Right off the bat, I’ll admit that my garden isn’t as prolific as last year. I was away on business the entire month of March and couldn’t get the seedlings started up in a good way. That, plus I got impatient and took the plastic off the hoop house a bit early. I blame the unseasonably warm spring and the subsequent pre-summer chill.
Here’s the grow list: San Marzano tomatoes, sweet basil, Cayenne peppers, eggplant, kale and ground cherries. A lot less than last year, when I over-stuffed the raised bed, in order to give everything enough space.
It feels like everything is growing slowly and under producing. The basil crop has definitely failed and I’ll be pulling out the plants soon. On the flip side, the garlic harvest was a resounding success. It seems that garlic is truly my no-fail crop. [knock on wood]
As like other gardeners, I’m learning from my mistakes and I’m going to starting most of the 2013 garden in February with plans to transplant everything into large pots. I figure that, this way, all my plants will be big and strong before going into the hoop house.
Your tomatoes look amazing. What do you do with your Cayenne peppers? I am also growing a plant this year, and I sometimes use them to spice up some dishes. I also made a pepper sauce, but I am looking for other ideas. I don’t really feel like drying them up.
I would love to see pictures of your other crops.
Hi, Babette! Honestly? I dry them whole. I’m drying them to make hot pepper flakes to sprinkle on things like pasta and pizza. We eat a lot of pizza around here. Probably not what you’re looking for, but the pepper sauce you mentioned sounds really good.
I’ll take more photos in the garden and do a post per plant :)
The weather’s been kinda weird everywhere this year. Your tomatoes look great though! :-)