Caging the Peppers

Finally having a day off from work, I decided to put in a little work into my pepper garden this morning. First, I went down the row and weeded all the grass and vines that had sprung up. There wasn't much, but it needs to be done. While I did remove weeds from the cinderblocks, I decided to not weed the gravel path today. Next I planted the Red Beauty Bell that I picked up at Roger's Gardens last week at the end of the row.

Once the new pepper was planted, I used the soaker hose system to water the bed and used my watering can to make sure the new pepper got additional water to reduce transplant shock. Many of my peppers are starting to produce pods. The above photo is of my gypsy pepper and yellow bell. This is my first time of growing both varieties. I hear the gypsy is a good frying pepper. It seems to be producing many pods even this early in the season. The yellow bell pod is getting large and seems crisp and firm. It is still green, so I'm waiting to see what the final color will be.

Once everything was watered, I took out a few of my old tomato cages and put them around the bell pepper plants. I probably should have done this earlier, but the plants are still small enough to put in the cages. I'm not sure if they will provide enough support since I had toppling problems with them last year, but it is what I have on hand so they will have to do.

I got an email from the Chile Woman this morning concerning my order of pepper plants. Since the second box she sent never arrived, we both agreed that sending a third box would not be a good idea. She is going to send me a refund for the plants and investigate alternative shipping methods to my area. Obviously, there is something wrong with FedEx sending here when it comes to live plants! I am very disappointed by the loss of the plants, but it is simply too late in the growing season to attempt seedlings. What I have is going to have to do for this year.