So earlier this year I traded some flower seeds to a lady who had tobasco pepper seeds. My family loves a good spicey pepper and I've never grown tobasco pepper plants before so this year we decided to grow them. We were excited to get them and I put them in the greenhouse to get a good start before tempering them to the garden space.
Tucked those cute wittle plant in with some short marigolds and off they go.Wooooo! so excited to get this plant rolling. Well, the marigolds did just fine and all the other peppers did great.. did we get tobasco pepper? um.. no.
What we did get has confused me and I've spent so much time searching to no avail. What the heck is it? the bloom has the shape of a petunia but surely it's not petunia? But the silly thing has bloomed all summer long. The current bloom dies off and within days there's another set bright and pretty.
Was out there looking at it and checking it for the fall season and now I'm finding fat black seed pods just waiting for me to pick them. They are about the size of peppercorns. So I managed to bust one open. the inside was white. So now the search on growing peppercorn to see if it matches.
What do ya'll think?
Was at the store the other day and while waiting to check out, I hear a lady make a statement that gardening was easy. I giggled to myself and of course my brain went to town on all the work we have done in the garden this year. One would think I would be a size 7 by now but that's going to happen like gardening being easy!
First there was seed starting in Feb. Checking every day on the conditions of the greenhouse no matter how cold it got outside. Still had to make the walk out there and do the work. Making sure it was warm enough, do they have enough water and checking on any growth at all. That's when it all started. Not counting the prep time of sorting seeds, what did we want to plan on eating and what did we have space for.
Then when those got going, it really was a daily task of work. But then it warmed up and we could ease up on greenhouse guard duty but now turned our attention to the low hoops and adding more raised beds. They weren't hard to make or expensive but it's still cold outside. Got those up and let them sit several days to warm up the soil. Then like new parents to their first child, checking temps before moving them to low hoops.
Then the additions came into play. Lots of them, for us anyway. Then realizing my dogs loved my raised beds so up went a fence and entry with a gate.
then of course the planting and watering and mulching and doing what every gardener does in the beginning. It has become a daily routine to walk the garden and see the results and progress of plants. Harvesting lettuce in March was a pleasure but the work it took was far from easy. I wish that lady would have come by every day to help out.
So now it's July and it hasn't let up. Now it's weeding and guiding cucumbers to climb the trellis. Leading yard long beans to follow the pole rather then latching onto the tomatoes nearby. Staking indeterminate tomatoes so they can grow taller then me and produce a bounty of tomatoes. Picking up several cases of quart jars because when they all come in we will be in the kitchen for hours.
The zucchini have already put us to work. Why does no one want zucchini? only 2 people wanted it but ohhhhh if we make zucchini bread they will take that!! ohhh if we do the work of baking you'll take it but not the base of the bread itself! makes me mad sometimes! chicken little comes to mind.
we have put away about 25 loaves of zucchini bread so far this season. given 4 loaves away to those who actually helped us out. We only put in 3 plants and they have produced an overload of zucchini. several of them I let go really large and harvested seed from it. I don't plant on putting it in next season because I have enough bread for several years. But the seed will go to the exchange.
Now the lettuce needs to be taken out and the seeds hung up to dry out. now we have empty space for fall planting.. yep, gardening is sooo easy. Apparently this woman has no clue what she's talking about. We have been busy since Feb and the year is not over yet and I'm already tired. But I love it! Not to mention the flower beds. that's a whole nother story right there! Wonder if that lady even knows to water plants when there's no rain!? probably not.
Planted some seeds in my garden this year. They were labeled tobasco pepper. We love peppers. Love the kick and the spice and even have a Carolina Reaper growing in the garden. Don't plan on eating those peppers but have them drying so they can hang in my kitchen! But, these seeds! Have never grown tobasco peppers before but doing some research and reading shows me a plant that looks just like this except there are peppers instead of flowers. So, for those who have grown this plant before.. are peppers going to replace all those flowers or is this just a flowering bush that looks like tobasco pepper?
here's some pics of the garden. everything is doing well except the beans. put in 20 plants we started in the greenhouse but less then a handful have made it. Bee balm struggled this year as well for us. I did place them in the garden beds to pull in pollinators so hopefully they anchored enough to come back in the spring.
this is from the back corner of the garden area.
cushaw squash
Lettuce seeds in the making
volunteer tomato plants. who doesn't love those! have actually harvested some already and they turned up as large yellow ones. they were delicious as well. We ended up with 7 volunteer tomatoes this season.
I simply love this plant. Yes, they seed like crazy and spread if you let them go unattended. But seriously, how can you not love a burst of this kinda color!?
Have had this plant for several years now and I'll never be at a loss for seed. It stands there as pretty as it can be and the bees and butterflies flock to it for a feast.
In zone 6a and it just keeps coming back year after year from the seeds I miss.
think I will add it to a few more places so it can shine like everything else does!
I do have seeds for it. prefer to trade rather then sell.
been quite awhile since I have posted. Life gets insane at times and still we press on.
But the garden has done quite a bit of changing. We got it all fenced in since my dogs were causing a serious problem. Although they kill the moles, digging in my garden beds was not the way to do it! Got the arbor with a gate in place and I have to say I love that! Made a bean arbor out of honeysuckle vines and placed a hummingbird feeder there. Hope with all this rain the beans take off soon.
we used low hoops on two of the raised beds this season. first time using them but I will say we will do it again. Planted several types of lettuce, kale and spinach and they are all doing well.
but flowers are doing super. Have been visiting the Berns Nursery locally here to our area. I've seen it for years but never stopped in. They had a sale on for flats of annuals and well we went and loaded up. Yes, annuals will die with our frost but the trays! they are deeper and larger then what we picked up at the store. would like to find these trays to purchase. might have to contact Berns to find that out.
but on a good note.. simply loving the clearance Clematis plants. there's 4 plants we picked up for $5 and it appears we have two different kinds. there was no id tag on the pot other then it stating Clematis. but at the price, I can't pass up the plant.
there's many more in the flower beds but I'll save those for another post.
