Been doing some gardening lately

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I have an obsession for seeds LOL. I just placed an order on an etsy shop for a bunch of heirloom seeds. I need to start cataloging them LOL. Henry used to dig around in my garden boxes, but now he just follows me around and watches me "inspect"...like three times a day I walk around poking, prodding and digging.

I just harvested the last of my brussels sprouts. They were delicious! I am still harvesting my carrots 🥕🥕🥕

My area is not good for growing traditional garden stuff, at least not at this time of the year anyway. Its too darn hot. But I am determined! Last year I did cukes and tomatoes with various success rates. They were in boxes in partial shade. This year I planted all the stuff right out in my raised garden beds in the yard. They were a little slow going and some of them shriveled up from the intense sun. So I added shade clothes and BOOM everything took off.

My new pride and joy is my moringa tree (sssssss) LOL. I bought a starter plant from an etsy shop and they shipped a bunch of seeds with the plant. I planted 6 seeds and they are now bigger than the starter plant I bought in less than a week. What to do with 7 fast growing trees LOL. So the seeds are good for you as well as the leaves. Since I had so many seeds I decided to try one. OK, I was watching a yt video about moringa and how to grow it and use it, and the guy demonstrated eating one of the seeds because it is supposed to start out bitter, then you take a drink of water and your mouth gets sugary sweet. The bitter taste waaay outweighs any sweetness flavor you might experience, so I do not recommend it LOL. It lasted for over an hour. I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth no matter what I drank or ate. The cool thing about moringa is that is higher in protein, vitamins, etc than almost anything else on the planet. They are fast growing trees and all parts are edible. Moringa is now being planted in impoverished countries as a food source :)

Sometimes I forget that I bought seeds online, or forget what I bought them for. So I just go around plopping seeds in spots that look bare. I fully intend to have a massive garden out back, when I get around to digging up the sod. I had to take a picture and google something that popped up that I didn't have marked. Turns out to be sweet potato, which I assume came from last years experiment with growing them in a different bed. I guess my mystery plant will live to see another day.
 
I had a collection of pepper seeds but since most were superhots, I finally managed to give most away lol.

I got raised beds this year for veggies, I have mostly tomatoes and peppers but one has herbs and strawberries.

I do have pole beans and corn to go in the ground, need to get those planted soon. We have a short season due to late frost and most gardners are just now planting.

I did just plant sweet potatoes in cloth bags, not sure the season will be long enough to actually get any to produce but its worth trying.

Next year I'm trying carrots and radish, maybe kohlrabi
 
Been doing some gardening lately i added these seeds to my collection….

Peter peppers.

Look em up and tell me whatcha think :)

What do *I* think?
I think that come harvest time we should be allowed to say "eat a ****" and you will know we mean spicy...?
Too much?
Apologies.


It looks around the same 'heat' as a serrano on the Scoville scale, so that is a very usable pepper. We use serranos in place of jalepenos in recipes because we have better luck growing them, but if we could grow these, I could keep a "bag of...heh" in the freezer!
 
What do *I* think?
I think that come harvest time we should be allowed to say "eat a ****" and you will know we mean spicy...?
Too much?
Apologies.


It looks around the same 'heat' as a serrano on the Scoville scale, so that is a very usable pepper. We use serranos in place of jalepenos in recipes because we have better luck growing them, but if we could grow these, I could keep a "bag of...heh" in the freezer!
It said it has a mild heat like a sweet pepper. My friend asked me what religion they were lol
 
I would say a serrano is a mild heat! LOL
Sorry for my disinformation. I was doing the wikipedia thing and I would swear the range was above a jalepeno.

Sweet peters?
I will pass.
Gimme spicy! :D
 
I would say a serrano is a mild heat! LOL
Sorry for my disinformation. I was doing the wikipedia thing and I would swear the range was above a jalepeno.

Sweet peters?
I will pass.
Gimme spicy! :D
Serranos are generally hotter than jalapeno but jals can have a huge range of heat. I got some at a farmers market that were significantly hotter than serranos.
I'm a huge wimp with pepper spice, serranos are not mild to me lol.
I'm growing jalapeno, pepperoncini, lesya, habanada and rocoto. I aslo have a ksls but its not doing well, I don't think it will produce
 
I thought serranos were pretty mild LOL. I guess it was just the ones that I got from the store. I make a lot of tortilla soup. I usually plop a few jalapenos in it to spice it up. One day I put in a couple of serranos and it didn't have that kick. But then again these were supermarket peppers.

Right now I have growing jalapenos, tabasco, cayenne, and regular green peppers. And my peter peppers :) I had habaneros, but they succumbed to the sun before I was able to get the shade cloth up, and they were the only seeds I had. If I look for seeds now I will spend another million dollars LOL. I can't just buy one packet of seeds LOL

Oh my gosh I have a food forest going on LOL. I have a small herb garden with dill, chives, thyme, basil, and sage. Last night I bought all these seeds from etsy focusing on a medicinal herb garden. I have a perfect spot for it. And I think I will make a little step-stone walkway through it.

PEANUTS! I planted three peanut plants. I didn't do my research and I ended up buying spanish peanuts instead of the larger virginia peanuts.

Over the past couple of years and a lot of research, I have found a lot of stuff that is more native to Florida so it is easier and cheaper to grow with no fuss...so I have everglades tomatoes, cucamelons, two mango trees...one Kent and one Haden. Two papaya trees. One has about 8 papayas on it, the other one had one and it fell off. I think it had a disease. I sprayed it with copper and it seems to be doing better. If you don't know anything about papaya trees, you need male and female trees. Both of mine happen to be female, so I have to rely on my neighbors male tree and bees to pollinate. So now I keep planting various flowers that are pollinator attractors, like butterfly weed, calendula, and regular marigolds. OH, um chives, verbena, lantana. I have a gazillion frangipani sticks in pots that just started flowering, plus one established one out front.. I planted some alyssum, perennial peanut and creeping thyme in a dead zone. I think I put out too many seeds there because it is its own little forest now LOL

I have a meyer lemon tree still in a pot, which got its first two lemons the other day and they were growing big. But then Henry ate one LOL Laughing, but not laughing. An orange tree out front, that I am tired of fighting with so I might dig it up and put it out back. It gets flowers, and just had a bunch of oranges on it, but they were pathetic looking. Its not the tree I want in my front yard. I expected more...tree. It hasn't gotten big.

I have a loquat tree in a pot. Maybe I will replace my orange tree with that.

Oh, and three banana trees...
 
@Catscankim

I'm jealous of all the fruit tree you can grow. I'm in idaho so all we can have is apples, pears, plums, cherries and if the right varieties, peaches and apricots.
I have a couple apple trees and a apricot that I've been grafting on, a peach tree that is new last year and has one sad little fruit on it.
My blueberries haven't had fruit in three years so I think they are going this year. At least I can grow rhubarb.

I might have access to some hab seeds, my mom participates in a seed swap every spring and she usually ends up with a bunch of pepper seeds she will never grow. She also has at least 100 different tomato varieties and who knows how many beans. What is your heat tolerance of peppers?
 
Pepper chat!!!
We grow superhots - carolina reaper, ghost, 7 pot, scorps, etc. Dehydrate them, make chili powder - use that in recipes instead of more mundane chili powders. We also have little vials of the powder we carry on our person if/when we eat out and need spice.
Jalepenos are supposed to be around 2500-10k Scovilles and serranos 10-25k. Habanero 100-300k and red habaneroeven higher.
Serranos are our mild pepper, but if we are cooking something intending to be spicy we usually go for red habaneros (keep the homegrowns in the freezer to add to soups & stews when cooking).

I forget what the gardener half is growing this year.

Other half on our second date tried the green salsa at one of my fave CaliMex* restaurants and thought it too spicy. Told him I can not cook mild, so he got addicted to capsaicin. Sometimes spicy food helps relieve body pains, which are a way of life for me.

*If there is TexMex then I use the term "CaliMex" because it is SoCal infused Mexican food. I do not know if there is a correct term, but I am ignorant.
 
@Catscankim

I'm jealous of all the fruit tree you can grow. I'm in idaho so all we can have is apples, pears, plums, cherries and if the right varieties, peaches and apricots.
I have a couple apple trees and a apricot that I've been grafting on, a peach tree that is new last year and has one sad little fruit on it.
My blueberries haven't had fruit in three years so I think they are going this year. At least I can grow rhubarb.

I might have access to some hab seeds, my mom participates in a seed swap every spring and she usually ends up with a bunch of pepper seeds she will never grow. She also has at least 100 different tomato varieties and who knows how many beans. What is your heat tolerance of peppers?
We can't grow any of those trees here. I believe it is because they require a cold few months to go dormant before they fruit. Don't quote me on that, but I think that's what I read.

We can grow Barbados Cherries, which kind of are not real cherries. I had a small plant growing, but I forgot about it and it died.

I like spicy food, but not so spicy that you can't taste or enjoy it. I would never just eat a habanero. I use them in soups and marinades, especially when I make jerk chicken.

My former supervisor has two huge Haden mango trees. Every summer she would bring bags and bags of them. I just bought one a couple of months ago to satisfy my Haden mango craving lol. Its only 3-4 ft, and it came with tons of flowers on it. She told me to get rid of all of the flowers to allow it to grow, but I couldn't help myself so I left them. All the baby mangos fell off in a storm, but one. It is still growing and hanging on. So at least I will get one out of this year's harvest LOL. My Kent mango has yet to flower. I think this year I pruned it too late. Rest assured, my former mango dealer came through for me and dropped off a bag of them last week. Sorry for the of naming different varieties of mango. Down here it is a thing...everybody MUST know what variety they are eating lol. it probably means nothing to anybody that doesn't grow them lol.

Pepper chat!!!
We grow superhots - carolina reaper, ghost, 7 pot, scorps, etc. Dehydrate them, make chili powder - use that in recipes instead of more mundane chili powders. We also have little vials of the powder we carry on our person if/when we eat out and need spice.
Jalepenos are supposed to be around 2500-10k Scovilles and serranos 10-25k. Habanero 100-300k and red habaneroeven higher.
Serranos are our mild pepper, but if we are cooking something intending to be spicy we usually go for red habaneros (keep the homegrowns in the freezer to add to soups & stews when cooking).

I forget what the gardener half is growing this year.

Other half on our second date tried the green salsa at one of my fave CaliMex* restaurants and thought it too spicy. Told him I can not cook mild, so he got addicted to capsaicin. Sometimes spicy food helps relieve body pains, which are a way of life for me.

*If there is TexMex then I use the term "CaliMex" because it is SoCal infused Mexican food. I do not know if there is a correct term, but I am ignorant.
I don't think I have it in me to even drop one of those peppers you mentioned in a pot of soup LOL.

I intend to make hot sauce this year, which is why I got tabasco peppers. And I put cayenne powder in literally everything, so I will be making some of that this year too.

A long time ago somebody I knew used to make hot pickles. I haven't had anything like them since I left Philly, so I will be giving those a shot too.
 
@Catscankim you should look into mango hotsauce, there are facebook groups about hotsauce and mango is very popular.

I've been wanting to make pepper flakes with lemon aji but I didn't grow any this year. They are hotter than cayenne but have a nice flavor and are incredibly prolific
 
@Catscankim you should look into mango hotsauce, there are facebook groups about hotsauce and mango is very popular.

I've been wanting to make pepper flakes with lemon aji but I didn't grow any this year. They are hotter than cayenne but have a nice flavor and are incredibly prolific

I have never been able to source aji here. I use dried in some of my beans. Ooooh, I hope you can grow some next year!
I am feeling inspired now.

I don't think I have it in me to even drop one of those peppers you mentioned in a pot of soup LOL.

I intend to make hot sauce this year, which is why I got tabasco peppers. And I put cayenne powder in literally everything, so I will be making some of that this year too.

A long time ago somebody I knew used to make hot pickles. I haven't had anything like them since I left Philly, so I will be giving those a shot too.

When I make soup I make a HUGE vat. I forget how many litres my pot is, but basically I can make soup once and then we freeze 1 litre containers of it in our basement. One of soups I make that got us really into the host stuff is a southwestern sweet potato soup, which goes great with sour cream.
Remember: dairy helps cut the heat if you over do it.

And like I told the other half as he was ramping up on the capsaicin thing: the pain is finite. But what it does to your mind is like standing on forever.

This year I swore to make pickles tho.
OMDL! Pickled Peter Pickles!
 
I have never been able to source aji here. I use dried in some of my beans. Ooooh, I hope you can grow some next year!
I went ahead and bought a small aji lemon off etsy, along with a death spiral.
If I get fruit, I'd be happy to share seeds with you. Most the time, seeds make it to Canada just fine.

Are you on Facebook? If so, you should join pepper lovers, its a bunch of crazy pepperheads sharing growing tips and general love of peppers. Its really focused on superhots.
 
I went ahead and bought a small aji lemon off etsy, along with a death spiral.
If I get fruit, I'd be happy to share seeds with you. Most the time, seeds make it to Canada just fine.

Are you on Facebook? If so, you should join pepper lovers, its a bunch of crazy pepperheads sharing growing tips and general love of peppers. Its really focused on superhots.

Thank you, but I think trading seeds across borders is one of the big No-Nos (biological something something). I am not the gardener here, tho. I just make demands and lately it has been for eggplant! (Becaue baba ganoush is a way of life)
I am not on FB. I avoid being online for the most part and have serious difficulties with socialising - and the algorithms for FB can be extremely oppressive for my people, especially those as messy as me. ;)
 
Thank you, but I think trading seeds across borders is one of the big No-Nos (biological something something). I am not the gardener here, tho. I just make demands and lately it has been for eggplant! (Becaue baba ganoush is a way of life)
I am not on FB. I avoid being online for the most part and have serious difficulties with socialising - and the algorithms for FB can be extremely oppressive for my people, especially those as messy as me. ;)

Depends on which countries are trading and what kind of seeds. Peppers and tomatoes are ok for most countries. That facebook group does a lot of international trading, worse thing that happens is the seeds are confiscated and destroyed. If you change your mind, let me know
 
Depends on which countries are trading and what kind of seeds. Peppers and tomatoes are ok for most countries. That facebook group does a lot of international trading, worse thing that happens is the seeds are confiscated and destroyed. If you change your mind, let me know

I will, thank you!
 
You know what I found out recently? That I can't plant cotton. I guess because of Boll Weevils. But the law was passed in 1900 something. And it still sticks.

Ok, so my curiosity developed from soap LOL. I was looking up felting soap, which led me to look up buying cotton and wool for felting soap. Somehow on amazon, that created a lot of hits on various mills...so this got me curious and why not throw in a few cotton plants in my back yard?

This evolution of a thought prompted me to research growing cotton because I've seen it growing in georgia and the carolinas on the side of the road when driving up to philly...turns out the it is illegal to grow here because of this old law.

And as far as I have read... Boll weevils have been eradicated. But the law still sticks.
 
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