping up and I may have just gotten another notch on my Beerologist belt.
So far so good
Despite the best efforts of Diggy the Doggy, we are doing alright with the garden. This is his smouldering pose as he cools off in his pool, chases down thrown toys, and stomps through every flowerbed not fenced in. The garden literally wouldn't be the same without him.
Mom started me along my path of growing stuff when I was a kid. Motivated by so many blockchain blogging gardeners, I figured I would plant and share and learn as I reclaim as much grass space as I can. It has turned out to be a fruitful experience and I hope to inspire others to sow and grow no matter what your location or experience level is.
Then, blog about it using #hivegarden / #gardenhive tags as we network and curate the journals of other green thumbs, outdoor enthusiasts and fresh whole foodies.
Wherever you are...JUST GROW!
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Can't lie, your little guardian is producing fruit like a real farm,
The peppers I think that no matter what colour they are they will still have that harsh taste.
True.
I eat jalapeños all season long when they are green. The red ones are just kinda cool.
The orange and red ghost peppers will probably kill your mouth no matter what colour they are.
Curious to see how these new long of the north ones turn out!
Wow, that's all looking lush! The only time we've ever had any success with peppers was a single bush of Aji Limo that I grew from seeds I saved from the farmers market. Otherwise, The bugs seem to eat the plants before they can produce. So needless to say, I love seeing all of your varieties! Though you can keep those ghost peppers to yourself, haha!
Hope you continue to get some good harvests!
In good times, pulling nutritious food from your yard is just more happiness. Imagine how valuable it would be if things were not so good!
Perhaps we have different critters and they normally eat my cucumbers plants before they grow.
Maybe you need to plant your peppers in a Guinea pig cage!