Peppers? Tomatoes? What kind of peppers and/or tomatoes are you growing in the garden this year?

No garden is complete without those juicy red or yellow tomatoes and wonderful peppers. I choose early varieties of tomatoes instead of the big ones like Beefsteak. This year I bought Celebrity, Roma and patio. For peppers, we have a mixture of sweet, like Big Bertha, and hot peppers such as hot salsa, jalapeño, and haberno. I got my love for hot peppers from my mother and my kids enjoy them in their food as well. The hot peppers give supper dishes that little bit of zip and color.

Way Behind the Season

This year, I didn’t get the chance to till or dig up my garden. The season got away from me and it was either too cold, or too rainy. You can’t work up the ground if it’s wet to you run the risk of rock hard earth.

The ground was wet and full of weeds. I had the decision of pulling weeds and loosing the season or just dig a hole and get things planted. I looked through the house and found some old newspapers that should have been thrown away. Somehow, I found enough for a few plants. Armed with plants, a trowel and the newspapers, I went out to the garden.

Planting Tomaotes

The tall weeds were pulled out of the ground in my planting area, and a hole was dug. For tomatoes, I dug the holes deep and placed the entire plant inside, except for the top two to four leaves.

With a jackknife, I cut an X in the papers and placed it over the tomato plant. Since the ground was already wet, I didn’t want to water the newspapers down. We have some heavy wire cages with points at the bottom. They worked perfectly because the points went through the paper to hold it in place, and the cages were ready for the tomatoes to grow.

Planting Peppers

Next I needed to plant the peppers. For them, instead of cutting an X in the paper, I cut out a small circle in the middle and placed it over the pepper plants. I was very disappointed in the haberno peppers we bought. They had no root on them. They looked nice on top. I planted them and am hoping for the best.

Peppers don’t need a cage over them, and besides I had no more. So as I planted, I wondered what else I could use to hold the papers in place. Then it came to me. In the back yard, in the rock garden were some bricks. They were in an area that I mow around. So we placed a brick on each end of the newspapers.

When the peppers and tomatoes were planted, I pulled some of the 2 foot tall weeds. I placed them over the ground, between the rows. There were so many weeds, that the weeds that were growing between the rows, disappeared.

I knew those weeds had been left for a reason. They are in an area that I can’t mow, and while the ground was moist, they were easy to pull out. Some weeds will be left, because they offer me a little privacy and if the grasshoppers come around this summer, I am hoping that they will stay in the tall weedy grass instead of entering my garden. Time will tell.