August report

Here are my Portuguese (top) and Jalapeno pepper plants (bottom). Not a bad crop but so far, they have not been very hot. Maybe if I wait until they turn red the will hotten.

Help! a blue jay is eating my eggshells

This year I am only growing jalapeño and Portuguese peppers. I'm getting a small crop, peppers are not too hot yet, but they are still green rather than red yet. When I eat eggs for breakfast I am grinding up the eggshells and pouring them on top of the soil.

The other day I noticed that the egg shells seemed to have disappeared from the plants. I thought they must be getting absorbed into the soil with all the rain we have had. Then I noticed a blue jay from my window. Closer inspections revealed it was eating the eggshells that I had scattered across the plants. Apparently they eat them for the calcium. Things I would never had noticed had I still went to work every day. 

2018 peppers and basil

And so I am growing basil and cayenne pepper on the porch after transferring them from inside. One pepper plant and one basil plant is starting to get big, no peppers or flowers yet, and a second pepper plant is starting to climb on the fence. Judging from prior years, August is the time when I should start seeing some results on the peppers.

December peppers

Instead of throwing the peppers out, this year I brought them inside. They don't make bad houseplants. The cayenne plant produced lots of peppers, the latter one never produced a pepper but it has pretty leaves.

End of September

This plant is finally growing up, hopefully I'll get some peppers before the frost.

The Shop Rite cayenne plant has produced lots of hot quality peppers. They are more squat than the ones I've raised before. Must be a different sub-species. 

Peppers and basil late August

So here we are on August 23. I added the basil plant, also bought at Shop-Rite, from a plastic bag in the produce department. Very healthy and a standard basil flavor, nothing weird here, no essence of cinnamon or pie crust. The cayenne is thriving, the peppers are starting to turn red and are hot. My other pepper plant is doing well. Need to cull a bit more, they may do well if it gets hot again.

So how are the peppers doing

Now it's August 3 and my cayenne plant is finally coming up with some peppers. Look, there's a red one! The second pot is showing some sprouts. These peppers did not have much luck on the windowsill a few months ago. Maybe they'll do better on the porch. I threw out the bag they came in and I forgot what they are called.

Hot ShopRite cayenne peppers

I love cayenne peppers. They are traditionally used in chili and they can be grown on a balcony. I was walking through the parking lot of a Shop Rite in the Montgomery mall and a cayenne pepper plant that looked healthy drew my attention. It was sitting outside of the store and I decided to give it a home. It seems to be doing well, although so far the peppers are the size of a nail head. My Texas mother would be proud.

Editor's note. Although tempted, I brought it into the store and paid for the plant. 

Donut peaches

I wrote a cute blog on donut peaches in my Hard Times blog.

Cayenne plant 2012

This year I was lazy and only had one pot outside with two organic cayenne pepper plants grown from seed. Although they had a slow start I am finally getting some peppers. Nice flavor too.

July plants

The peppers and basil are doing well this year. You can even see some cayenne peppers if you look close.

2011 plants

This year I'm just planting cayenne peppers and basil. I thought I was planting marigolds also. Last summer I went to a fair and the Rutgers booth was giving out marigold packets from the Agricultural Extension service. Turns out when the plants germinated this spring, they turned out to basil plants. I guess the marigolds didn't make it and the basil plants were from seeds left in the pot last year. Life is full of surprises.

2010 Crop

This year I was a bit more casual with my balcony garden. I grew from seed cilantro, cayenne and jalapeno. The jalapeno peppers died in infancy, although I've grown them in the past. In the picture you can see basil (I took the seeds from last year's plant), cayenne, and some cherry tomatoes. I didn't intentionally grow cherry tomatoes but they germinated from seeds that were left in the pot last year. Like third children, the plant is an accident but it looks like it may give me some nice fall tomatoes if the squirrel doesn't get them.

So far I've used the cilantro, cayenne and basil in cooking. A neighbor thought it was cute when she caught me plucking goodies from my garden. From now on I need to wear pants when I go out there.

Farmer's market tomatoes

Here is a picture of the first commercially grown Ramapo tomatoes I have seen. I bought them at the Capital City Farmer's market on State Street in Trenton. The weekly market is an interesting admixture of state employees and locals and sells a variety of things from baked goods to perfume. It also features live music. It's over now til 2010.

As for the tomatoes, quite good, the best tomatoes I've eaten this year.

Another season

Got a few tiny tomatoes in a tub with a ripening banana. The banana's do cause the peppers and tomatoes to turn red. Hope they don't all taste like bananas. Found a good article about why gardening doesn't really save most people any money.

After a few years of vegetable gardening, next year I might try begonias or something that flowers. Perhaps a few flowers and some cayenne peppers. Flower gardening would be a novelty. Except for cactus, African violets and an aging geranium, I haven't tried it since I was a tot.

The 2009 crop

It's weird at work, I feel like I'm living in this agricultural community instead of New Jersey. Everybody is bringing in their produce from the garden and comparing notes. I've had a good year myself. Maybe it's because of the rain or maybe it's because the squirrels seem to have subsided this year, but I did well with my cayenne and anaheim peppers as well as my cherry tomatoes. The cayenne and cherry tomatoes came from seed (cheepo seeds) and the anaheim peppers came from a co worker. I'm guessing on the anaheim label but that's what they look like. They guy I got the from claims they are "Portuguese hot peppers" but I'm skeptical about that label.

In true agricultural areas people are blase about their gardens. You can tell city folks a mile away.

August 2009

Not too bad. This year I bought "Plantation" seeds for a dollar apiece at Big Lots. I bought cherry tomatoes and cayenne peppers. The cherry tomatoes are fairly large and seem to have done well. The plants are bigger than I imagined, even bigger than the Ramapo tomatoes I grew last year. The peppers didn't fair as well. Still I have already been using my meager yield for cooking. I also got a plant of indeterminate origin from a co-worker.

This year, for whatever reason, I didn't have the squirrel problem I had last year. One squirrel was hanging out in a basil pot but they don't seem to have eaten anything so far. It has been a very rainy year but the hot sun the past few days have been instrumental in ripening the cherry tomatoes. I counted about forty-five fruit so far.

2009 plants

In keeping with the theme of "hard times", I didn't buy heirloom tomatoes this year. I just went to Big Lots and bought two packets of seeds, one cherry tomatoes and one cayenne peppers. I potted them in the window and now I have potted a lucky few on the balcony. One of the tomatoes died (so I thought) so I planted another one next to it. A week later, it came back to life and now there are two rivals in the same pot. Resurrection. Better than Angels and Demons.

2009 seeds available

I just received an e mail from Rutgers. The Ramapo tomatoes are available again this year. I've decided I have too many squirrels and not enough direct sunlight to venture to grow them again this year. I'll probably grow cayenne peppers and maybe cherry tomatoes, or as a Chinese American co-worker called them, "cherry potatoes". You can find my other blogs on my profile. Happy gardening!

A new blog

I've started a new blog, Hard Times. It's getting off to a rocky start but be patient.