Yahoooo! Picked My First Pepper!

[Deleted]

I picked my first ripe pepper of the season today! It was a big banana pepper! Hey, this year is the first year in the past two years that my garden produced a pepper! The past two years, the garden was a total loss from the drought and heat.

I have some tomatoes that are the size of a big man's fist! (Beefmasters) Green as can be, but they are getting bigger every day! I can almost taste those FRIED GREEN TOMATOES! Yummmmm, yummmm! ;D ;D

TH

[Kathy]

Congratulations! Isn't it fun, picking those first fruits of the season?

I'm impressed, you're much farther north than me and you have tomatoes that are bigger than mine.

Enjoy those fried green tomatoes.

[Deleted]

I have a flower on one of my tomato plants, does that count?

You lucky dawg! I can't wait until I can start picking from my garden!

~Lannie

[momo]

Yummy!

That's one of the few veggies that isn't doing too well in our garden this year. No green/red/yellow peppers here yet.

[Deleted]

Ok, I will come clean and tell you my gardening secrets....I started my seeds early and this house looked like a jungle before I got them all put outside! I also had to buy and try some new types of tomato and pepper plants that I seen.

But it was my own home grown pepper plant that produced the first pepper and those big green tomatoes are on my own plants!

I put down newspapers between the plants and covered them with old straw. For some reason, it not only keeps the weeds down, but it makes them grow faster and produce more. I have been using that method for the past 30 years or more.... That part about 30 years hurts to see it in print!

The other part of the secret, is that I use tons of horse and bunny manure in the fall and dig it in by hand.....I dig a trench about a foot feep and fill it in with manure....then cover it up with the dirt I dug out of the trench. I skip about a foot and dig another trench and fill it with manure.....sort of like in strips....then I sprinkle some manure over the tops of the strips of soil that I did not dig up and let it go for the winter....come spring, it is all composted and I just dig where needed and plant.
The places in between the rows, I cover with newspaper and straw. As I live in a very sandy area, I have to conserve soil the best ways I can. This is not just sand, but what I called SUGAR SAND....it is very light in color, like beach sand and grainy....so it does not hold water for long...that is why I love using the manure, straw and newspapers!

There is no way that I am telling you about my secrets for growing strawberries YEAR AROUND.. ..hehe! One hint, is that it has to do with an old horse tank, straw, my bees and lots of manure!

TH

[Deleted]

Congrats!! You lucky bugger!
My peppers are just about 8 inches tall (the plants, not the veggies) lol

In a couple months, I'll be baskin in the yummies out there though!!

Kaza