Garden Update #26

The weather here in Mid-Missouri is starting to feel more fall-like, which I suppose shouldn't surprise any of us since it is already almost October. Man the time flies.

The garden updates are likely going to start getting shorter as in not too long, we will only reporting on the indoor winter garden. The pepper plants are trying their hardest to produce another round of peppers before seasons end, and I hope they succeed. Any peppers on the plants at this point will stay on there until they've ripened so we can save their seeds - and we also enjoy ripe, hot peppers. We have finally decided who "made the cut" and will be coming in over the winter - we will be bringing in the poblano, cayenne, jalapeno, and second year serrano. All the other plants will be "disposed of" and their pots will be put to use for the indoor container garden and, of course, next year's garden. But, I would expect that we will still have about a month of container gardening left. We're going to have to start keeping an eye on the weather to keep up on any freeze advisories that way we can bring all the plants inside if need be.

Onto the pictures. Some of them might not be so great. It is hard to get good lighting sometimes.



















Banana pepper.















A bloom on the cayenne plant. There are so many! This plant has really been prolific, we love it!















The chocolate bell pepper. This plant has really not been prolific. This is only the second pepper it produced, it only got big enough, or so it seems, to produce one pepper at a time. We will not be growing them again next year.















The New Mexican Chile. It doesn't seem to be getting any bigger, so hopefully it will start to ripen soon.















The petite bell pepper. As much as the plant has produced, it hasn't really been much in the grand scheme of things. Sure it has produced tons of peppers, tons, but they are all so small it takes a lot to really be able to cook with them. I think we'll try another variety next year.















A poblano pepper! We now have two peppers on the plant.















The regular bell peppers. The lower one is almost completely ripe, wahoo!















Serexican Chiles.




























A couple pictures of the serranos. This plant has about 6 or so chiles on it right now.

We've had a bit of progress and a little back pedaling with the indoor winter garden - nothing that can't be dealt with though. Let's start with the bad news. The mini-bells met their maker. For some reason, they never stood up, but we held out hope that with various tactics, we could coax them in to standing up. That didn't work. Then, a kitty decided to knock over the plant stand it was one, and that was the end of it. I still have some mini-bell seeds, so when space opens up in the hothouses, I will be starting those.

Our second basil and catnip plants died as well. We didn't have enough hothouse space for all four plants, so we had one of each out "in the elements" and one of each in the hothouses. Well, we know how that experiment turned out. I think we are going to get a few more containers to use as hothouses. We have quite a few things in backlog waiting to start, but don't want to rush the plants out of the hothouses.

We are still waiting to start: more mini-bells, a second round of catnip and basil, cilantro, kale, chard, and spinach (if the seeds ever arrive). We'll be starting some baby greens at the end of October, but won't need a hothouse for them. I think the basil and catnip should be ready to come out of the hothouses in a couple of weeks. We are really itching to get the chard and kale started though and we need the ability to have more than two things starting at a time. It wasn't so bad with the peppers as they weren't already in their "final" containers, they were in small containers waiting to be transplanted. When you are growing herbs and greens, you generally sow the seeds directly into the container they will be growing in. I think we just need to get a couple more containers.

In terms of progress, the wheat/barley/oat grass blend for the cats is doing quite well, so well in fact that the cats are now free to nibble on it.

The cherry bomb peppers are getting larger, and the tomatillo starts seem to be making a comeback. We put them back in the window and leaned them up against the frame and they are really looking nice, with more color and lots of new growth.

The transplanted peppers seem to be taking to their home quite well. Even the ailing jalapeno plant is showing signs of improvement. We want to wait until the plants are quite a bit larger before we introduce them to their permanent environment. We want them to be big enough to take a little bit of love from the kitties.

We transplanted the One Ball squash this weekend (which, besides going to the farmer's market, is the only thing of note I did, me and the chair hung out quite a bit) and they seem to be doing well too. They are already reaching for the top of the container to find sunlight. I had feared they would just shrivel up and die, but so far, so good. We'll see how they do.

I didn't get any pictures of the tea garden at work, I've been sick (luckily finally starting to feel a bit better), and wasn't at work on Friday. I actually hope that it is still alive, I missed work again today, so it will have been four days since the starts received water. They are quite vulnerable to dryness. I'll just have to hope they are alright, not much I can do right now.

Enough of my yammering, on to the pictures.















The beginnings of a microclimate. There will be peppers and greens flanking the squash as well, once they are big enough.















The newly transplanted One Ball Squash.















Kitty fodder.















Basil.















Catnip.




























The two cayenne plants.















Cherry bomb peppers and tomatillos.















Cherry bombs.















Tomatillos.




























The two jalapeno plants.

I will get my first installment of my monthly Unplug Yourself update tomorrow, though it may not be until the evening.

'Til next time.