Summertime Weeding

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.