October 13, 2008

Wind Storm

The Santa Ana winds are back here in Southern California. My rose bushes are whipping about like crazy bobblehead dolls and the trees are dropping branches and fronds. Fortunately, my chile garden is in a sheltered place at the side of the house so my chile plants are protected from the fury of our October winds. Most of the plants have plenty of pods on them. In fact, I'm not quite sure what to do with them all! I've made several chile dishes and frozen them away for the winter. I've dehydrated many of them and crushed them into fresh powder to use in cooking.

I've lost many of my chile plants this year due to my heavy work schedule this past spring and summer. Basically, I haven't been watering my chile plants as much as I should and this combined with the hot weather turned many of them into dried up stalks. It is something that I've never seen happen in my garden before. I'm concerned about losing my overwintered plants since they are all producing far more pods this year than they did when they were young first year plants. One of the great things about gardening in Southern California is that chile plants can be perenials if you help them through the frost months. I've spoken with chileheads that have extended the life of their cayenne plants for seven or more years. I'd like to see that happen with my scotch bonnet, fatali and cherry bomb plants.