Mel Barthomew Speaks at the Mission

On April 8th, I paid a visit to the San Juan Capistrano Mission where Mel Barthomew of "Square Foot Gardening" fame held a lecture beside the mission's square foot garden. Mel's gardening book has been like a bible to me in my efforts to grow chiles and other vegetables, so it was a real pleasure to get to see him in person. I got my book signed too!

The square foot garden at the mission is simply lovely. They had many examples of different vegetables growing and some neat ideas of flowers to plant in the borders. If you get a chance to visit the mission, I highly recommend going to visit their square foot garden exhibit.

No Chile Plants Available Yet!

I was back at Roger's Gardens today. It is where I purchased the herbs for my new herb garden pot. I was hoping to find the specialty hot chile plants that they said would be stocked this year. I was disappointed again. Evidently the plants were effected by the unusually cold weather we've been experiencing here in Southern California and the supplier is three weeks late. I'm to call back in a few days to see if they've arrived.

I do have a small assortment of generic chile plants. Fresnos, Cayenne, and Thai Dragon. I have one variety, Caribean Red Habanero. I will continue my search for peppers for another week, but at that point I'm calling it off and ordering from the catolog.

The Hunt for Hot Peppers

I made my pilgramage to three nurseries this morning. Two Home Depots and Armstrong's Nursery. There are more pepper seedlings out there on the shelves, but so far not the ones that I want to place into my salsa garden. The labels are very generic and I'm not sure of the varieties that are being offered.

I hit paydirt at the second Home Depot that I visited. A four pack of Fresno Peppers for only $2.00 and a single pepper labeled "Yellow Bell". I'm not sure about the bell pepper, but since I had not selected a variety of yellow bell for this year, but knew that I wanted to grow at least one, I picked it up. It was $1.50. All the plants look very healthy and well established.

I also picked up a generic fuschia. I'm not sure where I'm going to put it, but it is covered with buds and seems very healthy. I'll find a place for it! The flowers are pink and white.

So far, my little herb garden is doing fine. It is getting enough sun in its location next to my kitchen door. My dog has been leaving the plants alone. The most she's done is sniff the parsley right after I cut a few leaves for my breakfast the other day. I'm growing encouraged by this. This might be the year that I can put plants out on my patio again.

First Herb Garden of Spring 2005

I decided to drive down to Roger's Gardens to see what pepper seedlings might be available. I was happy to discover some Caribean Red Habaneros and Thai Dragons. They are waiting in their pots in a sunny and sheltered location. This is just the start of this year's collection. Hopefully, I'll be lucky and find the rest of the chiles and bell peppers that I'm seeking.

Roger's Gardens is famous for their herbs. I could not resist purchasing a few potted herbs to put together my first herb garden of the spring. The herbs are lush and have a wonderful scent. For my kitchen herb garden, I have purchased English Thyme, Flat and Curly leaf Parsley, Greek Oregano and Sage.

Last year, I had purchased what is called a "patio pot", it is a terracotta pot that is bowl shaped. I think it will be perfect for the herbs. My only fear is that my dog Libby might dig into the pot and destroy the new plants. She had a habit of doing this when she was a puppy. She is now two years old. I think it is time to put the dog to the test. I'd like to start having patio plants again!

Libby Gets in the Way

Spring is always quite beautiful here in Southern California. It was warm and breezy and there were fluffy white clouds in a cheerful blue sky. It was the perfect weather for gardening. I had purchased three bags of Miracle Gro Garden Soil and two bags of organic compost at Lowe's yesterday. Today I opened the bags and distributed them in my pepper bed. Then I took a shovel and turned all the new soil into the old dirt. I think that my soil level is about as high as the cinderblocks. This should be enough to grow my peppers. I probably should raise my bed up another cinderblock level this year, but I'm out of time and my funds are limited. I will simply make due with what I have.

While I was working, I had left the garden gate open. My dog, Libby, ran into my garden. She leaped into my pepper bed and her hind paw got caught on one of the cinderblocks. I heard a loud -yelp- and then she ran out of the garden, limping. I was very worried for my dog since I wasn't sure what had happened to her at first. I checked for snakes and spiders where she yelped, but I didn't see anything. I took my dog into the house and put her into her bed. She laid still for quite some time and her hind leg and paw were very sensitive. Canceling my plans for the morning, I stayed home and kept an eye on her. In a few hours she relaxed and slowly returned to normal. Tonight, she is her usual cheerful self...none the worse for wear. I guess she had simply banged her paw.

Spring has Arrived!

Spring has arrived. My pepper bed has laid fallow all winter long. It is now ready to have new soil added to it and pepper seedlings planted.

Visiting Local Nurseries

I drove down to the beach this morning and stopped at my two favorite sea side nurseries. Both carry larger varieties of vegetables and flowers than my local nurseries. I was looking for pepper seedlings.

I spoke to the vegetable buyer at Roger's Gardens and he said that the peppers were not coming in for another two weeks. They are planning on stocking 40 different varieties of hot chiles and sweet peppers this year! Plus, their supplier is the very same guy I was referred to by my chilehead gurus. I'm very excited. There is going to be far more to choose from than the fatalii and habaneros I was planning on getting. They had a seminar on heirloom tomatoes and hot chiles yesterday at Roger's Gardens. I am disappointed that I missed it since it was put on by Steven Goto of Goto Nurseries. This is a place that I've been referred to as an excellent source of hot chili seedlings. I need to keep up with their seminar schedule better!