A Salsa Garden

Garden Update

2011-06-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

I decided to not start my Salsa Garden during 2011. Between freelance writing and my small business my gardening time has been greatly curtailed. I'm on the road quite a bit and find that I can't find the time to so much as go to the nursery to buy seedlings, much less tend to a little square foot garden. My posts here on the salsa garden blog will be very much absent this year.

I've allowed the two little garden patches to go "fallow" as it were. I keep the weeds out now and then. I have put all my gardening tools and supplies away in the shed. Strangely enough, my one scotch bonnet chile plant refuses to die. I have not so much as watered the plant and it continues to put out leaves and hang in there. I don't have any harvest-able chiles on it as yet, but perhaps it will surprise me as the summer months continue.

I do miss having a fresh supply of exotic chiles to cook with though. Perhaps next year I will return to my little square foot garden plots and start anew.

Baja Earthquake Cleanup

2010-04-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

We've finally got our backyard somewhat cleaned up from the Easter Day Baja Mexico Earthquake. It was a heavy rolling quake that shook our house for a much longer time than most quakes in our area. Normally, we don't notice quakes since here in California you get used to them, but this one went on long enough and strong enough to start our potrack and hanging lamps swaying at an alarming rate.

About 30 seconds after the quake, our neighbor's pool had a little tsnamni and great quanties of water came over the fence and flooded our backyard. It swept mud from our garden to the patio, covering half the backyard. It took lots of sweeping and hose work to get the mud off the patio, but now all my side beds are covered. My gravel pathways are a mess, the beauty bark around the roses was swept away and my gardens lost some of their composted soil. At least we can go out there with tracking dirt back into the house, but I'm at a loss at how long it is going to take to get things back to normal. It is the start of my work's busy season and other than planting a few peppers and herbs, I don't think that I have time to do much more for now.

Still, we are blessed. If this is the worst we suffer from an earthquake of that size, then life is good.

Crazy Winter Weather

2010-03-04T23:45:00.001-08:00

Talk about crazy winter weather. Here in Southern California we usually get about six weeks of rain and then the heat returns. This year has been constant waves of rain storms, cold temperatures and even....HAIL. We had to take a photo of the white stuff just to prove to ourselves that it is real.

I seem to have a single chile plant that has survived all the cold, but I'm not taking bets that it is going to make it. My pink jasmine vines are also suffering from the cold. Normally they start to bloom in January. This year they have only now started to bloom and here we are all the way into March. I won't be doing much gardening until later this month due to all the inclement weather. I haven't decided what I will plant this year. My home business is keeping me busy and I've had an offer to teach at a local art studio. So whatever I do in the garden is going to have to be very simple.

Manzano Chiles

2010-02-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

I discovered that my local grocery got in a shipment of Manzano Chiles over the holidays and I bought around 15 of them to stow away in my freezer. Manzanos are similar in heat to habaneros, but have a sweet, citrus finish that is very distinctive. You only use one at a time, like the habs, so what I purchased should last me a good year.

I'm planning on using them to make jerk chicken, jamacian spicy lamb and a few other dishes.

Meanwhile, I'm sad to say that I lost all my chile plants this year. It has been a far colder winter than anyone can remember and my overwintering efforts were in vain. In a way though, this is not a bad thing. It will allow me to start from scratch this coming spring. I think that this next year I want to grow more bells, milder chiles and perhaps only one very hot chile that I can dry and powder. I'd also like to grow a few more herbs to flesh out my little salsa garden.

Garden Cleanup

2009-07-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Since it has been too hot to go outside during the day, I waited until 7pm this evening to go out and do my gardening. I pulled out all the dried husks of chile plants, put away the metal cages and pulled out what few weeds there were. A few of my old chile plants have survived. The fatali, the red scotch bonnet, a half dead cherry bomb, my yellow canary bell and what I believe is some sort of jalapeno. I also have the two blushing beauty bells that I purchased this spring. My salsa garden has never been this sparse before, but then again I haven't been putting in the effort into my garden this year as I normally do.

My husband is requesting that I devote more space to herbs since he discovered this year that he enjoys fresh basil leaves in his sandwiches, so that might be something that I look into over the next few weeks. The only herb that I have right now are the chives. Nothing kills those babies.

Why did so many of my plants die? It was because my soaker hose system has broken. One of the hoses has sprung a huge leak and needs to be replaced. I went to look for a replacement at the Home Depot this morning, but I couldn't find the part that I needed. I will try other hardware stores later. The timer also is not working. It probably needs a new battery. Once I get these two things working again, my salsa garden should be back to taking care of itself once again.

Spicy Buttermilk Dressing

2009-07-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

I discovered a new chile recipe on a blog called Homesick Texan. I gave it a try with chiles from my garden. I used homemade habanero powder for the cayenne in the recipe and a hot cherry bomb instead of the serrano. It turned out very good. I used it as a dipper for celery sticks and carrots. It is spicy and much better than the hidden ranch dressing I normally use...and far less expensive to make.

Buttermilk dressing, extra spicy
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 serrano pepper, finely diced
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh chives
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together and let chill for an hour.
Makes 1 cup, keeps for a week in the refrigerator.
Notes: I like my dressing on the thinner side, so if you prefer it thicker use 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. And if you don't want it to be so spicy, feel free to omit the Serrano or substitute a jalapeno pepper instead. Also, you can use parsley instead of cilantro if you're one of those "Cilantro tastes like soap" people, I won't be insulted.

Sunshine Returns!

2009-06-25T16:05:00.001-07:00

This has to have been the coldest and wettest June that I can remember. It had been overcast every day and it rained as if I were back in Washington State! It was uncanny. However, that cold front seems to have finally left. The sunshine is back and my roses are blooming with gusto. I was outside watering all the plants this afternoon with my sunhat on, flipflops and shorts. The splash of the water on my feet felt wonderful. Little lizards scurried away and butterflies mingle in the brushes of salvia among the flowers. I'm contemplating a few baskets of flowers and to plant up my central whiskey barrel. Right now, the barrel only has weeds in it. Our annual summer BBQ is only four weeks away and I want our gardens to look up to par.

My pepper plants have not fared as well. The cold weather had stunted their growth and I have lost several of the plants this spring. I am going to have to take a survey of the damage and see what I can do to recover my little vegetable garden. The first task will be to fix the broken watering system. The timer is not working and I've sprung a huge leak in one of the drip hoses. I will need to replace a few things before the hot summer heat arrives in full force.

Memorial Weekend Gardening

2009-05-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I was able to find time this Memorial Day Weekend to do a bit of puttering in my garden. All of the wandering jew plants that have trespassed under the fence from my neighbor's side yard have been removed. The gravel paths are clear and my overwintered chiles are doing fine. I still haven't planted the two blushing beauty pepper plants that I purchased last month, but both plants are alive and well in their little root bound containers. I am hoping to find a little more time this week to continue my efforts in my garden patch now that school is almost over and my Spring work season has come to a close. I lost a few of my chiles this winter, but the majority are still going strong and putting out new chiles. You have to love California weather.

Its going to be so nice to have a bit of extra time this summer to take care of the house and tend to things. I'm looking forward to finishing the garden up and perhaps taking a few photos for the garden blog.

Blushing Beauties

2009-04-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

I happened to be at our local feed store when I glanced into their gardening plant section. They had a pair of blushing beauty pepper plants, both of a good healthy size, for sale. I snatched them for my garden. These are the only peppers that I've purchased for the garden this year. I went to my annual Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale at the Fullerton Arboretum this March, but all the peppers had sold out in the first few hours of the sale...all 10K of them! Due to work, I will not be able to go to Greenscene this year either, so I figured that I was not going to be able to buy pepper plants this year.

My garden is a total wreck right now. I did not go out and weed at all this winter and the wandering jew plant has completely overgrown my raised beds. This plant is on my neighbor's property and left unchecked, overruns my property each year. I managed to save most of my pepper plants from last year, we had a mild winter and only two or three of my pepper plants died. So perhaps I don't need to plant all that much this spring. I had lost all of my belle though, so the two ultra sweet and crisp blushing beauties will be a welcome addition to my garden.

I'll post more as my schedule permits! I do intend on gardening again this year as I normally do, although perhaps in a more scaled back fashion since I am back in college and continuing to run my small business. My free time is simply not what it was in past years.

Overwintering

2009-01-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

At this time of year, there is not much going on in the garden. My plants are still alive out in the bed, despite our unseasonably cool weather. There are pods ripening on my red scotch bonnet, but I haven't picked them. Due to the cool weather I have a feeling that there is little heat to the chile pods.

I haven't done much to overwinter the chile plants. Since they are located in a protected side yard of my property, they don't have to deal with the cold wind storms that whip through our canyon. The wind is the main danger to the chiles, that and when the temperature dips too low. Sometimes the plants make it, sometimes they do not.

Sometime in the next month I am going to go through my little raised beds and clean them up. Pull out the metal cages, remove the few weeds that have gotten started, but for now I just want to keep out of the rain and the chilly day. There are chiles in the freezer and meals premade with chiles from the garden for me to enjoy at this time of year. That will have to be enough until Spring returns and I can start the process anew.

Wildfire

2008-11-19T15:58:00.000-08:00

Its been a scary weekend here at my home. Southern California wildfires got within a scant 2 miles of my home and we were forced to pack and be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice. Fortunately for us, the fire dampened down in the night and the high winds stilled at that time. This caused the fire to shift in a new direction and to travel more slowly. Our home and gardens were spared and we did not have to evacuate our home after all.

I've driven into the area where the fire did consume all in its path and find that the hills are blackened and buildings are closed due to fire damage. It is all very scary since it came so very close to our home.

Now I'm starting the cleanup process. There is a fine layer of ash on the ground and the plants. I've made certain to wash all the leaves of the plants of this ash and to wash it into the soil. The air still smells of smoke, but it is safe to go outside for extended periods of time since the air is clean enough. My chiles are still producing pods, but only a few on each plant. They are starting to go dormant as the nightly temperatures decrease. Soon, it will be time to get them prepared for overwintering.

Fall Chill Arrives

2008-11-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

The weather is turning cooler at last after a long, hot summer. My chile plants are still producing pods in their little raised beds, although I am finding that the heat in the chiles is less than it is during the hot months.

I'm hoping to have enough of the cherry bombs to make one more of the chicken/sausage and cherry bomb dinners, but otherwise I'm starting to make plans to let my garden go fallow for the winter. I will cut back the plants, make them as sheltered as possible and get them into overwinter mode. I'd like to save my cherry bombs, the fresnos, the fatali and the scotch bonnet plants, but if the others survive, that is okay too.

There is not much else to say about the garden this time of year. That is the nice thing about gardening. It is a hobby that waits for you and brings you peace....not to mention produce!

Wind Storm

2008-10-13T09:47:00.001-07:00

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.

Jerk Chicken

2008-09-01T12:21:00.001-07:00

One of the reasons that I grow scotch bonnets in my garden is that I love to make Jamaican Jerk Chicken on my BBQ. I had found a recipe for this dish in Gourmet Magazine many years ago and found that it was delicious. The recipe calls for 2 to 4 scotch bonnets or habaneros in the marinade. I know that this seems like far too much of the fiery chiles, but trust me, it works out well. You get a good amount of heat, but the citrus overtones of the chiles also come through.

The first time I made Jerk Chicken, I use Manzano Chiles that I happened to find in the supermarket. Manzanos are a form of habanero that have a sweet start and the heat is slow to come on your tounge. I have never found them again, but using them hooked me on the recipe. The next year, I started to grow the scotch bonnets since I wanted an authentic jamacian flavor for this recipe.

This year, I have been converted to once a month cooking methods and I have developed my jerk chicken recipe so that I can make multiples of it and freeze it away for later use. Basically, I make the marinade in my blender featuring chiles from my garden, pour it over the chicken in a ziploc, but instead of putting it in the fridge for 24 hours to marinate, I freeze it. When I take it out on cooking day, it will thaw and marinade in the fridge and be perfect. I decided to use chicken breast this time instead of chicken pieces so that I can make these on the contact grill during the winter and not have to light up the BBQ. I put away several meals of jerk chicken in this manner. A few of the meals have been made with scotch bonnets and a few of them with my fatali chiles. Both will be different, but delicous.

JERK CHICKEN

2 cups scallion, finely chopped
2 whole habañero chilies, seeded and minced (or use scotch bonnets)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
5 teaspoons ground allspice
3 teaspoons dry mustard
2 whole bay leaf, crushed
2 whole garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 pounds chicken pieces, wing tips removed
vegetable oil, for grilling

Make the Marinade. In a food processor or blender purée the scallion, the 2 chilies, the soy sauce, the lime juice, the allspice, the mustard, the bay leaves, the garlic, the salt, the sugar, the thyme, and the cinnamon.

Divide the chicken parts between 2 heavy-duty resealable plastic bags and spoon the marinade over them, coating them well. Seal the bags, pressing out the excess air, and let the chicken marinate chilled, turning the bags over several times, for at least 24 hours and up to 2 days. Or you may freeze the chicken at this point for later use. When you are ready to use the frozen jerk chicken, let it defrost in the refridgerator for 24 hours before cooking. It will defrost and marinate at the same time.

On an oiled rack set 4 to 6 inches over glowing coals grill the chicken, in batches if necessary, and cover if possible, for 10 to 15 minutes on each side, or until it is cooked through. Transfer the chicken as it is cooked with tongs to a heated platter; keep it warm, covered loosely with foil, and garnish the platter with the additional chilies.

An alternate method of cooking is to use chicken breasts instead of pieces when you make the dish and then cook the chicken in a contact grill for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.

Scarpariello with Hot Cherry Bombs

2008-08-29T23:27:00.001-07:00

My favorite hot chile used to be the Fresno chile. It was a good medium heat, all purpose pepper to use in cooking. I still grow Fresnos and like them, but lately I've been growing very fond of the hot cherry bombs. They are a little sweeter and flavorful than the Fresnos and are easy to stuff due to their small round shape. So not only can I slice them up, but I have snack options with them as well.

Tonight I made the Chicken and Sausage with Hot Cherry Peppers recipe from the Sara Moulton website. I decided to omit the artichoke hearts since my husband doesn't like them, but honestly, I didn't miss it. The chicken breasts turned out tender and moist with her cooking method, the sauce was rich with just enough kick from the four hot cherry bombs that I picked from my garden this afternoon.

I've discovered that this "scarpariello" recipe is actually quite common on the internet. It is a traditional Italian American dish that was developed by a New York City chef many years ago. The common tie of all the recipes are chicken, sausage and hot cherry bomb peppers. The rest seems to vary depending on the chef. I believe that only Sara Moulton put artichoke hearts in her verison. Others put in lemon and rosemary or other vegtable combinations.

Nearly Harvest Time!

2008-08-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I managed to get all the weeding done in my little raised beds of chile pepper plants. The grass that overtook one of the beds, something that I've never seen before, had choked off and killed my two overwintered italian pepper plants. So no italian horns to fry up this fall. I still have one yellow bell plant left, so I'm hoping to get something off of it later in the year for dinner.

My chiles are the opposite of the bells. In their sheltered place on the side of the house, they have flourished as always. I have dozens of scotch bonnets ripe and ready to go, a huge crop of fatali chiles, hot cherry bombs and a few of the new chiles that I planted this spring.

It is time to start drying my chiles in order to make fresh powder for my pantry. My dehydrator has been taken out of the garage, but I haven't set up a station outside to do the drying. Thunderstorms are predicted in the next few days and I don't want to leave my machine out to the elements. I will keep an eye on the weather, but I intend to get started with my harvest shortly.

Ripening Chile Pods

2008-07-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

The temperature outside has gone into a more normal range, leaving the heatwave behind us. There were thunderstorms in the Los Angeles area last week and while we remained dry, the river nearby is high with runoff waters from the mountain rains.

My garden needs weeding and the gravel paths are full of invasive plants from the neighbor's yard. I've been so busy with work for the past two months that I've had little time to spare for my garden. Fear not, chiles thrive on neglect! All of the chile plants have pods. Sweet yellow italian horn peppers, cherry bombs, fatali, kung pao chiles and a mountain of red scotch bonnets. I harvested a few cherry bombs for my weekend omelettes this week, enjoying that crisp and clean bite of heat with my breakfast. You simply don't get that kind of flavor and texture from supermarket chiles. My only concern with the plants is that my scotch bonnet has fallen over due to the excessive weight of the pods growing on it, but so far the plant seems to be just fine. I haven't lost it. My Carribean Jerk Chicken recipe is safe! I should be able to make up a few packets of the marinated chicken for my freezer and enjoy the perfect grilled dinner later in the fall. The rest I will dehydrate and make into powder that rivals cayenne for heat and flavor.

I saw a new chile recipe on Sara Moulton's new cooking show this morning called "Chicken with Sausage and Hot Cherry Bomb Peppers". It was chicken and italian sausage sprinked with halves of pickled cherry bomb chiles and all simmered in a white wine sauce. It looked simple, but also very tasty. It is giving me incentive to pull out my water bath canner and contemplate pickling cherry bombs...just for this recipe. It was nice to hear Sara Moulton confess that she is a chilehead and that she cooks with hot chiles at home all the time. I guess she is lost like the rest of us! LOL

Heatwave

2008-05-18T22:20:00.001-07:00

We are having record high temperatures outside for the past week. 100+ degrees for several days in a row. The weather service people are saying that this is a new high pushing back the last high that was recorded in 1890. Wow. It is scary to think how much hotter things might become in later years here in California. I go out to water my gardens early in the morning before the heat gets too horrible. I put plenty of hose water on my feet to cool them and it feels wonderful.

My roses are simply loving the heat and are sending out lots of new canes. I have been keeping up with their watering as best I can, but frankly they can handle the heat and drought conditions well. Roses have a reputation of being "fussy" or too much work, but I find that once you attune to their needs they are actually quite hardy and are the perfect sub-desert flower. The lavender plants that I put among the roses are also doing well, although their lovely purple blooms are faded and starting to dry. Soon I will need to go out and deadhead the lavender and prepare it for another bloom cycle.

I wish that I had good news about my pepper plants. I lost my chocolate habanero this week. It is nothing but a dry stalk now. Once the heatwave breaks I will go and pull it out and put its cage away. I don't think that this has been a good year for chile plants for me. I've lost so many seedlings and overwintered plants that it is growing to be disappointing. As much as I hate to contemplate it, I might have to settle for california wonders for my bells this year. I don't feel that they have as much flavor as my other favorites, but at this point in the game I don't feel that I have many options left. At least I will find them in the local nursery.

Greenscene

2008-04-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

I was back to the Fullerton Arboretum for the annual Greenscene event. I go there mainly to buy exotic chile peppers from the Orange Country Organic Gardeners Society. Usually they have great selections. Not this time. Never have I been so disappointed in new plants. All the peppers and chiles were common garden varieties for the most part. Jalapenos, Serranos, plain habaneros. The main bell pepper that they were selling was California Wonder, a pepper that I have always found to be lackluster in flavor and appearance. I did buy a few chiles: a jalapeno and two serranos. I also picked up a pair of italian stuffing peppers of the belle variety that are supposed to be very sweet. We'll wait and see. I see now that I'm going to have to prowl the retail nurseries for my plants this year...if work allows me the time. I spoke with one of the volunteers about my disappointment and she asked me to write down some of the chiles that I would like to see grown next year. I looked at their list and saw several of my usual favorites already listed by other people. I added Blushing Beauty and Lemondrop to the list. I was given a flyer to go and join the organic gardener's, but due to my work schedule and the distance to the meetings, I'm not sure if I can attend.

On my way out, I also picked up a pink flowering maple bush for my rose garden. I have a few empty spots that I'd like to fill in and I find that the flowering maples are great in the shadier parts of my garden and bloom wonderfully. I currently have a red one, a yellow one and a white one. I'm not certain where I'll put the pink one yet, but I think that it is going to do well.

Overall, I felt that the event was smaller this year with fewer vendors. The admission to enter was $6, which was higher than last year. Still, it was a beautiful day and the people that came to the event seemed to be in high spirits and were buying baskets, pots, plants and hamburgers with abandon.

Garden Shed and the Loss of Pepper Plants

2008-03-29T10:12:00.001-07:00

This morning my husband and I put the handles and lock holder onto our new garden shed. It looks very attractive and is going to hold plenty of tools, pots and gardening supplies in a waterproof manner. I still haven't purchased a new padlock for the shed and additional keys for that padlock, but I am hoping to take care of that sometime this weekend. There is still plenty to do with the shed, mainly moving all my tools and supplies from the garage to their new location. I'm very much looking forward to having that additional space available in my garage.

On my way back to the house, I stopped to check on my little pepper seedlings. I was aghast to discover that all but a single cayenne plant had been eaten last night! I'm not sure what is going on. I've placed my pepper seedlings in this location before and they were untouched. What was left of the stems looked gnawed. I don't believe that this is my typical cutworm problem. That only seems to happen when the plants are in the soil of the bed. No, this looks like an animal had come over and eaten the leaves off of the stem and then gnawed the stem. I've moved the last little pepper plant to a place on top of our new BBQ box. I'm not sure if it is going to be safe there or not, but I will have to try. The plant is still too small to put into the bed, even with a cutworm barrier.

I will have one more chance to purchase rare pepper/chile plants this spring. Greenscene, our local plant fair is in a few weeks. A couple of organic plant groups sell plants there. I probably won't find anything super rare, but at least I hope to replace the Blushing Beauties which are my favorite bell peppers. It has been hit or miss with the plants and I haven't been able to harvest a blushing beauty for a long time. I'm hoping that this is the year I get a mature plant...and then can overwinter it into strength.

Garden Shed

2008-03-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

The new addition to my garden this spring is a garden shed! It is six feet tall and almost 5 feet wide. It is a combination of shelves and a "broomcloset" to store tall garden tools out of the rain and weather. The shed is made of sturdy plastic and should keep my tools, pots and plant foods dry and more accessible to the garden. I am looking forward to getting all my gardening toys out of the garage at last.

We purchased the shed at OSH hardware about a week ago, however when we attempted to bring it home, we discovered that it was too large to fit in our SUV. We were forced to leave the shed at the hardware store while we figured out how we were going to get it home. After discussing the problem that evening, we concluded that the best way would be rent a U-haul trailer and pull it home. On Saturday, we got a 5x8 open trailer and went back to OSH with our pickup ticket for the shed. The workers there loaded the shed onto the trailer and it fit perfectly inside laying face down. We left the box it came in at the hardware store, and made sure that the back of the shed was on the floor of the trailer to prevent scratching up the visible surfaces. It was a bumpy drive home. The trailer is very light and even a small bump in the road made it bounce. I kept my speed under 40mph the entire way home because of this.

Once we got the shed home, we waited for my husband's friend to arrive and the two men hauled the garden shed into our backyard and positioned it next to the house. They used the gravel of my paths to make the shed level and it seems as if it was always meant to be there. I had measured the space that the shed was going to go into before we purchased it, so I knew that it would fit, but I had neglected to measure the size of the gate opening. We got lucky and the shed was able to squeeze in.

The shed still needs to have its door handles put on and a lock will need to be purchased for it before I can start to store things inside it. While I am not planning on storing anything of value in the shed, thieves have been known to enter backyards and take off with the strangest things in my neighborhood. Plus, since I will be storing fertilizer and other chemicals there, I feel it is safer to keep it locked from small fingers that might be visiting my home.

Garden Cleanup

2008-03-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

I spent around 20 or 30 minutes this afternoon cleaning up the dead plants in my raised beds. All of the tomato plants had turned to crinkly husks that crumbled in my hand almost to powder. The chile plants were dried up sticks that pulled from the earth without resistance. The garden is uneven since I have cleared spaces where the dead plants were, but once this spring storm blows through on the weekend, I might attempt to move the chiles and peppers into more favorable locations in my garden and create room for new things. A few more weeds have popped up in the gravel pathway since I cleared it two weeks or so ago, but so far they are not in the way of my work and so I'll leave them be.

The easy cleanup this spring is part of the reason why I'm such a huge fan of square foot gardening or intensive farming. The raised beds mean that I don't have to bend down very far to work the soil or clear out last year's spent plants, the water usage and fertilizers are in small amounts so that saves me plenty of money and I am able to plant right next to my kitchen door so that fresh produce is always just a few steps away and I can keep an eye on the garden for pest control. I don't think that gardening gets any better than this. I once had someone scoff at my garden and called it a "child's garden" due to its small size, but you know, I don't need huge rows of dirt to take care of and the army of weeds that produces. Give me small and productive any day.

Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale

2008-03-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

It is time for the annual Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale at the Fullerton Arboretum. This is the yearly sale where I normally pick up my chile pepper plants for the year. The Fullerton Arboretum is well known in my area for promoting gardening and they host wonderful seminars for both adults and children throughout the year. The pepper and tomato sale is their biggest fund raiser and I always look forward to it each year.

I went prepared. I have a little luggage cart with bungee cords and I made sure that I popped into the back of my SUV before I took off. The sale is held in the garden's potting shed and it is a bit of a distance to walk. When you are loaded down with little pots of plants, it can be a long haul back to the car. When I arrived at the Arboretum around 11am, I had to put my SUV in a queue since the entire parking lot was full. I was very surprised by the crowd, but then again, it was a bright sunny day and I could not be the only one wanting to be first in line to pick out the best plants before the weekend. The volunteer staff was organized and as soon as a parking space opened up, they guided the next driver in line to it. I found that the line went quickly. People got in, bought their plants and then went home in an orderly fashion.

When I arrived, I got myself a little cardboard box that the volunteers provide for free, strapped it into my luggage cart and then proceeded to go down the isles of chile and pepper plants. Overall, I was somewhat disappointed by the selection of peppers this year. Many of the more exotic chiles that I have found there in the past were not available this year. I picked up a single Tepin chile, one rocotillo and two long thin cayenne chile plants. Of the belles I purchased: 2 blushing beauty, 1 araine, 1 quatro de gallo. I did not purchase any heirloom tomatoes this year. I am still rather upset over dealing with the possum last year and decided to not bother until I can figure out a way to hang them and grow tomatoes upside down. This will keep the next harvest out of the grip of future poachers. With my little luggage cart, it was very easy to get my new little seedlings back to the SUV and thus back to my garden.

I've been looking over my garden this afternoon and I'm glad to say many of my plants survived the winter. Two cherry bomb chiles, one lemon drop, one pepperoncini, the fatali, red scotch bonnet, kung pao chile and the two italian horn pepper plants. While I'm sorry that close to half of the chiles didn't survive our cooler winter, in a way it is good since I will have room for new fresh plants.

Spring Cleanup

2008-03-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting my gardening blog for the last few months...and frankly, neglecting my little garden. Last October, we were very close to the wildfires that burned down a great deal of Southern California and dealing with the aftermath of this natural disaster has been considerable. While we did suffer from extreme smoke for a week or two, otherwise our home is safe and for that I'm very grateful. Over 2000 homes burned to the ground all around us and the economy in our area suffered.

I left my garden on autopilot for the winter. I turned off the watering system and simply left all the plants to deal with the winter as best they could. We did get more cold temperatures this winter than usual and a considerable amount of rain. This is not as harsh as it sounds. It is what I normally do over the winter, although I try and at least clean up the beds and do what I can to help my chiles overwinter the cooler temperatures, which I simply didn't have the time to do this year.

I went out to check on my garden last week and found it covered in wandering jew vines that had snuck in through the fence from my neighbor's yard. Around half of my chile plants had died and all of the tomato plants were dried out husks. I worked on clearing the gravel paths first. Removing all the vines and the few weeds that had come up through the weed barrier and I removed a few of the dead chile plants along with the wire cages. The soil in the beds look dark and rich. I don't feel that I will need to add anything to it this year beyond a little fish emulsion. Once I get things completely cleaned up, I should be able to plant new salsa ingredients without any problem.

Meanwhile, my yards are waking up to the warmth of spring weather. The pink jasmine vines are loaded with white blooms and their scent fills my patio. The spanish lavender is starting to form heads and I suspect that I will be seeing their purple blooms within a week or two. The roses, which were pruned back to 18" of the ground in January, are now starting to spring up with new cane growth. I do not have any rose blooms as yet, but I don't expect to see any until late March or early April. I will give them a feeding soon to help them wake up from their winter dormancy.

Canning and Dehydrating

2007-10-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at canning was done about a week ago. I harvested all the fatali chiles from my garden and used them to create a batch of "Razorback Hot Sauce" that I found in a cookbook known as "The Joy of Pickling". To make the sauce, I skinned and seeded around 20 tomatoes that I purchased at the grocery store which I turned into tomato puree and then minced up the chiles after removing the seeds and membranes. Since these are extremely hot chiles (rated around the fourth or fifth hottest in the world) I figured that I could scale down the heat a little in this manner. I water bathed canned five 1/2 pint jars of the sauce and four of the jars successfully sealed.

The rest of the fatalis and all of the red scotch bonnets I cut in half, seeded and then placed into my food dehydrator. This year, I decided to not place my machine outside. This was a good thing because the next day after I started to use the dehydrator it rained. I have a little station set up inside my garage where the machine is set up on a box and the fumes seem to be not as bad as when I attempted to dry chiles in the house two years ago. I have not ground the chiles into powder as yet. I think that I will wait on that until I am done harvesting and drying more of the chiles. I'm still waiting for more of the lemondrop chiles to ripen. They are going to make an unique and delicious powder.

I have set aside four of the red scotch bonnets to make "Carribean Jerk Chicken". I've decided to make a double batch of the marinade and once I put the chicken into it, I am going to freeze the food in ziplocks creating four meals. This is a method of preparing chicken known as "Dump Chicken". At a later time, while the meal defrosts in my refrigerator, the marinade and meat get together and then I can grill or bake the chicken as I feel like, "dumping" it into the pan. I love this marinade, but don't make it often since I only have access to scotch bonnets from my own garden. I'm glad that my plant has produced so many of the little red pods this year.

I have pruned back my tomato plants, but not removed them. Surprisingly, they seem to be undergoing a new flush of growth and I was surprised to see new flowers on them. It could be that I will get a fall crop of tomatoes this year and will be able to sample the fruit at long last. I haven't seen any new tomatoes on the plants as yet, but I will keep my eyes open for them. I am hoping for at least one good batch of homemade marinara sauce yet.

Harvest Begins

2007-09-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

Since I have a little time off before my heavy fall work schedule begins, I decided that now is the time to get my harvesting done and to can or dehydrate as many of my ripe chile pods that I can. According to the weather service, a storm is due to arrive in a few days, so if I'm going to dehydrate chiles outside, it needs to be soon. To this end, I picked what few tomatoes I had in the garden...perhaps five or six...and then purchased supplemental tomatoes at the grocery store. Fortunately, my local grocer carries organically grown tomatoes on the vine which I feel are an acceptable substitute for my homegrown. I also picked some fresh cilantro from my herb garden and a basketful of lemondrop chiles.

I've not processed whole raw tomatoes in quite some time, but the method came back to me easily enough. I dunked the whole tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for a minute or two and then used a knife to peel off their skins. After that, I went to town with squeezing out the seeds and dicing them up. I saved a few cups of the diced tomatoes for salsa and the rest went into my blender to create a puree. The puree is being held in the fridge to be used to make hot sauce.

My salsa recipe is out of the Ball Canning book and features cider vinegar in the recipe. I used what lemondrop chiles I had for the salsa and only had enough to make two pints of salsa. Because of this, I decided to not can them. Instead, the finished salsa is in our fridge awaiting tortilla chips. I'm not sure if I like the cider vinegar in my salsa and the lemondrops are not robust enough in this recipe. Next time, I might just do a standard Pico de Gallo and simply enjoy fresh salsa with lime juice and leave it at that.

Ding Dong the Possum is Dead! I Think?

2007-08-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

I've been busy and on the road due to work the last few weeks and unable to do much in my garden. When I returned home and started to get back to work on my yards, I happened to chat with my neighbor and asked how his tomatoes were coming along since he was also having trouble with the possum. He explained that he had spotted the possum in his french drain a few weeks ago, had closed it off with mesh and had thrown in a few gopher pellets into the drain where his dog couldn't get at them. A few days later, he saw a dead possum in the road. He proudly told me that since then he has been harvesting plenty of tomatoes! Hmm.... On the tomato front, I have two ripe tomatoes on the vine and have been watching them closely. So far, no animal has come and eaten them, even though one of the tomatoes is outside my picket fence where the vine had grown over and is in plain view. It may be that I will be able to sample a few ripe tomatoes this fall after all! I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that the dead possum was the one ravaging my garden as well. If so, my possum problem might be over.

I am astounded this week by the progress my garden is making. The chiles are starting to produce like mad. I have dozens of red scotch bonnet pods, a dozen yellow fatalli pods, more lemondrops than I can count and two plants of red, ripe pepperoncinis. It is high time that I started my harvesting efforts and starting to make salsas, pickles and powders.

I went to Wal-Mart and bought a water-bath canner for $17 and a jar of pickling salt. I still need a few more tools to beginning home canning, but I am looking forward to giving this a try. The red pepperoncinis will be my first pickling attempt. I have six half pint jars in the house and I think that this would be a good starting size for slices of peppers. I'm aiming for something that could go on a sandwich or on top of a salad.

The Possum Strikes Again!

2007-07-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Last night, my dog was growling at the backyard window during most of the night and I heard rustling and scraping noises. In the morning, I surveyed my tomato patch and sure enough, the possum had struck again. All of the ripe tomatoes were gone and the tomato plants were disturbed. Also, my single ripening corno de toro gallo pepper had been eaten, with only the seed mass left on the plant. My other pepper plants are either dead or dying. The corno de toro rosso was entirely eaten, stalks and all and the blushing beauty peppers that I had nursed through an entire winter are gone as well. The bed is a total loss.

I have not done any further work to this bed, but once my work schedule permits me, I'm going to remove all the tomato plants. They are starting to naturally die back now that their fruit has ripened and probably wouldn't be producing more than another month or two anyway. The heirloom tomatoes that I had selected had been beautiful. Large, meaty and perfect for making sauce. I am sorry that I will not get a chance to sample them this year. There must be a better way to grow tomatoes so that I don't have this sort of losses to contend with. I will have to do research this winter to discover a safer way to grow tomatoes and sweet bell peppers.

More Tomatoes Lost

2007-07-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

When I went out to water my plants this afternoon, I was stunned to see that three more of my tomatoes were half eaten. Their pulpy mess was left on the vine to my disgust. The possum strikes again! I am beginning to see that I will not be able to harvest a single ripe tomato from my plants this year. The possum leaves the green ones behind, but as soon as the tomatoes are half ripe, it strikes again. There were two tomatoes left untouched, but I'm sure that this evening that they will be gone too. My idea of making homemade spaghetti sauce with garden tomatoes is going up in smoke.

I worked so hard to keep my produce from the critters of the area, but this new animal is hard to detain. At least it seems to be leaving my peppers and chiles alone...although if the possum ever ate one of my scotch bonnets, it would probably never touch a red fruit again! LOL I used galvanized mesh under the beds to keep the moles out, but what do I do to keep an animal out that can climb over fences and up trees? The only thing that I can think to do is either create a metal mesh over the plants, or try hanging my tomatoes in baskets next year, perhaps growing them upside down? Maybe this will be my last year of growing tomatoes? I'm simply not sure what to do.

Possum Woes

2007-07-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

Summertime is always glorious for my chile plants. They thrive in the heat and lack of water and produce beautiful pods for my family to eat. The one I have pictured in this post is a "fish chile". It is the only variegated chile pepper that I know of and even the chiles have little white stripes. I haven't sampled a pod yet, but I'm eager to do so. This is one of my overwintered chiles and last year the plant never produced a single pod. I think that this year it has found itself and is going to surprise me.

I've been having a little trouble with theft in my garden over the past several weeks. The tomatoes and red bell peppers are being stolen by local possums. I've spoken to several of my neighbors, some as far away as five or six blocks and universally, everyone is complaining about losing their garden produce to the critters. My Red Corno de Toro was clipped to the ground by a possum, the three peppers on it taken. I am not sure if the plant is going to recover or not, but I'm very disappointed since this was one of my overwintered chiles from last year and I've had it a long time. At least it is a plant that I can replace next spring if need be, but I was looking forward to those sweet peppers this year. The yellow corno de toro also has pods and one is about ready to harvest. So far the animals have not been taking yellow colored tomatoes and peppers, so I have hope of actually getting to taste one of these peppers in my dinner this week. My gypsy frying peppers are starting to turn red and are in a section of my garden that the possums have left untouched, that might be what I use for the fajatas. Yellow and red peppers with onions, nothing is better.

My yellow tomatoes thus far have been untouched by the critters and I am starting to see two or three ripe fruits on the vine. Once I have enough, I'm going to turn them into a golden marinara sauce in my crockpot. My husband is a little uneasy about yellow spaghetti sauce, but I have assured him that the flavor is going to be well worth it. He's promised to give it a try.

Better Late than Never

2007-06-26T22:35:00.001-07:00

I haven't watered my salsa garden in around a week. I was away at work for the weekend and came home with a cold, so I was not able to tend to my plants as I would have liked to. Thank goodness that chiles thrive on neglect! I was out with my water wand this afternoon and was astounded to see all the changes that have happened in my garden while I was away. Better late than never when it comes to water.

There were many chile pods to be seen. Lots of cherry bombs, just turning red. Kung Pao, most of which are a bright red and ready for harvest. Carmen Hybrid, a New Mexico style chile that I have not tried before. They are large and dark grassy green. The two fresno plants are covered in both green and red chiles, ready to be harvested. Tiny scotch bonnets forming on the tree like plant, still green and far from their final size. Chocolate Habaneros are also tiny and green.

I am excited by the possible harvest of this week, but I'm not sure what I'm going to use all this bounty in. I will have to start forming recipes for next week....

Summertime Weeding

2007-06-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting my salsa garden other than making sure that the plants are getting regular waterings either by hand or via my soaker hose system due to my heavy work schedule. I realized that the weeds in the gravel path were getting out of hand and that my beds had a few volunteer weeds among the chile plants. So I spent a good 30 minutes weeding the paths and my beds. I also did a little maintenance on the chiles. I broke off dead stems, removed dried up spent chiles and coaxed stems back inside of the metal cages that surround each plant. The plants are looking quite healthy and happy in my little side yard salsa garden.

Most of my overwintered chiles have pods that will be turning ripe in the next week or two. The new transplants are still growing and only a few have a pod or two on them. I'm delighted to report that my overwintered cherry bomb chile has recovered from its transplant shock and not only is sporting new leaf growth, but is starting to produce new pods! I may yet have an appetizer tray of stuffed cherry bombs this fall. On the flip side, the blushing beauty overwintered pepper plant has definitely failed. I removed the dried up stem and the cage as I was weeding.

The tomatoes are shooting up like rockets and I think that I have spied my first semi-ripe tomato deep within the leaves. So far, the larger cages are containing the tomatoes and keeping the fruit from touching the soil where insects might damage them. I'm looking forward to making my first crockpot full of homemade spaghetti sauce this summer.

First Tomatoes

2007-05-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

My heirloom tomatoes are off to a good start, probably due to the extremely hot weather we've been experiencing in the last few weeks. Since I planted them into the rich soil of the raised bed, they have grown about a foot taller. The cages are doing well in supporting the plants and keeping them vertical, but I have to wonder if I bought large enough cages for the plants. I'll have to wait and see.

I'm surprised that I already have a few tomatoes forming on the vine and look forward to turning them into homemade pasta sauce in my crockpot this summer. I love heirloom tomatoes for sauce because of the lower acid content of the fruit. The tomatoes in the picture are paste tomatoes.

Planting the Main Raised Bed

2007-05-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

I had been dreading doing the work on my long raised vegetable bed because I knew that it was going to take effort and time. First I had to dig up my overwintered chiles and place them into pots so that they would be more able to take the transplanting. Next, I emptied several bags of organic garden soil and one bag of steer manure into the bed to refresh the soil and raise the soil level so that it was closer to the top of my two level high cinderblock garden sides.

Transplanting the chiles from the pots back into the garden took more time that I had realized because not only did I need to plant the chiles, but I also needed to cage them. I had a few wire cages left over from last year, but not nearly enough to cage all of my new plants. Mid-way through the planting process, I had to drive down to the Home Depot to buy ten more cages. Fortunately, they were on sale for around a dollar each, so this was not a big expense for the garden. Being metal, they will last for many years to come. Putting cages around my chile plants was very important to me. Last year, most of my chiles flopped over and the pods were attacked by bugs in the soil and the branches would not support the weight of the fruit. I'm hoping to increase my production of chiles via the cage method this year and to keep the pods free of insect damage. I also put cutworm barriers around the new seedlings in addition to the cages so that their stems would be protected until they were large enough to stand against the insects.

The last task was to place the soaker hose watering system around the plants. It was already hooked up from last year, I simply had to weave the hoses around the new plantings. With the spaces between my plants being further apart this year, I found that the soaker hose fit in the bed much better than it had before. I'm having some problems with the soaker hose. The end of the bed is not getting enough water and the first bed is getting so soaked with water that mushrooms are sprouting up around my tomatoes. I will attempt to fine tune the watering system as the summer progresses.

The entire planting process took me around four hours, but I'm well pleased with my efforts. Now that everything is in place, there will be little work to do in the garden beyond watering, an occasional weeding and the harvesting. That is the best part of square foot gardening in raised beds, few weeds grow in the protected soil, the vegetables are up higher so that you don't need to bend over as much to tend them and because my garden is just outside my kitchen door, harvesting is an easy prospect.

Spanish Lavender

2007-04-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

There is something about having an abundance of lavender in the garden. The silver toned leaves and the pretty purple flowers look beautiful beside my roses. This spring, I placed a lavender plant in between all of my roses. The uniformity appeals to me and it is a good start to developing an under planting scheme for my rose gardens. I chose spanish lavender because it is considered hardy in my climate here in Southern California. I do have one french lavender plant tucked in a shady spot. It is not flourishing as well as the spanish, much to my regret. It's blooms are more delicate and appealing. I haven't given up on it though.

The lavender has another effect: Scent. When guests come to my patio, the first thing that they remark on is the pervasive scent of lavender. Most find it relaxing and calming as I do.

About the only drawback I find with the spanish lavender is that it attracts an large number of bees. At any time of the day, you can find little bumblebees gathers pollen from my lavender. I'm learning to live with the bees as I do with the other wild creatures of my gardens. The bees help my vegetable become pollinated and are a sign of a healthy, organic garden.

I'm planning on harvesting my lavender this year and creating sachets. Since I garden organically, even in my rose beds, the flowers will be pesticide free and perfect for giving a calming fragrance to my closets and drawers.

Kamikaze Pilot?

2007-04-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

I am late with my plantings this year. While I had purchased three heirloom tomato plants for my garden, it took me weeks to get them into the soil. I've talked my husband into giving up the front bed this year so that I can devote the sunnier raised bed to our tomato and bell peppers plants.

The three tomatoes are a paste, a beefsteak and a beefsteak yellow tomato. The peppers are a red and a yellow Corno de Toro and my two overwintered blushing beauty peppers. I'm hoping that with the additional sunshine and cages to support the weight of their pods, I might get a better yield from them this year. I have yet to plant the other chile plants that I purchased at the monster pepper and tomato sale last March, but all the plants I bought are still healthy in their little pots. I will attempt to get them into the ground sometime this week.

The rest of my gardens are in full bloom as the days turn warm and sunny here in Southern California. The scent from the lavender is simply incredible. The extra plants I put in this spring have made such a difference in the level of scent of my garden. It feels very peaceful out there.

Songbirds are coming in to bathe in the birdbath or eat in the birdseed house that hangs on the tree. A hummingbird has taken up residence near my flowering maple plants. I have to be careful as he enjoys dive bombing at me like a tiny kamikaze pilot. The loud buzz about two inches from my ear is what gives him away! I suppose that this is his way to play.

Greenscene

2007-04-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is Greenscene weekend over at the Fullerton Arboretum. Greenscene is a plant event featuring tables for the local plant societies, garden clubs and various vendors that sell garden related products and plants. I felt that this year's event was much larger than last year. There were many new vendors selling handmade teapots, vases and pots or handwoven baskets and sun hats. Even a few jewelry vendors, although they didn't seem to have much patronage. It was overcast and threatened to rain, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the large number of people that came to enjoy the event.

I was amazed at the number of vendors selling succulents this year. Twice the number as last year's event. Since I was planning on creating a new cactus pot for my yard featuring a small aloe vera plant that a friend had given me, I welcomed the opportunity to select a few prickly pots among the various sellers. The herb vendors were not to be outdone, while there were only three or four booths selling herbs, all featured large, healthy and uncommon plants perfect for a medicinal or culinary garden. I selected a thyme and oregano for this season's culinary herb garden.

As I always do, I wandered over to the community garden plots that are hosted by the arboretum. These small plots of land are free, from what I understand, but you MUST tend them and make them look attractive in order to keep them. It is pleasant to tour the community garden for this reason. You view examples of homemade tomato cages, lovely arbors, perfectly constructed paths and raised beds holding a wide assortment of vegetables, flowers and herbs. Despite the prospect of a long waiting list, I always think how wonderful it would be to garden in one of those little plots and have room to grow bigger vegetables, but I have my own little salsa garden at the side of the house and containers for my patio. I suppose that I should be grateful for what I have, small though it is.

Spring Rain Falls

2007-03-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

Since rain was predicted for this evening, and as I look out of my window, I see the first misting of it now, I wanted to get all my garden tools secured and potting soils either laid into their designated beds or pots or put away into the garage. I've been busy in my gardens the last few days. I've potted up a few hanging baskets of verbena, bopoca and million bells for my backyard, planted a strawberry pot with everybearing strawberries and today, I filled up my front square foot garden bed with soil and steer manure. I've been delighted with the introduction of more organic soils to the gardening centers. The soils are rich and well mixed, not sticks or strange crud that would not work with my garden.

I still haven't gotten to planting my new pepper plants, but since they are still small and might fall to cutworms, that is not a critical. Once this current system of rain has passed, I will get back to work on my square foot garden. Meanwhile, my tools have been put away so that the rain won't damage them, my open bags of potting soil have been stowed in the garage and all is peaceful in my garden.

Clearing the Bed

2007-03-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

Rain was forecast for the day here in our little section of Los Angeles. All my gardening tools were still outside and I had even left my gardening gloves out on the patio table. Fearing that everything would rust and become ruined in the rain, I got hustled outside early to be under overcast skies.

I took my shovel and cleared the dead tomato plants from my front raised bed, cutting the stalks with my pruners when they got caught on the picket fence that surrounds my vegetable garden. It didn't take long since all the plants had withered away to dry stalks during the winter's cold. All my beds have been cleared except for the chile plants that I am keeping. Once the current "storm" has gone through, I will be ready to start adding new soil and organic compost to my raised beds and planting my chiles and tomatoes into their new locations. All of my tools and gloves have been put away and my yards are ready for the rain.

I hauled all the plant matter away and got the can back to the side of the yard. The city will come and take it all away in the few days on their weekly rounds. Our city has two recycling programs. One takes cans and cardboard. Another takes yard "waste" and sends it to a composting program. I'm glad that our city does this. I feel that it helps us do our part to help the planet.

Pink Jasmine in Bloom

2007-03-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

One of the pleasures of early spring is the sight and scent of pink jasmine when it comes in full bloom. I have three jasmine vines in my backyard garden. The eldest and most beautiful is the one over the entrance arbor. I thought I'd share a photo of this beautiful vine. I only wish that I could share the scent. The flowers are so massive that you can smell the jasmine from 30 feet away. It is heavenly.

I am always glad when spring arrives. While we enjoy a mild six week long winter (rainy season) here in Southern California, it can be dreary since most of the plants either lose their leaves or go dormant. When the first of the spring flowers begin to appear, it can be a cause for celebration.

For those of you who are curious, the yellow blooms behind the gate in the photo are flowering maples.

Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale

2007-03-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is once again time for the Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale at the Fullerton Arboretum! March 15th through the 18th over by the Potting Shed, the plant loving public has an opportunity to purchase rare heirloom tomatoes, exotic chile and bell peppers and a good selection of unusual eggplants too. This is my second year buying plants at the Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale. Even though it was Thursday morning, the place was packed with shopper of all ages. I brought a small luggage cart with me to roll my cardboard box of seedlings around the sale and back to my car, but the Friends of the Fullerton Arboretum do provide a limited number of little flyer wagons to haul your plants around if needed.

I didn't buy as many seedlings this year as last, but then I successfully overwintered many of my peppers from last year. This time I purchased two italian pepperoncini plants, two lemon drop chile plants, one of the Carmine Hybrid chiles that was a feature of the sale and one Coro de Toro Giallo pepper plant. I purchased three heirloom tomato plants and will look forward to wonderful salsa and italian spaghetti sauce this summer.

If you live in Orange County or Los Angeles, CA, you should make a point to visit the Fullerton Arboretum and get in on the action this weekend.

Pruning Back Chiles

2007-03-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

We have been having our front yard re-landscaped this week. A new sprinkler system, a new section of concrete to our driveway, new boxwoods forming a hedge and a new sod lawn laid down. It all looks so pristine. I love it. The gardeners are doing a good job, although the project is taking a bit longer than was originally planned. I'm still waiting for my new boxwood hedge to go in, but hopefully that will happen next week and we'll be all done.

With all the activity in the front yard, it has motivated me to return to my organic salsa garden in the backyard. I spent time this morning going over each and every chile in my garden with garden clippers. Most of the stalks had budding new leaves and a few tiny flowers on them, but I decided to be ruthless and cut back the chiles as far as I could. I want them small enough so that I can put cages over them and to promote new growth this spring. I also did a little light weeding, mainly pulling wandering jew vines from where they were invading from the neighbor's yard.

I ended up losing a few plants to the last winter cold snap we had this past February. Two of my chiles were nothing more than dried up sticks. I have two blushing beauty bells, one Corno de Toro Red, one gypsy bell, three fresnos, one cherry bomb, one fatali, one fish, one kung pao, one scotch bonnet and one chocolate habanero. I discovered two bulgarian carrot plants, although I only planted one last year. I think that one of the fallen chile pods must have sprouted during the winter. I have not moved any of the plants to new locations, but I want to get more of the bed fixed up before the pepper sale. This way I will have a better idea about additional peppers to purchase at the sale. Now that the chile plants are smaller in size, they will be easier to transplant.

Spring Arrives

2007-03-06T14:31:00.000-08:00

Outside, the weather has been turning bright and sunny. Temperatures have been steadily getting warmer and my pink jasmine vines are putting forth the most lovely clouds of blooms. I have not done much with my salsa garden, other than be around when the termite exterminator injected the wooden fence with poison. The process was done quickly and now dealing with the termites seems like a faraway dream.

Old tomato plants remain in the front bed, mostly dead and needing to be cleared out. I am going to start with fresh tomato plants this year, hopefully I will find a couple of interesting heirloom varieties at the pepper and tomato sale next week. The soil levels in my raised beds are about half of what it should be. Once I'm ready to begin the March plantings, I'll fluff up the soil in the beds with a claw and then add in more organic compost and garden soil from the nursery to bring the soil levels up to the top.

Most of my overwintered chile plants survived! I'm grateful because this means that I'll have access to fresh chiles in my cooking far sooner than usual. While there are a few chile pods still on the plants, none of them have put out fresh blooms as yet. They are still all relatively dormant. This means that it should be safe to prune them back, dig them up and transplant them into new areas or back into my new beds.

Meeting the Termite Exterminator

2007-02-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

The termite exterminator from next door arrived as promised and I allowed him to view the common fence in question from my side of the fence. When I opened my garden gate and allowed him into my small side yard he looked surprised and commented about how new the fence was. Evidently, he had not seen this fence when he had inspected the property before. He also said that my side yard was the perfect place for a garden. The fence next to my pepper patch had no termites in it at all. I'm not surprised because it is only four years old and I had sealed the wood after we put it up. It should last at least a good ten years without problems. Just beyond the garden, where the old ten year old wooden fence was, he pointed out the two places that had termite damage. One location was next to my tomato bed.

I explained that I had read about Termidor on the BASF website and that it said to not plant near vegetables. That the product would be toxic. The termite exterminator told me that there had been a change in plans with the neighbor, that he was only going to inject the wood where the termites were and not pump chemicals into the soil at all. This chemical that goes into the wood is a foam and it would not spread into my organic garden, even though the post is inches away from my cinderblocks.

I'm not thrilled about the chemicals being there in the post, but I will accept this as long as there is no injecting of the soil. I don't believe that Termidor soil injection is a good solution for tiny yards such as mine. A two foot "perimeter" is a great deal of space when your entire yard is only six feet deep!

I'm not sure if this is going to be the last dance with the termite problem. Not only was the house next door tented for termites, according to the exterminator, they had also spread deeply into most of the fencing around the property too. The two locations in my fence were the least of the infestations. With so many termites next door, it could be that they have migrated to my home. I might have to do an independent termite inspection of my property as well.

Update about Termidor

2007-02-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

I had a long chat with the termite exterminator this afternoon. It seems he went to a seminar about his product this morning and was advised there to NOT use the underground toxic chemical near any edible plantings, such as my organic herb and pepper garden! Imagine that. If the chemical was injected, the poison would spread to cover at least half of my side yard....and would poison my entire garden patch. The poison does break down, but it would be probably a year or two before I could safely plant near that fence again.

He asked to come and see my garden area so that he could figure out an alternative way to kill the termites without injecting the soil with the chemical. He would probably drill holes into the wood posts and put the chemicals in there. That does sound better to me, but I still think that I'm going to dig up all my pepper plants and transport them to the opposite side of the yard during the spraying.

I definitely am going to fight this if the neighbor insists on injecting poisons into my yard.

Termites!

2007-02-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

I've been informed today that the neighbors are going to spray our common fence for termites. This common fence is inches away from my organic vegetable garden. I've been reading up on the chemical Termidor to see what I'm dealing with. Evidently it is considered one of the leading poisons to kill termites, so the fact that this company is using it is not anything out of the ordinary. It is not that I don't want the termites gone, after all if they are in the fence they can spread to my house, but dealing with all that poison is an issue. When I read more about the product at the manufactor's website, it stated that the chemical should not be injected into the ground where edible plants were growing.

Hmm.

My chiles have been successfully overwintering in my side yard. They survived the brief bout we had with frost conditions and seem quite happy. A few even have pods on them, although there are no new flowers to be seen. I don't want them sprayed with poisons or growing where poison has been injected into the ground inches away, so I'm considering digging them up and placing them into pots as I continue to deal with the termite situation.

Will I even have a garden after all this? I simply don't have enough information to judge this yet.

Frost Conditions Arrive

2007-01-14T23:45:00.000-08:00

It seldoms dips below freezing here in Southern California. Snow is more a myth than a reality. Yet, last night the temperatures dipped down around 25 degrees. I was worried about my wintering chile plants since I don't have anything to cover the plants with.

I looked out the window this morning and so far, so good. The plants are still green and looking healthy enough. My pepper garden is in a narrow yard between two houses and I think that not only are they sheltered from the wind, but being so close to the house the micro-climate there might be a bit warmer. I think that it helps that although it very cold, it is a dry cold. So far, we have not been touched by snow.

I'll keep my finger's crossed that the plants will make it. Who knew that overwintering a few chile plants would prove to be so nervewracking?

Overwintering Begins

2007-01-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

The temperatures outside have been steadily growing cooler as our brief "winter" here in Southern California begins. We seldom experience frost conditions, but our eight week winter has a great deal of rain, wind and cool temperatures. Sometime in March, it will all reverse and the warmth with return again.

Most of my chiles have stopped producing pods, the exception being the red scotch bonnet. It still has a number of red pods on it that are ready for harvest. Otherwise, my garden is entering its dormant period where little is being produced.

I've never overwintered chiles before, but I just got an email from a fellow chilehead who told me that his plants would generally live anywhere from three to eight years here in Southern California and all he did was leave them outside in the garden! I'm very interested in this since it is often hard to find the more exotic chiles as starts in my area. If I have a plant, I'd like to keep it! I'm a little uncertain about the techniques involved, but I will simply try and cut them back a little and hope that in the spring they put out new stalks and leaves.

I am going to overwinter the following: Blushing Beauty Bell, Red Corno de Toro, Gypsy, Ariane, Fresno, Bulgarian Carrot, Cherry Bomb Hybred, Fatali, Fish, Red Scotch Bonnet and Chocolate Habanero. By overwintering, I'm hoping to have fresh chiles for my cooking far sooner than the late fall. Only time will tell....

Harvesting Chiles

2006-12-15T20:13:00.000-08:00

It is the busy season for my business, so my little chile garden has been somewhat neglected while I've been away at work. The cooler temperatures and the occasional rain has been helpful in keeping all my plants healthy and productive while I've been gone. I always have chiles through Christmas and this year is no exception.

My chocolate habanero turned out to be the most productive chile of them all. I have a gallon ziplock bag in the freeze full of the dark pods. I also found a couple of yellow fatalis, red bird peppers and more red scotch bonnets. There will be plenty of fruit to experiment with this winter and I hope for yet more pods before January.

I have pulled out a few of the plants to clean up the bed. The hungarian wax, the pepperonci's, the salsa garden and the thick cayenne plants are now gone. I've been pleased with the production of my plants in my tiny pepper patch, but I think that next year I will grow fewer plants and make sure that all of them are caged properly.

I hope to overwinter the more exotic peppers, such as the habanero, the fatali and the bird pepper. I understand that the second year they can get even hotter and more flavorful. I will need to get through christmas first, attend to the family and then perhaps, there will be time to play out in my garden.

Merry Christmas everyone! Happy chile growing.

Snap, Crackle, Pop

2006-09-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

I was giving my pepper patch a good watering this morning, when I heard a loud snap. When I went over to check my blushing beauty bells, I saw that half of one of the plants simply snapped in half and fell over! I've never seen this happen with my bells before. The blushing beauties are forming several large pods and I'm looking forward to harvesting them once they ripen, but the pods seem to be sinking down to the ground. The plant simply can not support the weight of the fruit. I had not put up cages around my peppers this year and I regret this action now. Next year, everything is going to get a cage!

Scotch Bonnet Pods Form

2006-09-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

One of the things about a garden is that you can step away from them for a time and then return in a week and find all sorts of surprises waiting for you. My big surprise was the discovery of a large number of scotch bonnet pods forming in my garden. It seems like I've been waiting forever and a day for this plant to start producing pods. Now, it finally is!

The latest heat wave combined with my watering the chile patch less often seems to have hit pay dirt. All of my peppers are doing quite well in my little side yard. I can't wait to see what forms next!

Tomato Sauce Success

2006-08-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

We've been suffering through a long heatwave and most of my gardening has come to a stop. Fortunately, the pepper plants in my garden are still thriving. I have lots of fresnos, hungarian wax, bulgarian carrot, kung pao and cherry bomb pods out there now. I've been harvesting most of these for various breakfast dishes. Putting them into omelet or making them into fresh salsa. I'm now keeping avocados and cilantro in my kitchen on a regular basis for cooking. Now that the heat wave is over, I've been noticing that my peppers are starting to set more pods and seem to be flowers more.

My blushing beauty bells are starting to flower at long last. The plants are about 2.5 feet high now. I've had no bells at all this year in the garden and I'm hoping that at long last, the bells are going to start setting pods.

The scotch bonnet and the chocolate habanero plants are growing like weeds. They are now the tallest peppers in my garden, but so far there are still no flowers or pods on them.

The two tomato plants have exceeded my expectations. I made my very first batch of homemade marinara sauce and it turned out wonderfully. I've never had to peel tomatoes before, but I found it easy enough to do via the instructions that came with the recipe in the cookbook I used. The magic bullet made pureeing the tomatoes very easy. I used my smaller crockpot to slow simmer the sauce for a full day and the flavors of herbs, red wine and tomato blended beautifully. I added in a bit of ground beef the second time around and it was a hearty summer meal. Between the fresh salsa and the marinara sauce, growing tomatoes is more than worthwhile. Next year, I think that I better cage them though. My two plants overtook my tiny plot and I'd like to contain them better the next time.

Weeding Time and Chile Update

2006-07-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last time that I weeded my salsa garden. It was time. A few weeds had taken hold inside the cinderblocks. They all came out easily due to the weed barrier under my cinders and the bed. I pulled out most of the wandering jew vines coming through the fence. Now that my garden is two cinders high, the vines are having a tougher time getting into my patch. I don't think that anything will stop those blasted vines short of a nuclear attack, but at least the double high cinderblocks makes it easier to keep them at bay. I got them out of my rose garden too.

I checked over the chile plants. I'm concerned that I haven't had a single full sized bell as yet. It is July, I should be having bells by now! I also do not remember having so many insect chewed pods before. I am starting to get healthy and tasty pods from the plants this past week, so at least I'm starting to see some production in my garden.

The "pepperoncini" that had the strange colored pods got a closer look. I have now determined that the plant simply was not a pepperoncini pepper, but a strange dark jalapeño type chile. I removed the entire plant from the bed. I also noted that one of my cherry bomb plants is sporting jalapeño style pods. It is definitely not a cherry bomb. I didn't plant any jalapeños this year and am starting to regret that I didn't...so that one can remain. For now.

Something that was a pleasant surprise was my fish pepper. The leaves are starting to turn a molted white. At first I thought that the plant was sick, but then I remember reading that both the leaves and the peppers have white markings. This one is going to be very interesting to see. I can't wait to try one of the pods in my cooking.

On the tomato front, the two plants are setting MANY tomatoes. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all. I'm hoping that I will have enough ripe ones to serve at our BBQ next week. I always like to include some of my garden produce at my parties so that our friends can enjoy some of the organic food that we grow. Next year, I think that one tomato plant might be more than enough to feed my family.

Bulgarian Carrot

2006-07-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

I got a good harvest from my pepper plants yesterday. A few of the large thick cayennes, more hungarian wax, a few fresnos and one bulgarian carrot. They are in a basket in my refrigerator waiting to go into my dishes.

I have never had a bulgarian carrot chile before. It is a cheerful orange hue, reminding me of an orange habanero, but it is long and pointy like a serrano chile. I found the texture to be crisp and the heat level a comfortable medium, rather like my favorite fresnos. I think that this is going to be a chile that I continue to grow in my salsa garden. I can see many uses for it in my cooking due to its pleasant heat level and color.

First Tomatoes

2006-06-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

Although I only planted two tomato plants this year, both are producing fruit like there is no tomorrow. Most of the tomatoes are still green, but this afternoon, I spotted a pair of ripe ones in the bed. I am happy to say that I have my first ripe tomatoes from my garden! They are small Celebrity Tomatoes of a beefsteak style. I'm not sure what I will make with them yet, but I'm looking forward to using them.

Meanwhile, the pods are still forming on the chile peppers. Most of the plants have pods now, although few are ripe enough to eat. I'm growing concerned about a few of my chile plants. The chiles are turning black. I'm not sure if this is some sort of fungus or if my pepperoncini peppers are NOT pepperoncinis. The one replacement pepperoncini seems to be perfectly normal and it is beside the others in the bed. I will have to ask a few questions of the MSN Chile forum and see if the experts there can figure out what is wrong with my pods.

My garden paths were cleared of weeds today and all the juniper needles that had fallen on my gravel paths has been raked up and hauled away. The area is looking quite neat and tidy and I'm well content with that. I still need to pull out the wandering jew vines on the far side of the cinderblocks, but at least most of the work is now completed.

First Batch of Homemade Salsa of the Year

2006-06-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, my husband and I bought a "Magic Bullet" blender/food processor system. We wanted it for blended drinks, but I was hoping that it would be an easy way to make salsa as well. It is! This morning I harvested the first chile pod from my garden, one of the salsa garden variety, intending to make homemade salsa.

I followed the seven second salsa recipe that came in the book with the machine. I threw in a quarter red onion, 10 grape tomatoes, most of the garden salsa pepper minus the seeds, two cloves of garlic and a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley. The Magic Bullet whirled this into fresh salsa in an eye blink and I found that the portion was perfect for one serving. One great thing about the Magic Bullet is that the clean up is just as fast as the processing. Just a quick rinse and you are done.

The salsa garden pepper was a bit more crisp than a jalapeño, but the heat was definitely there and it had a decent flavor. I'm glad that I included one of the plants in my garden.

Summer Heat Arrives

2006-06-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

At last, the summertime heat has arrived. Bright sunshine and warm to hot temperatures are making my gardens sing in delight. The peppers have been growing taller and most of them are starting to put forth pods! My husband and I go out and view their progress each evening with delight.

The tomatoes are spreading out and taking over the entire 3'x3' bed. Two plants was more than enough for my limited garden space. If I start to grow tomatoes on a regular basis, I think that I will look into a vertical growing method for next year. I hate to lose what little growing space I have in my small backyard.

While it is not salsa related, I wanted to note that my roses are flourishing their colors in a grand manner. I don't believe that I've ever had such a major showing of blooms from the majority of my roses bushes before. It is quite pleasant!

The Garden Grows

2006-05-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

I was out in my salsa garden to give the peppers and tomatoes a good watering and was pleased to see the plants progress. The weather has taken a turn toward more normal heat and sunshine and I'm glad to see it! There has been far too much rain this spring for my comfort. The beds do not need weeding, however some of the pathways are being over run with grass and vines. I might use an organic solution to get rid of them and to encourage no further weed growth. I want to be careful to not do anything that would upset the organic balance of my vegetable beds.

I have many new pepper pods forming out on the plants. Many fresnos, hungarian wax, salsa garden, and cayenne to name a few. None of the pods have matured, but it is still very early in the game. The two tomatoe plants are overrunning the 3'x 3' bed and I am seeing more green tomatoes in there. Again, no sign of a ripe fruit as yet.

I have been researching a machine to help me process the peppers and tomatoes. I'm thinking about getting a "magic bullet" to chop and create salsa and guacamole....or simply to mix cold drinks for the summer. I will need to get my canning equipment together as well. I am planning on doing a great deal of pepper pickling this fall and creating sandwich relishes and salad goodies for our winter and perhaps some new varieties of hot sauce to enjoy.

New Pods are Forming

2006-05-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

My chile peppers continue to flourish. Several of the plants are now sporting tiny pods. Little fresnos, hungarian wax peppers, salsa gardens and cayennes dot the tops of the plants. There is a little gypsy frying pepper growing too. It is only 2 inches long, so I wonder if it will reach full size?

More cutworm barriers have been removed from around the chile plants. Only the congo black habanero has a protective ring around it. It is putting out lots of new leaves so I have hope that I can free this last pepper within the next week.

My two tomato plants are doing well. The Celebrity Tomato has all but taken over the 3'x3' bed, but the little roma tomato is holding its own. Both should give me more than enough fruit for homemade salsa this season. There are a couple of green tomatoes out there, hopefully they will ripen soon.

Chiles Continue to Grow

2006-05-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

Now that the planting is done, my garden has settled into a quiet, growing phase. As I was out watering my raised bed this morning, I noted that the plants are all getting bigger and stronger. So far, the spacing is working well and I have not had to stake any of the peppers, although I suspect that I will have to do so with the bells later in the growing season. The deeper soil level of this year's raised bed seems to be having the desired effect. The plants are more stable and able to hold their weight instead of tipping over. Last year, I had trouble with most of my chiles not being able to hold their pods off the ground and I suspected it was the scant 6" of soil in the bed that was the culprit. This year, I have 10" of soil in the beds.

My two cherry bomb chiles are now of a size that I felt it was safe to remove the cutworm barriers and allow them their freedom. I still have six barriers in place around the smaller hot chile plants. They tend to grow very slowly and are still only a few inches tall. Of the six, only the scotch bonnet seems to be putting on any real height, but all the chiles are putting forth new leaves and gaining height. It is simply that these peppers are slow growers. I'm told that they will not produce chiles until 110 to 120 days after transplanting. However, once they reach maturity, I should get a year or two of production from them. Now that my new bed is in place, I might be able to successfully overwinter my more rare chile plants. I'll wait and see how it goes.

Millionaire Japanese Eggplant Planted

2006-05-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

I've never grown eggplant before, but I've always wanted to try one. Even though it is not really a "salsa" type plant, I picked up a single eggplant at the nursery today and placed it into the bed along side the two tomato plants. Supposedly it needs 36" of space and plenty of sun. We'll see how it goes. I suppose that eggplant can go into a "salsa" of some kind!

I also planted a third pepperoncini plant in my pepper bed, replacing the pepper that I lost a week or so ago. I like that I'm growing fewer varieties, but more plants this year. Of the peppers that I love the most, I should have plenty to put up as pickles or to freeze for use throughout the year. As I planted the pepperoncini, I noticed that a couple of earthworms came up with the soil. This is a most welcome sign in my garden. I'm not sure how the worms managed to get in there through the mesh and weed barrier, but I won't complain. They will make the soil all the richer for my vegetables.

Football in the Pepper Bed

2006-05-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

As my Spring busy season kicks in and I'm away from my garden due to business, it is always such a pleasure to return home and stroll by my vegetable beds and see the progress my plants are making. All of my peppers are growing larger and fuller. One of the hungarian wax plants even has a tiny pod on it. I have not purchased the canning equipment that I wanted to use to make pickled peppers this summer, but seeing that little pod reminds me that I need to start shopping for jars, lids and a canner.

I was dismayed to discover a nerf football resting in the middle of my pepper plants. I simply threw it back over the fence so that the child that lost it might recover his ball, but I'm starting to wonder if I will be losing pods to flying objects this year. I hope not. All of the peppers that are planted on that end of the bed are impossible to find locally except via garden club sales in the early spring. They are the bells that I purchased at the Pepper sale at the Fullerton Arboretum last March.

Peppers Grow in the Sunshine

2006-05-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally arrived here in my little garden behind the white picket fence. There is still more rain than usual for this time of year, but everyone has agreed that the tide has turned and the sunny days are starting to far outnumber the rainy ones. All of my salsa garden plants are thriving out in the garden. So far, all of the peppers that I planted last week are doing well inside their cutworm barriers. They are getting a little taller and putting out new leaves with little sign of insect damage to the leaves.

I feel that removing that three feet of planting space and tacking it onto the other end of the raised bed was a good move on my part. All of the peppers are getting more sunshine throughout the day. That one section simply was too close to the juniper tree and was so shady that even weeds were having trouble getting established there! My two tomato plants are faring well in the second raised bed. So far, the two plants are alone since my husband hasn't choosen to plant anything there. I'm not sure what will end up in the second bed, but I wouldn't mind starting more vegetables over there before the summer heat is upon us. It would be a shame to waste what little garden space we have.

Planting While the Sun Shines

2006-04-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

Normally, I don't put transplants into my raised bed until they have gained enough size to combat cutworms and other pests, but due to the pending rain tomorrow and my busy work schedule next week, I decided to risk it and planted the six chile plants that I purchased at Green Scene last weekend. Each one got a cutworm barrier around it and a good watering. I am pleased that the entire length of my bed is planted this year and I am confident that all the plants will get enough sun to produce well despite being in the narrow strip between two houses. Well...except for one spot where I had lost the garden salsa plant. If I have time, I'll try and get that replacement pepper plant this week and pop it into the bed too. Hopefully my little specialty peppers will survive and produce. I'm looking forward to my first homegrown scotch bonnet!

I also planted the two tomato plants I had purchased a few weeks ago. I decided to not add to the soil level in the other bed. There is a good six to eight inches there of wonderful composted soil. I'm sure that between the better sun exposure and good earth that they will produce a bumper crop.

I planted a few more things after I got the chile garden done, flowers and vines. I do love to grow flowers and surround my patio with color. It is one of the pleasures of having a yard in Southern California.

Loss of a Garden Salsa Plant

2006-04-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

I went out to check on the new chile plants that I have not planted in the raised bed, when I discovered that there had been an attack in the garden. Four of my chile plants have been chewed by an animal of some kind and one of the peppers was smashed as if something had landed on it and thus broken the stem. I decided to remove the broken garden salsa plant since it only had a single leaf left. Most of the plant lay like a dead soldier beside the stem. The break looked fresh, it couldn't have happened more than an hour or two ago. The others are damaged, but I hope that they will recover. Did a neighbor kid throw a ball over the fence into my garden? Did a cat land there and then claw at the plants around it? Is it a rabbit or mole? There are no tracks in the bed and no ball...this looks too big to be the work of cutworms. It is a mystery as to what caused this.

I don't have time today, but I will buy a replacement pepper for the space. I'll get a third pepperoncini since my husband likes them and I only planted two plants this year. I'm curious about the garden salsa chile, but one plant is enough to test it. I have plenty of fresnos and hungarian wax peppers to make salsa with after all.

I've also removed a few of the cutworm barriers from my chile plants. They are getting enough size so that they can stand up to a cutworm attack. The little cups just came up out of the ground and over the plant without a problem. I should be able to reuse the plastic cups for many years to come. That pleases me. They are not expensive devices, but I would like to keep the costs down as much as possible in my chile growing hobby.

Green Scene

2006-04-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

I returned to the Fullerton Arboretum for their annual Green Scene Garden Show. It costs $6 to get in, but if you are looking for unusual plants for your garden, it is the place to go and worth the price. Most of the booths were of garden clubs looking for new members that were raising money by selling herbs, heirloom tomatos and chile pepper plants. There was a booth with a ceramic artist selling pots, cups and bowls, two booths selling african baskets and hats, a booth of cement garden art and a greyhound rescue. It was a much smaller show than last year with less diversity among the vendors. Attendance was lower due to the rain clouds that threatened overhead. Still, there were plenty of little red wagons being drawn by happy women who were buying plants in glee.

I was able to find the final six chile plants that I wanted for my garden and at a lower price than the nurseries are charging for their regular chile plants. Thankfully, the garden club had cardboard boxes available to take your plants away with since I had forgotten to bring a market bag and it was a long walk back to the car. I bought two cherry bomb hybrids, a kung pao, a red scotch bonnet, a chocolate habanero (i'm hoping it is a congo black) and a bulgarian carrot. I'm glad I went early to the event, because the more rare chiles were already getting low at the booth. Most of the chiles that I purchased today will be new to my garden. This is going to be a fun growing season for me.

Dreaming of Salsa

2006-04-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

I am experiencing a bit of a snail problem in my pepper garden, but thus far they seem to be more attracted to my two tomato plants than the peppers. I am hoping that I will not have to take action against them since I like to keep my gardens as organic as possible. I still have not planted the two tomatoes, but I am starting to water my second raised bed in order to soften up the soil where I wish to plant them. This bed already has double cinderblock walls, but it could use more soil and a bit of compost before I plant it. Usually, my husband takes this raised bed over for his own gardening, but he has promised me 2 sqft of it so that I can plant two tomatoes for my salsa making efforts this summer.

Our local gardening club sponsors a salsa making contest in July. To enter, your salsa must be made from peppers and tomatoes that you have grown yourself in your garden. I may be entering the salsa contest this year, if I can find the time in my work schedule.

First Pepper Blooms

2006-04-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

The rains have been heavy and constant for the past two days. This has to be one of the wettest springs we've had here in Southern California for a very long time. I think that the young pepper plants are thriving in it. The water is keeping the insects at bay and the plants are all shooting up new stems and leaves. I'm growing hopeful that my fish pepper and fatali, both of which were chewed to almost the point of no return, will recover! I'm growing tempted to place them in the bed with cutworm barriers, but I'm going to stay my hand at least one more week and give the two plants a bit more time to catch their breath.

The sun has come out this afternoon, although not for long I am sure. Upon inspecting my pepper patch, I was pleased to note that three of the plants have put out their first blooms. A fresno, a hungarian yellow wax and a thick cayenne. There are those that remove the blooms from the plants until June or July to stimulate root growth, but I think that I will leave them be. Let the plants soak in the spring rains and grow as they will in their new home.

Cutworm Barriers

2006-04-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

The rain has departed, at least for now! Outside it is bright and sunny and song birds are chirping away with glee. I will have to remember to put new birdseed into my feeder for them. The pepper plants are starting to get over their transplant shock. The few that had tipped over a bit are now growing upright. They seem happy in the new raised bed.

I managed to place cutworm barriers around my more delicate pepper plants and so far, the barriers are working! This is a method of organic protection that my friend Bobbi Ann Chukran told me about last year. She likes to grow Texan piquins in her garden and this is how she protects them. This is the first time that I've tried this method and so far, it seems to be working well. I can't tell you how many of my little pepper seedlings have been murdered by cutworms! This year I am hoping to change that.

BTW, Bobbi has just published her first murder mystery novel. "Lone Star State of Death" is a history mystery with a well-researched Texas setting and fine cast of characters, including Sam(antha) Slater, a sleuth with gumption and a sense of humor. You can download the first 2 chapters of her novel for free via her website.

To make your own cutworm barriers, you first take a plastic drinking cup. Mine is a 16oz size one. You cut out the bottom, leaving a few inches of the cup. After you plant your seedling, you put the cup around the pepper plant and press it into the soil about an inch. Voila! The plastic is slippery and doesn't allow the cutworms to get to the stem of your plant! It not only saves your plants, but it is a completely organic method.

Planting Chiles Before the Rain Arrives

2006-04-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

The current rain storm is moving into the area. Although the sky was very overcast, I decided to try and get my garden planted this morning while it was still dry outside. I purchased more chile plants at Armstrong Nursery. Four fresnos, two hungarian yellow wax, two garden salsa and one celebrity tomato plant. Next, I bought four more bags of garden soil at the Home Depot. While there, I noticed that they had pepperoncini plants on sale, so I picked up a pair of them too. I have never grown garden salsa or pepperoncini peppers before. I'm glad to have a couple of new varieties of peppers in my garden this year.

Once I got home, I put the soil into my raised bed and was rewarded with a soil level that comes almost to the top of my double cinderblock raised bed sides. I feel that I finally have enough depth in my garden to give my plants real root support. Once the soil was spread, I planted most of my pepper plants. The only two I didn't plant were the fish pepper and the fatali, simply because they are still very small and more susceptible to cutworms. They will have more protection in their plastic pots while they gain some size.

Just as I was finishing planting the last the of peppers, the rain started. So I quickly called my dog to pop her into the house and then got all the trash picked up and tools stored. The only thing that I didn't do was put in guards around the chile plants so that they would have some cutworm protection in the night. I'm worried about the plants, especially the ones that I purchased at the Potting Shed since I can't replace them if they are killed by cutworms. However, with all the rain outside, I might have to just cross my fingers that the plants are large enough to survive the insects since it will be a soggy proposition to install cutworms guards today.

Atypical Storm for April

2006-04-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

The atypical storm continues outside. We've had drenching rains, thunder, lightning and even HAIL. All this in April??? I'm very glad that I worked so hard last Sunday since I would not have been able to do any gardening at all this week due to the weather. According to the weather services, the storm will continue on into next week. Well, at least it will entertain the dog. She has been fascinated by all the noise on the roof!

One concern I do have. My pepper plants are starting to be chewed by bugs again. This is not going to do. I am considering going out in the rain tomorrow and buying some marigolds and leaving them near the peppers. Perhaps this will keep the bugs at bay until my peppers get enough growth on them to fend off the insects and the cutworms.

More Soil for the Raised Bed

2006-04-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

The bright sunshine that I awoke too soon disappeared as the rain clouds slowly rolled in. It is supposed to start raining again early this evening. Although I am supposed to be working on new stock for my art booth, I decided to take a little time to go back to the Depot and pick up six more bags of garden soil. I poured them into my bed and then did a quick clean up. All my tools, the hand truck that I use to transport the bags and the trash is out of the yard before it gets wet out there again. The soil level is still not quite where I want it to be, but the cost of new soil is getting to be high and I still have a second bed to prep for tomatoes and peas. I have close to 8" of soil in the raised bed and I think that might be enough for the peppers this year.

I did a quick check of my new pepper plants. They were getting a bit bug chewed where I was storing them before so I moved them to the pepper bed to wait in their pots. They don't seem to be more bug chewed this morning so I will leave them there to get used to the location before I plant them into the bed. One disappointment I had this morning was that I discovered that instead of picking up a red and a yellow corno de toro, I have two red ones! So right now, I have no sweet yellow peppers. I should have read the labels more carefully at the arboretum sale. I will have to swing by the Potting Shed in Fullerton and see if they have any of the yellow toros left, otherwise I'll have to find another sweet yellow to substitute. I still need a few more moderate heat chiles as well, so I will be searching the nurseries as usual this spring. More fun! :)

Rebuilding the Garden Space

2006-04-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

There is something satisfying about being outside and working with your hands on your own land. I've been impatient to begin my raised bed project and get my chile plants in the earth, but with all the rain we've been experiencing...and more rain predicted next week, I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get the task done. I started early on my garden project and didn't wrap up until the sunlight had shifted into that golden hue we call magic hour. The weather was sunny and warm with just the hint of a breeze. Songbirds flittered in the trees and one of those little brown lizards kept scampering across my patio. I don't think that he knew where to find a safe place to hide for the day. It was the perfect day to do some gardening.

My first task was to use a shovel to clear away the gravel from the far end of the yard where the new garden space was to be. I decided to move 3 feet worth of garden space instead of the mere two that I originally had planned. Once the gravel was clear, I moved the cinders from the closer end of the bed to the cleared space at the other end. Then I used the shovel to move the rich soil that was left behind into the new raised bed area.

It was strange seeing the galvanized mesh that I had put down years ago to prevent moles from coming up in my garden. When I had first planned my garden, my neighbor from across the street had told me many stories of moles dying in her swimming pool and eating all her vegetables, to the point where I wasn't going to risk dealing with the little critters. I have never seen a mole in my garden and I had started to wonder if I had been silly to worry about the little rodents, yet when I looked closely at the soil under the mesh, sure enough, there were large tunnels leading up to where my garden would have been! I'll be darn....there be moles here! My mesh idea had worked!

Once the single row of cinderblocks were placed in the new location, I went ahead and put on the second layer of bricks. I am not very strong and had to move one brick at a time, but the task was simple and it went quickly. Fortunately, I thought to wear leather gloves to protected my hands. Those cinderblocks are very dry and scratchy. When I had put all 26 cinderblocks on, I discovered that I had miscounted the number of bricks needed and was six bricks short. So I made a quick run to the local hardware store for 6 more bricks and two bags of pea gravel to cover over the exposed end of the bed. The rest of the level went on quickly and I was able to get the gravel down to create the new path area.

I decided to return to the hardware store and I picked up a few bags of garden soil, peat moss and steer manure to start filling my raised bed. I managed to fill the bed just passed the first cinderblock level, so I know that I'll need more soil. Unfortunately, I'm out of time for the day and with more rain coming, I wonder if I will get those chiles planted this week after all?

After that, I did a bit of cleanup. Old pots that had been lying around for the past year found their way to the trash. The plastic bags that the gravel and soil came in were thrown away. I moved my little greenhouse into the newly cleared space where it now will serve as a tool and pot holder. My watering can seems to fit in there too. What is good about using the greenhouse is that the plastic cover will keep my tools and pots more protected from the weather and from all the pine needles that fall in that area. My side yard is looking neat again, the new bed has all the major work completed on it and I finally have that little shelving unit in a useful place.

Rain Delays

2006-03-31T23:35:00.000-08:00

It has been raining on and off for the past few days and the temperature has been cold. Sometimes it is a hard rain, sometimes it is just a sprinkling. All of it is too wet for me to go out and get to work on my garden. I put on sweaters to keep warm, make hot green tea, create stews and bean soups in my crockpot and look outside at the raindrops as forlorn as a little kid. I'm glad that I did go out and feed the roses and citrus tree during a break in the weather. With all this rain to active the granuals of the plant food, they are going to get a big boost this early April.

I have purchased the 26 cinderblocks that I need to complete the raised bed project and they are stacked up near my garden area. More rain is predicted for this weekend and on through Tuesday. So for now, my cinderblocks will remain in their stack in the backyard.

I have not purchased the additional soil and compost that I will need for the two raised vegetable beds, but this is gardening. Things will happen in their own good time. Meanwhile, my little pepper plants remain in the small pots that they were purchased in and they seem to be doing just fine. If there is a good break in the weather, I will have to check out the local nursery and search for a few of my favorite fresno chiles. I miss having them in my morning omelettes.

Preparations for Spring Begins

2006-03-19T16:07:00.000-08:00

There was a massive thunder and lightning storm that lasted most of the night. This means that the soil in my gardens will get a good long soak and be easier to work with in the next week or two. More rain is promised later in the week. Its been a very warm and dry winter, so cool rain is most welcome.

Since there was a break in the rain this morning, I decided to start work on getting my pepper bed prepared for the spring planting. Many vines and weeds had sprouted up in my raised bed, but as usual, they all came out easily from both the bed and the gravel pathway. The four peppers that I had overwintered got a bit of a pruning. They are still producing pods, but not as well as they could be. I am considering pulling them all out and starting over with fresh plants. It will mean another trip to a nursery, but what gardener doesn't enjoy that???

As you can see, I still am sporting a single layer of cinderblocks around my raised bed. In order to give my peppers more root space and perhaps allow them to be more sturdy, I am considering buying a second layer of cinderblocks for the bed. I will need 26 bricks to complete the project. The cinders are very inexpensive, maybe 20 cents each. Upgrading my garden space should not be too difficult, except for finding the time to get the work done.

New Pepper Plants!!!!

2006-03-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

Another wintery storm is blowing through our area. The rain was pounding on my windshield as I made my way to the Fullerton Arboretum and the Annual Chile Pepper Sale. Amazingly, the outdoor lot where the sale was being held was packed with people despite all the rain. Since it was Friday, the first day of the sale and in the morning, I was able to get good healthy plants of the peppers I wanted. They cost a little more than what I would pay at the Home Depot or my local nursery, but the selection was incredible...and I'm very tempted to return tomorrow and pick up a few more plants...but I'm going to try and be good to my pocketbook.

I bought blushing beauty, ariane, corno de toro (red and yellow), fatali, a gypsy, long thick cayenne and a fish pepper. In total, I bought ten plants. This might not sound like alot to many growers, but I have a very small garden plot that I can fill and I need to be selective of what I put in. There are a few more chiles that I want to grow, but I should be able to find them at the regular nursery. I'm glad that I decided to grow more bells and medium heat chiles this year. I feel that I will get more value from them in my kitchen this year.

Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale is Coming

2006-03-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

The dates that I've been waiting for! The Fullerton Arboretum Monster Tomato and Pepper sale will be taking place in the Garden Shed March 16th - March 19th! I missed my chance to buy pepper seedlings locally last year due to not watching the Fullerton Arboretum website and deeply regretted it.

This year I have my eye on Fatalli, Chilepins, and Cayennes along with Blushing Beauty Belles, Corno de Toro Reds or Yellows, Gypsy Hybrid and hopefully an Ariane. I want to grow a few more bells to cook with and more medium hot chiles...but I will always include a few hotties to dry into powder. I probably won't buy all my peppers at this event, but a good portion of them certainly will find a home in my little salsa garden this spring.

http://arboretum.fullerton.edu/BulletinsDetail.asp?BB=37

Winter Harvests

2006-02-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

At this time of year, I normally do not have peppers in my garden. The earth is fallow, allowing all the winter rains and sun to aid it in its rest. Due to the atypical warm temperatures this year, I still have peppers ripening in my plot. I harvested two red bells that I will use in our meals this coming week. The plant itself is not looking that great so I am considering on pulling it later this week when I do my general weeding and maintenance of the bed.

I am wondering if I'll have the time to put in that second layer of bricks in my raised bed this spring as I had planned. I was hoping to give my peppers a bit more root space and to allow for more sturdy plant supports. Now that our rains have arrived, I have less time to spend in my gardens. Demands of work are keeping me inside my art studio as well.

I also harvested a lemon from my citrus tree in the backyard. Our little eureka lemon is putting out many flowers and new green lemons and several of the larger fruits have started to ripen. This one will go on top of our salmon fillet tonight.

Treasures from the Nursery

2006-02-24T16:34:00.000-08:00

The sun was shining and the birds were singing. I felt the call of the garden and ended up gardening for most of the day. Due to the heavy rains last week, all the soil was loose and I was able to dig easily. So I moved two of my semi-dormant roses into better positions in my backyard. I had two lavender roses side by side, now one of them is next to a red rose. I also moved one rose over by a foot and this created a planting space for the rose I moved across the yard. I have spaces for three new roses this year and I managed to find three bareroot roses at the nurserys this afternoon...not an easy feat for this time of year. They are all in cardboard pots waiting to be placed in the earth.

I picked up another pink jasmine vine at the nursery today and planted it beside the trellis that I had placed next to the a/c unit last summer. As the vine grows and fills in on the iron trellis, it will create a natural living wall and block my view of the a/c unit. I want to put in another of those trellis on the other side and put in another pink jasmine. The jasmine blooms when my roses are dormant, which gives my garden a little brightness and scent during these winter days.

While at the nursery, I also picked up a few new herbs for my patio herb garden. Lemon Thyme, French Thyme, Chervil, Marjarom and Garlic Chives. They should fill one of my patio pots and it will go next to my kitchen door as usual. I have missed having fresh herbs for my kitchen, so I'm greatly looking forward to having my little patio herb garden back.

I still have peppers growing in my raised beds, amazingly enough. Two red beauty bells are ripe and ready for harvest and I still have more habaneros, piquins and tepins ripening. I believe that I will keep a few of them in pots for next year, but if I have the time next week, I will clear out my plot and start getting it ready for spring planting. There will be no pepper plants available for at least another month, but when the time comes, I want things to be ready.

Wildfire

2006-02-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

A wildfire broke out near my home and is still burning around 5 to 10 miles away. The air has been filled with smoke and your eyes burn if you go outside for any length of time. The light has a strange red cast to it, as if the entire day is that moment at sunset when the sky changes color. I've been worried for my home, but it seems that the wind has shifted and the wildfire is now headed away from where I live. The 1500 people that were evacuated from their homes have now returned. We are safe this time. Wildfires are a norm here in California, but usually they don't break out near my house!

All my roses have been pruned back to give them a dormant period. Most of my chiles are removed from their beds, except for a few that I have chosen to overwinter. There is a little color from the chinese flowering maples that I have planted, but for the most part, things are very brown and colorless.

A Final Chile Harvest for 2005

2005-12-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

Although the sky was overcast, I decided to pick the last seven pods of cayenne chiles out in my garden and put them into the dehydrator to dry. A few hours later, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. So the chiles are now properly dried and the machine is back in the garage. A good thing too, we are due for heavy rains starting tomorrow and this storm front should last several days.

I was able to show off my chile operation to a guest. My plummer was here to on fix our backyard hose bib. The new bib had to be soldered onto the copper pipe. He noticed my little dehydrator running on top of my cooler next to the kitchen door and smiled. He had to take a look at my chile garden and then told me how his mother grows chiles from seeds that she had brought from Mexico. He says that they are the most flavorful and hot chiles he has ever eaten. From what he described, they sounded like fresnos or jalapeños. Chile growing is such a pleasant hobby. It is nice to hear of others that also grow them.

Weather Delays

2005-12-28T14:25:00.000-08:00

I was planning on harvesting more of the cayenne pods today and starting them in the dehydrator, but something made me suspious of the sky. Sure enough, around noon it started to rain. I'm glad that I didn't put the machine outside after all.

So I gathered in my dog and settled her on the couch and we are in for the day. One good thing about the rain: I won't have to do any watering this week. Always a plus!

Cayenne Powder Makin'

2005-12-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

I removed the cayenne pods from my dehydrator that I dried before Christmas. Fortunately, I remembered to remove the machine from its place outside before the rain fell on Monday! I could have ruined my little $15 machine since I doubt it is waterproof.

I took these cayenne pods and the few pods that I had saved from this fall and made my first real batch of cayenne powder for the year. Some of the pods had gotten leathery. I was forced to pull out my old electric mill to do the initial grinding and then put the results into my marble mortor and pedstle for hand processing. The final product is a smooth powder of an earthen red hue that should be excellent for my cooking this winter and spring.

I have another half dozen of cayenne pods just turning red outside. There is more rain predicted, but I think that I have a few clear days that I could possibly dry more pods! I just might risk the rain tomorrow...and get a few more cayennes for my spice jar.

I also have more habaneros ripening out in my little raised bed. It is amazing to see them flourishing after Christmas has passed. I also have a few red beauty bells forming. They are all still green, but I will wait and see if they ripen to red. If they do, it will be the first bells that I will have harvested from these plants. Talk about slow starters! It will be a pleasure to enjoy them in a salad this winter if they make it.

Winter Cleanup Begins

2005-12-21T11:16:00.000-08:00

It is a bright, sunny day outside, atypical for this time of year. The temperatures are warm and it seems to be a shame to stay indoors working. Now that the Christmas rush is over for my business, I am finding my way back outside into the gardens. There is a certain pleasure to be out tending my plants and garden spaces during a time when most of the United States is dealing with storms and snow. It is one of the reasons that I love Southern California.

My pepper plants have faired well despite my seasonal neglect. The fall rains have kept the soil moist and the shelter the plants receive at the side of the house have protected them from the wind storms that have blown through our area on and off during this December. I pulled many of the pepper plants from my garden and began my winter cleanup. Mainly the bell peppers. They are still producing, but I've been so disappointed with the flavor and quality of this year's crop, that I don't want to waste more time on them. I'm leaving in the chiles since I'd like to harvest more cayenne pods and would like to overwinter a few of the more unusual chiles. Particularly, the piquin pepper. I'm debating if I want to grow the red caribbean habaneros again. They are certainly hot and make a good powder, but the flavor is not quite what I like for my cooking. I'm finding that I am missing my more familiar cayennes this year instead. I ended up giving most of my later habanero harvest to one of my neighbors. So at least the pods didn't go to waste.

I did manage to harvest a dozen cayenne pods this morning and they are busy drying in the dehydrator outside. The weather will be with me and my machine should remain dry from the elements throughout the day. I might have enough cayennes to grind up a small pot of powder for my kitchen. Next year, I will plant four cayenne plants instead of merely two.

The final step was to pull any weeds from the chile garden. There were not many, but I don't want to allow the vines to overtake my plot again. I'm still paying for that year when I neglected my gardens and let them get a foothold. Now they pop up no matter what I do.

Merry Christmas fellow Chileheads!

A Small Harvest

2005-11-21T11:46:00.000-08:00

I have not been doing much with my gardens this fall, but I suppose that is to be expected. Between being gone due to work and the weather, I tend to not worry about my gardens at this time of year. The rain provides them with moisture and my raised beds seldom have weeds, so all is usually well even with my neglect. I managed to harvest a handful of piquin peppers, three or four habaneros and one red gypsy pepper this morning. I'm going to pop the chiles onto the dehydrator this afternoon to dry overnight while the weather is clear. The gypy pepper will go into my lunch.

One of the nice things about Southern California is that your growing season is long. I can usually harvest peppers all the way until Christmas. However, I'm so busy with work that I'm considering pulling out some of the peppers early and getting my raised bed ready for its winter fallow period. I'm trying to decide if I want to overwinter a few of my pepper plants this year so that I have an early harvest of pods next spring...and don't have to worry about finding the same pepper next season. Overwintered peppers tend to not produce quite as well the second year as the first, but in the case of a few of my chiles, I think that it might be worth the effort.

Thunder Storms

2005-10-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

My gardens have been besieged by heavy rains for the past two days. For the first time that my husband and I could remember, lightning has struck the street in front of our house. The following thunder was louder than ever. We didn't worry about it. Our house is properly grounded and therefore safe. While we waited for the satellite tv to come back, I made a pot of tea and sat outside to watch nature's show.

Today in the gardens, I am witnessing my roses putting out an abundance of new canes and buds and to my delight, more bell peppers are ripening out on my plants. I have three purple bells and two red bells that should be ready for harvest shortly. While this doesn't seem like much, it is more than enough to supplement our dinners and lunches for the next two weeks. I don't grow to put food away, I grow to enjoy fresh produce in addition to what I purchase at the supermarket. I should be able to continue my limited harvesting all the way through December.

The Harvest Continues

2005-09-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

I managed to harvest a small handful of ripe cayenne and pequin peppers from my garden. There might have been one more habanero in there, but for the most part those plants seem to have fulfilled their destiny. I set up my dehydrator outside and what little I picked is now being dried. I don't think that I have enough cayennes to fill my spice jar as yet, but there seems to be a few more peppers out there so I will continue to watch and wait.

My gypsy frying pepper has set three more pods even though the plant got bent up when I recaged it two weeks ago. Of all the bells I grew this year, it is the only one that set any pods out there. I think that I will try the gypsy pepper again next year. I am hoping that it will continue to produce fresh peppers for the next month or two, but for the most part, my pepper garden is slowing down.

The Tepin Chile continues to do well and there are many tiny peppers on it. My cherry bomb seems to be developing its very first pod at long last. I don't know if I will get many pods from the cherry bomb, but I hope that there will be enough for me to do a test run of the pepper shooters that I had wanted to make. At least I will be able to know if I want to grow this pepper next year again or not if that happens.

I also potted up the parsley plant that I purchased a few days ago. In a nice thailand patterned blue and white pot. I had bought the parsley to use in my deviled egg platter for the party on Friday night, but there are still plenty of leaves and life left to the plant. We'll see how it does on my windowsil. As much as I love my patio pots, it is now fall and winter is approaching. My herbs are better off inside for the next few months.

First Rain Storm of Autumn

2005-09-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

While autumn will not be starting for a few more days officially, I feel that it has arrived here in Southern California. Early this evening, we had our first rain storm of the season after many long months of dry hot weather. The thunder and lightning alarmed my animals and my dog spent a great deal of time with her eyes scanning the ceiling as the sound of rain beat overhead. I wonder if my dog even knows what rain is? She is only two years old and hasn't experienced rain for the past four to five months. She might have forgotten what it is. I dutifully turned my computer off while the lightning hit outside, but honestly, this was not that bad of a storm. While we took out candles to be prepared, neither my husband or myself thought that we'd truly need them. Compared to what the poor people of the gulf coast have suffered, we can hardly even call this a storm.

For me, the rain is most welcome. When the rain falls, I like to make a pot of green tea and sit on my front porch settee to watch it fall. Natural entertainment at its finest. About the only drawback is that I was hoping to do another load of chiles in my dehydrator tomorrow. There are a few more cayennes and piquins ripening on the chile plants and I'd like to get them dried. I used some of my new homemade habanero powder in my soup for lunch. I'm not sure if I will grow the red caribbean habaneros again, but they do have a good heat level when it comes to using them in a powder. I thought that the soup was very good with the powder added to it.

Back Home in the Garden

2005-09-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

I've been on the road at work the last few days so it is always a pleasure to come home to my gardens. My roses have all sprouted new canes and buds. No doubt due to their recent feeding. All they needed was a little deadheading to get them back in order. My Altissimo Climbing rose has been left alone to form rosehips and I'm happy to note that the hips are turning beige and even a little red in places. Hopefully I will be able to harvest a few hips for tea infusions this late fall.

I spotted a few new ripe cayennes that I want to pick when I have my next free day. I'm determined to pick enough of them to replenish my spice pot of cayenne powder. The Tepin Chile plant is starting to come into its glory. The tiny transplant that I thought I had lost at one point, is now a 3 foot high chile plant and lots of tiny green pods are starting to form on it. They are so small, I wonder if I will get enough of them to even make a powder? I'll have to wait and see.

One of my vegetable beds was starting to be overrun with vines and grass and I had made a note to go and weed it. Today I discovered that the work had been done for me! It put a smile on my face. I guess my husband had done it to surprise me. It was thoughtful of him. When you do square foot gardening, there is not a great deal of weeding to be done in the garden...that is part of its charm! However, you still do need to go through the beds at least once a month to pull out a few volunteers. It is nice to know that I probably won't have to do any further weedings for a couple more weeks.

Manzano Chiles

2005-09-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

I was excited to discover that my local supermarket was selling a box of fresh Manzano Chiles. In Mexico, they are known as "chile apples" due to their round shape, golden color and the hard black seeds inside. The walls are very thick and juicy, reminding me of a bell pepper, but the heat from this chile is between that of a serrano and a habanero. Manzanos are related to the rocoto chile that many chileheads rave about and which has piqued my curiosity more than once. In the few recipes that I discovered that listed this chile as an alternate, it usually subbed for habanero chiles.

I used four of these unusual chiles as the base ingredient for a "Grilled Jerk Chicken" marinade. It is made with all fresh ingredients such as onions, thyme and scallions and lots of different spices. All of it was pureed together in my blender and now waits in the fridge for the chicken breasts. According to the instructions, the chicken has to marinate for a full day. I'll be popping the chicken into the marinade tomorrow morning before I leave for work.

If I find that I like these chiles, I'm going to go back to the supermarket in a few days and purchase a few of the pods for their seeds. I'll dry them and put them into my garden next spring. It is going to be an interesting experiment.

Weeding Time

2005-09-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

As I do about once every month, I spent a short amount of time weeding my pepper garden. The vines that come through the fence were poking through in places and a few had established in the good soil that I plant my peppers in. Out they went, along with a few grass weeds. This is one of the things that I really love about square foot gardening; there is hardly any weeding to be done at all.

I also pulled out one of the bell peppers that was not performing well and those four anaheim chile plants. They were healthy and putting out pods, but since I seldom use anaheims, I didn't see any point in continuing with them this year. I'd rather give the peppers that I like and that are producing more room in the garden.

I was busy with harvesting as well. A few more trays of cayennes, piquins and habaneros finished drying in the dehydrator and are now waiting to be turned to powder. I'm glad to see that my cayennes are starting to put out more pods. In time I hope to have enough cayenne powder to refill my spice jar this fall. The powder this year is a rich red and a smooth grind. I'm looking forward to using it in my cooking later in the year. I go through a great deal of cayenne powder!

Finally, a confession. I -bought- Fresno peppers from the grocery store for my breakfast. I have been missing my favorite peppers all summer. Store bought ones are not as good, but at least I'll have them once or twice this year for my cooking.

Preparing Hot Chile Oil

2005-09-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

My enthusiasm for creating my own hot chile oil was dampened over the last day or so. I posted the method and recipe that I was planning on using to both the harvest forum at gardenweb and on the hot pepper forum at MSN. I was told that to make this oil might be dangerous if I included garlic and fresh herbs. I was disappointed, but it was pointed out to me that chinese food restaurants always seem to have hot chile oil on their tables. The key in making the oil is to use dried pods -only-. Also, I've been advised to always keep the homemade oil in my refrigerator and store it only for a few months. If it will keep for at least a month or two, that is more than enough time for a small batch of oil, so the project seems feasible again.

Therefore, I am making a small test batch of hot chile oil this afternoon. I took 1/2 cup of peanut oil, heated it until it was smoking and then put in around 3 to 4 of the dried habaneros. The oil doesn't have that red color that I was expecting, but I have a different recipes that also uses paprika that probably would give me the color that I want next time. Currently, the cooked oil is cooling in the pan and I will strain it into one of the small self corking bottles I purchased at CostPlus Imports the other day. So far, it has been a fun use of my garden chiles.

Mortar and Pestle for Making Chile Powder

2005-09-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

I bought a little marble 4" mortar and pestle yesterday at Marshall's. It was very inexpensive and small enough that it won't pose a problem finding a place for it in my kitchen. Last year, when I was making my first batch of cayenne powder with pods from my garden, I used an electric coffee mill. This resulted in powder that was more a mixture of fine powder and flakes. We used the powder last year, but it was not quite what I wanted in texture.

This time, I went straight from my dehydrator to the milling process, using only the mortar and pestle. I discovered that the chiles crumbled easily and I was able to grind them into a uniform powder. The picture above is the final result of red carribean habanero powder that I made for my pantry this morning. I also ground up the five cayenne pods that I have dried and have started a fresh pot of cayenne powder. I will need many more cayenne pods to fill my bigger spice pot, but I'm glad to be rid of the older, not well ground powder and leathery pods of last year. There are more cayennes ripening out on my two chile plants, so as the next few weeks go by, I will start to refill my cayenne powder spice jar.

Processing Peppers Continues

2005-08-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

I decided to dry all the rest of my habanero chiles this morning. Not only did I finish cutting up and seeding the rest of the 47 I had harvested a few days ago, but I found around 15 more habanero chiles on the plants that were ripe. I ended up with four racks of pepper pods on my dehydrator. I also found two more cayennes and added them to the dehydrator too.

Soon I will be ready to get started with making hot chile oils. I bought a few decorative bottles that I'm going to fill and give as gifts later in the year, but most of the oil will go into small half pint mason jars for storage in my refrigerator.

I still might make some hot sauce, but since my husband is a big fan of Frank's Red Hot, perhaps we'll stick with that in our cooking and I'll use the flavored peanut and sesame oils for my stir frys.

Drying Habanero Peppers

2005-08-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

I have learned my lesson when it comes to drying habaneros and other pungent chiles in my dehydrator. I do it outside and spare my home of the intense aroma. Here, you can see my latest batch of Red Carribean Habaneros being dried for both powder and to be used as the base for hot chile oils that I will be preparing this afternoon.

Habaneros are Harvested!

2005-08-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

My Red Carribean Habaneros were harvested today. I found 47 of the firey hot pods on my two plants and there are still more green ones out there. This is the most of any kind of chile that I have produced in my garden this year. The picture is what is left after processing many of the pods for my food dehydrator. I harvested a number of tiny chilepins, 3 cayennes and a couple of yellow bells.

I made a batch of "Piri Piri Oil" which is olive oil infused with a habanero, a bay leaf and lemon zest. I also made a vinegar infusion of rosemary, garlic and one habanero cut in half. Both recipes were found in Dave DeWitt's book, "Too Many Chiles!" My chile harvest this year has been very poor overall, but I did manage to get enough habaneros to try out a few new recipes! I'm also hoping to make some garlic chile paste and hot sauce. Everything will be stored in my refridgerator since I don't have a water-bath canner as yet. Frankly, between drying and freezing, I should be fine when it comes to storeage of my upcoming harvest.

A Good Weekend Harvest

2005-08-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

After a great deal of waiting, this is my first real pepper harvest of the summer. The large peppers at the top are ripe gypsy bells. The long thin peppers are cayennes. The small oval peppers are piquins. I've never had a gypy bell or a piquin before and I'm looking forward to cooking with them later this weekend. I'm considering stuffing the gypsys either with polenta or perhaps a mixture of goat and cream cheese with bacon.

First Pepper Harvest

2005-08-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

I harvested my first Fresno pepper from the garden this morning and had it in a breakfast omelet. I have greatly missed the flavor of fresh peppers in my cooking. The fresnos are extremely large this year, at least double the size of the ones that I grew last year. I wonder if this is a different variety of fresno? The horns are so big you could stuff them!

Other peppers are starting to form and ripen. Soon there will be many more varieties to sample as the summer heat continues.

Peppers Love the Summer Weather

2005-07-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

The weather has changed from being cool all day to only being cool in the morning and then very hot in the afternoon. It is now summertime in Southern California. For now, the nights are still cool, but that is going to change shortly and it will be blazing hot all the time. There is no more rain. All the water comes from my hand or the soaker hose system that I have placed in my garden.

This is good news for my pepper plants. They are shooting up with new leaves and taller stems now that the cool weather is departing. There are many pods on all the plants now. A few are starting to turn ripe. I suspect that I will be able to sample the first of my new chiles this weekend in a breakfast omelette. I miss my Fresnos in my weekend breakfast, it will be good to have fresh chiles again.

In the mail today a refund check from the Chile Woman arrived. At least I finally have my money back for the lost chile pepper plants I ordered. I would have far rather had the chile plants. I am going to start looking around for seed starting kits and start assembling supplies for growing chiles from seed. Next January, I'm going to make the attempt to germinate peppers!

First Pepper Harvest

2005-06-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

I was making Spicy Orange Beef for dinner tonight and the recipe calls for a bell pepper. Aha, I thought. It is time to pluck the first of my bell pepper beauties from the garden and use it in the recipe. I surveyed the various pods ripening out on the plants and decided to harvest the purple beauty pepper.

It was a lovely purple color on the outside, but the flesh was still green when I cut it. Therefore, the pepper was not very sweet in the dish. However, I am pleased enough with the acquisition and look forward to more of these peppers in the future. It is still rather early in the season for harvesting, but I think that within another two weeks or so, I'm going to start having a bumper crop of sweet peppers and hot chiles.