Peppers and Passion in a Backyard Garden
My favorite things to plant in my garden are tomatoes and green peppers--mostly because I love them so--but also because they are expensive at the grocery store. In my expanded garden this year, I had 9 green pepper plants and one each of yellow and red pepper plants.
This year, we had one plant of each: jalapeño, cayenne, and habanero (a newcomer to our backyard). We also had 2 Anaheim pepper plants.
What I learned about peppers and passion in our 2011 backyard garden:
Hot peppers grow best in hot weather. My 4 hot pepper plants are still going strong and have given us probably a hundred peppers. They're so beautiful.
Because of having so many hot peppers, our taste pallets have expanded this summer. We have our own version of "Heat Seekers" a few times a week at our house. My hubby made some hot sauce (from jalapeños and habaneros) that is labeled simply XXX. We add it to almost everything we cook and are adding it to store-bought salsa. (We would have made our own salsa, but the large tomatoes didn't do as well as expected.)
I love the way cayenne peppers get so red that they look psychedelic! We dry & grind them, making our own ground cayenne pepper to add to recipes. I love the cayenne heat. It's smooth as it smacks you in the face.
I believe cayenne peppers are like passionate people. They do best and shine best when the heat is turned up in their lives.
Speaking of people--gardens are a little like people. They need special care, nice touches, a little fertilizer every now and then, some occasional weeding and pruning, and you need to talk to them from time to time. If cultivated properly, they will usually produce beautiful fruit, even amidst harsh circumstances.
Habanero peppers are cute and adorable, but deadly. If you share them with another spice-loving friend, please do as I did, and warn them about the heat. It usually doesn't take a whole habanero to spice up a dish.
Green peppers--even if they are extremely small and contorted--taste awesome when grown in an organic garden. Green peppers are like the love of my life. I love them roasted, grilled, fried, raw, however I can get them. I could eat them every day for a snack. I cut them up and freeze them for use throughout the winter.
Anaheim peppers and green peppers seem to be a little hotter when grown close to their hot pepper cousins.
Don't try to grow brussels sprouts (they take up too much room, take way too long to cultivate, and they attract strange-looking bugs).
Corn must need a lot of water. In the beginning, we watered our garden every day that it didn't rain. But when the heat of July hit the corn, it dried up and died.
Green beans and peas didn't produce enough for me to warrant having them in future gardens. Although beautiful plants, they take up too much real estate. It may have been too hot for them as well. Plus, they aren't that expensive at the grocery.
Although our watermelons tasted delicious, they didn't grow very big and the plants tried to take over the entire garden. They like to attach themselves to everything--and when you attach yourselves to my tomato and green pepper plants--watch out. Note to self: don't try watermelons again.
Small tomatoes are delicious and do much better than large ones in organic gardens. But they need discipline, so cage them to keep control of their growth.
Bok choy and lettuce did not do well. Maybe they needed some shade.
A garden may continue to grow even after it's taken a direct hit from an umbrella that falls from the deck--twice. Those were some of those times when I talked to the plants. Poor sweeties.
Cucumbers are kind of easy to grow, but you must cage them or they will attempt to take over the garden. The plant is strong and the outside of the cucumber is prickly (like some people). The plants will grow up a trellis, so we might try that next year. We freeze cucumbers to add to soups. I also cut up cucumbers to soak in salt water (my mom always used vinegar, but I dislike the taste of vinegar). To experiment, I added an habanero to the water and let it sit a day or two in the fridge. Ah carumba! Spicy and delicious!
Herbs are tasty, fun, and lend a pleasing aroma to the deck, but they need some shade or they dry up. The sage still lives. The oregano and parsley died. The basil kind of died, but its babies are multiplying like crazy.
I've tried 3 times to grow cilantro. I give up!
I frequent the farmers market and we eat a lot of greens at our house. I even add them to my morning smoothies.
We are also attempting an avocado plant in the house. One must be very patient to get the avocado seed to sprout. But ours is about ready for potting. Avocados are so good for our health and taste wonderful, but are so expensive. People would be surprised when comparing the size of avocados from Brazil to the ones from here. Hubby says the Brazilian ones can sometimes grow to be the size of footballs.
It looks like next year, we'll have many small tomato plants, one large tomato plant, cucumbers, beaucoup green peppers, double the Anaheim pepper plants, and I'll keep growing our hot peppers (maybe even add a second jalapeño). I will probably try growing greens such as spinach. I'd also like to try some ancient peppers that we keep buying from Sam's. Those are so tasty when grilled.
We've become so accustomed to eating veggies and having many of our own that I believe our grocery bill will be shockingly more expensive through the winter.
Happy cultivating, in life and in your garden!
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