May 26, 2016

Almost Done Planting the Vegetable Garden

It's been so hot this week, 95 degrees Monday and 91 Tuesday (33 Celsius). This is the point where I have to get plants in the ground, otherwise they'll perish from thirst while I'm at work. It's supposed to rain the next few days and then straight back to 90 degree weather. I managed to plant 18 sweet peppers which are sharing a bed with the eggplants, but there's still a whole bed of hot peppers or chillis left to plant.

I was going to get some pictures of tomato blossoms forming and planted peppers, but I missed my chance before the rain.

There was an incident where an animal dug around the pepper tray dispersing seeds left and right, but I think I can differentiate the different pepper varieties by growth habit and leaf morphology.

Sweet Pepper Varieties:
Jimmy Nardello
Carmagna Rosso
Corno Rosso

Hot Pepper Varieties:
Numex Joe E. Parker
Numex Big Jim
Anaheim
Serrano
Aji Lemon Drop
Fish
Santa Fe Grande

I found some blossoms developing on a few tomato plants, looks like a race between Black Cherry, Sun Gold, Jersey Giant, and Goldie. In prior years Paul Robeson is usually the first tomato to ripen. And in other news, I squished 7 flea beetles on the eggplants... So it begins.

Once the hot peppers are in, there's only winter squash, melons, wax melon, and okra that need to be seeded in the garden. And some basil and more Asian greens that'll need to be transplanted. Then it's just watering and weeding and watching things grow. Soon I'll just puttering about in the warm days of summer, instead of the frantic gasping springtime rush.

8 comments:

Margaret said...

Oh my, that is a LOT of rain - does that happen often? I hope it drains quickly! I suppose that with all of that heat, it's not necessarily a bad thing to get a dumping of rain like that. And I can see why you would have difficulty growing lettuce - those are some hot temps! Perhaps there are some heat tolerant varieties you can try?

Oh, I truly can't wait for the frantic to end & the puttering to start...I'm thinking one more week & I should hopefully be there :)

A.J. Coltrane said...

The peppers will love the upcoming heat. There's no way in the world I could tell the difference between them by appearance.. except for the serranos, which get tall and skinny it seems.

Also, take that rain and multiply it by lots more... that's why raised beds are such a big deal in the Pacific NW. (Or the container thing, like I'm doing.)

Phuong said...

Hi Margaret,
It rains like that all the time in the spring and winter. As long as the rain slows down in July the tomatoes should be find, I just don't want a repeat of last year. :(

Funny story. So after all that rain, our neighbor drives a giant dump truck full of gravel through the back of our yard this morning. Needless to say, it sank axle deep and now we have a giant truck sized hole in our backyard. It took two trucks to pull it out, one of those trucks was a big wrecker tow-truck which is used to pull semi-tractor trailors.

Phuong said...

Hi A.J.,
It looks like you have most of your garden planted out. And your plants are looking very robust.

I can't wait to get our peppers in. Once the garlic is harvested, their containers will be filled with Asian greens. The Yu Choy in the garden is tiny and already bolting.

Margaret said...

Oh God! You would think that whoever was driving would know better...well, I guess they do now! I hope they help you with the gigantic hole...

Phuong said...

Hi Margaret,
They said they would clean it up, but my husband ended up rototilling the area and raking it flat so it's ready for some grass seed.

Did you end up getting your peppers and tomatoes planted? Your garden is looking pretty amazing already, soon we'll be in full blown summer.

Margaret said...

Got the peppers in & the tomatoes are going in this week; still need to sow the carrots though! Am 3 weeks behind on that but at least that's the only thing I'm really behind on compared to last year when I was behind on most everything at this point :)

Phuong said...

Hi Margaret,
You're doing so good! And even with the weird cold wacky spring you had. It's so exciting getting the garden planted.

I'm off to plant the peppers this morning, and I will finish planting them today!