Growing things to eat them.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Everything in the garden is progressing reasonably well! So far I've only lost the cucumbers, which is fine, considering that I didn't really have space for them anyway. The heat has jumped up quite a bit these last few weeks and scorched several of the plants, including my highest producing strawberry, so I'm going to have to either buy a curtain or rig one to filter some of the direct sun. In the meantime, pepper update!

Last week I planted a LOT of pepper seeds and have been waiting for them to germinate and a few from the first batch are finally starting to peek through the soil! This is pretty exciting news for me because I didn't do anything special beyond putting the first round of seeds in one of those plastic Jiffy greenhouses.

• Chinese 5 Color: All sprouting!


• Gator Jigsaw: One sprouting! Hopefully the others will follow.


• Purple Cayenne: All sprouting and looking lovely!


• Chocolate Habañero: Not sprouting yet. Fingers crossed.


• Bico Roxa: Also not sprouting, but I remain hopeful!


• Rusalka's Revenge: One sprout so far! These were a couple of free seeds that Pepper Joe's sent along, I assume as a kind of thank you? Anyway, they're doing great!


• Genghis Khan Brain: Likewise a solitary sprout, likewise free seeds, likewise delighted!


• Bubblegum Peppers: This is where the second round of seeds start, so none of them have sprouted yet, but I'm going to list them off anyway!


• Lemon Drop Peppers


• Scotch Bonnets (R)


• Scotch Bonnets (Y)


• Cumra Cherry


• Yaki Blue Fawn


• Hot Marbles


• Carolina Reaper


• Mixed Peppers: HR Seeds had a really fun option where you could buy a bag of mystery pepper seeds for cheap, so I took them up on it! Eleven planted, no sprouts so far.


• Satan's Kiss: These are one of two additional seed packets I ordered that haven't been delivered yet.


• Cherry Hot: And these are the second!

I should have some leafcutter bees arriving on Friday, which is very exciting. It's possible that they'll stick around where the masons didn't, but the actual forage I have in the garden right now is slim pickings for that volume of bees, so I doubt it. At the very least I'm having a lot of fun watching things grow. It's giving me some good ideas for how to angle my life in terms of both life and career desires.

I hope everyone else out there in internet-land is doing well in strange times.

Comments

[momecat]

Wow, it sounds wonderful growing things - particularly to eat them later (it's been a looong time since I got to do that last). What's the time frame for picking and harvesting?

[thrillingdetectivetales]

It's so rewarding, in so many ways! This season doesn't really have a set time frame or plan. I started up because I found myself with a sudden abundance of free time, as so many of us have, haha. Mostly I'm just trying stuff out and trying to get some plants established. So far I've gotten a few hot burrito peppers and a couple of strawberries, but I'm not expecting a true yield of anything until next year, probably. The ultimate goal is to have everything ready to plant properly if and when I can get myself back out to Savannah.

[peachpai]

Leafcutter bees!! I hadn't considered those for my garden this year. I put up a mason bee house, though I am fairly new at insect interventions. Where do you get them?

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Yay bee house! I love mason bees too. Have you seen any so far?? I tried to get some going earlier this spring but they didn't stay because my garden currently has very little by way of forage for them. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have the same issue with the leafcutters, but c'est la vie and whatnot.

I bought both my masons and my leafcutters from Crown Bees and had great success in terms of the number of bees that hatched. They have a ton of really good products and resources for amateur solitary bee enthusiasts, too. Their book, Mason Bee Revolution, is excellent and full of info for both masons and leafcutters as well as a variety of other non-honey bees. (Which I also love, haha.)

If you're looking for a summertime pollinator, leafcutters are great because they're active at higher temperatures than mason bees so you can start your season with masons in the spring (depending on where you're at) and then introduce leafcutters after the masons have died off to take over. Best of luck with your garden exploits! I'd love to hear how they go if you're ever up for sharing! <3

[peachpai]

Not yet, though we had an unexpected cold snap here that is interfering with my ability and desire to spend much time outside. Most likely they are around - there are loads of wildflowers, etc. blooming in the back yard right now.

Thanks for the recs, the site looks awesome! I am kinda lazy about sharing photos on DW these days, but I post more about gardening on Instagram. I might do some writing about gardening here too if I think of it!