Peppers in the Ground … and then Frost

A week in recap seems to be how things are going these days. When the garden calls, I must answer, and the story must be written later. 

This week was warm enough and the peppers had hardened off enough to put them into the ground. I looked at one long term forecast and it said dips to 1 degree but another said nothing below 7. I chanced it on the 7. You will see I was wrong. 

When apple blossoms fall - or, are frosted and blown down by galeforce stormwinds.

Monday we planted out the Amish Pimento and Poblano peppers. 

I planted some of the Queen Sofia marigolds in the fronts of the beds. 

I didn’t have enough Amish Pimento to fill the space so I may plant some cosmos or something in the square left over. 

The borage has self-seeded in that bed so I may let some of it grow up to attract the bees. As long as it doesn’t take over like last year when it smothered my Golden Scallopini Pattypan squash. 

Tuesday the Black Hungarian peppers went in. I didn’t quite have enough after I had planted the early ones in big pots for the numbers I needed in the ground so I filled in the holes with Empress of India Nasturtiums and Queen Sofia Marigolds. 

I also had grown some Black Beauty eggplants just for fun and found a space to put them in. 

The Mexican Sour Gherkins were planted around the gazebo frame, after being thoroughly hardened off this year. 

And the Golden Scallopini squash were direct sown into their bed. I cannot wait to eat them again! So delicious!!!

Wednesday we had rain and I sowed some Sadies Horse and Sunset Runner beans around the gazebo frame on the east side of the house. 

I moved Josh’s Baco Noir grape vine to the front corner of the gazebo to get it some more sunshine so hopefully it will grow bigger and better this year. I made sure the beans were far enough back so that as they grew the beans and the grape vine shouldn’t compete. I also gave the grape vine a bit of a prune so there’s only one leader. Hopefully that was right. I really should research these things before I get to pruning. 

Thursday. I had placed the Verbena bonariensis in the fridge to cold stratify for 2 weeks so today I finally took them out to let them germinate. We’ll see how many we get. I did follow the instructions but sometimes things just don’t take. 

We also started putting in some cedar posts around the remaining tomatoes that we didn’t trellis using the cattle panels. We’re going to use slats or string to make side rails that they can support themselves on. The Pruden’s Purple is a beefsteak, but can grow quite tall so it will need good strong support to not topple or crack branches and stems. 

Friday through Sunday - The cold snap. Yes, my friends, it did happen. We had frost for three consecutive nights. 

After the first frost that I didn’t even notice - thank you Instagram algorithm that doesn’t show you things on the day that they’re posted but days later otherwise I could have heeded Rural Roots frost warning - most of the plants looked alright. 

The eggplants and Amish Pimento really don’t like cold so they were a bit droopy but not awful. 

Saturday the beans started poking their heads out and I was prepared so we covered the peppers and eggplants. 

Poor Tosca’s eggs that she sat on so faithfully didn’t hatch, I think it had something to do with the mid-sitting squabble involving Blanche, so I took them away and gave her some new ones. Fun with primma donna chickens. 

Unfortunately after the late frosts rolled through quite a few of the plants looked sad. We’ll definitely need to replace some, fortunately we have extras of most things. And for the ones we don’t - c’est la guerre. 

Next year maybe I should listen to that other weather report.