Peppers, A guide to cultivation.

Peppers, Peppers, Peppers!!

     Hello again friends, another beautiful summer day and all I can think about are peppers. Here in the high desert, during June and July I always cover my crop to lower the ambient temperature as much as possible whilst also preventing sun burns on my potential crop. This time-frame is particularly important for any plant because if you don't watch the stress levels they are under outside in the hot sun it will totally result in a poor harvest the following seasons, which isn't worth the wasted effort in my opinion.

 (Chocolate Jalapeno Peppers, 8 weeks from plant to harvest)

     To get a bountiful harvest like you see here, takes a lot of patience and not so much pruning. So key thing for plants during the summer here is to NOT prune anything. Reason being that the extra foliage will protect your potential crop from the sun. Trust me you want the extra foliage, it'll save you the hassle and stress over freaking out about the state of the plant.

 (Poblano Peppers, 9 weeks from plant to harvest)

     As you can see in this photo, some of the plants were not covered during those hot months. Leaves quite the ugly burn on your crop which isn't a great thing especially if you are planning on sharing/selling your crop to friends and local foodies. Not only did the burn cause cosmetic damage to the crop but it also added more stress to the plant and the result was a less bountiful crop than what was projected. I could of gotten more peppers from the plant if I just provided it with some shade. Most vegetable plants will stop fruiting at about 95 F/ 35 C just because it is too hot for the plant to produce viable flowers that will hold above that temperature.

(Pepper Mix; Cayenne, Pepperoncini, Thai Dragon, Green Habanero)

     These pepper plants were covered, and I had an extremely bountiful harvest. 5 full bags of peppers that had to be given away in the long run. But that's the point of gardening, to bring joy to you and those around you with an organic crop that you couldn't get at your everyday market. So, please to save yourself the trouble and to reward yourself with a more bountiful crop to keep the gardening alive in your soul, treat your plants with the utmost respect and positivity. Your plants will recognize it and provide you with more than you need. 

     Again friends, feel free to contact me with any questions and concerns regarding anything for plants, and I will of course reply. Till next time...

Happy Gardening!

Farmer Jeff

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Indoor Garden Solo Cup Update: End of Week 3

Indoor Organically Grown Herbs, Tomatoes and Peppers

    Yet another week has passed us by and my indoor organic garden is looking greener by the day. All this growth is just making me excited to start getting on the ball with my outdoor organic spring garden. I will soon be thinning out and transplanting my peppers and tomatoes so they can all have enough space to grow correctly instead of being crammed together in one cup.

Organically Grown Garlic Chives, Christmas Basil, Italian Oregano, German Thyme, Common Sage, and Giant Italian Parsley

    You wouldn't believe how pungent these herbs are, it is quite ridiculous to say the least. My Garlic Chives aren't propagating as quickly as I would like them to, but patience is what gardening is all about. Considering how fast all of these herbs are growing, I would say that maybe in about three to four weeks from now these plants will have an amazing root system developed in these Solo Cups. I am going to be planting these on the outskirts of my raised garden beds to promote bees to come to my wonderful garden.

Organically Grown Carnival, Italian Pepperoncini, Giant Yellow Monster, and Early Jalapeno Peppers 

    These peppers are going to be quite the treat once I am able to harvest from them. I chose a diversity of colors and heat so that I have a variety of uses for them. Each pepper will mature at different times, which makes harvesting at different intervals key. Sometimes I let my peppers sun-dry on fishing line and crush them for later as a spice or use them for organic garden bug spray. (Only if it is a hot pepper)

Organically Grown Blue Beauty, Roman, Bloody Butcher, Super Italian Paste Tomatoes

     You barely see any vegetable gardens without tomato plants, they are a key staple. We use tomatoes to a variety of culinary uses with recipes from all around the world. Some of these tomatoes are different colors and sizes. I love growing "paste" size and cherry sized tomatoes, they make an ideal snack. These guys will be transplanted outside once they reach about two feet in height. Once spring comes, be on the look out! You'll see my tomato plants grow four times their original size!

    Well that is it for this update friends! Thank you for staying with me through my grow-log and my plants wonderful maturing journey. Hope it has been as much fun for you as it is fun for me. Until next time friends....

Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!

HyperSmash

Fall Mini Garden Update

Wow! My garden has been looking beautiful! Everything producing looks so vibrant and amazingly delicious! Look at my Santa Fe Pepper turn red, and more hot compared to the green variety. This would be a nice choice to use in guacamole, it has the right heat without overpowering the avocado and just enough to not make you tear or grab for your closest drink.

As I said, these are the milder version of the Santa Fe Pepper. I use these in my Ramen constantly, or I caramelize them with onions and eat that with sausage. These peppers are extremely easy to grow, all you need is; porous soil, manure, compost, and some care. It is probably the easiest plant I deal with.

The Thai Chili Pepper is a beautiful plant, but is extremely hot! I use gloves when I harvest off the plant or maintain it. I touched my eyes once after dealing with it, and I ended up pouring milk on my eyes and complaining constantly for about an hour straight. I use one chili pepper for salsa, if I used two I'd be screaming.

 My Thyme; completely common, it's found in woods up north of Nevada and other woodland areas. This thyme smells so great and can be used on anything pretty much. It's currently being populated in a new area of the garden so that's why it's not as clustered as before!

My French Pumpkins! These I planted hopefully in time for Christmas! I love pumpkin cookies, cakes, pies, shakes, teas, and bread! All of those things can be made from a fresh pumpkin as well. I get a nice crop and a beautiful plant to stare at until the crop comes. It's a complete win-win scenario. I'll keep you all updated about this specific plant until it's bountiful.

The Bloody Butcher Tomato, which is so-called because once you slice into one the juices flow out more than usual. This tomato is extremely flavourful and awesome in a grilled cheese, I promise you that! It takes about 80 days from flowering to get the full flavour and nutrient value from the fruit, but it's totally worth it. The plants kind of purple due to the fact of a colder climate.

Mexican Sage, how beautiful is that?! Just take a second and gaze at this picture, that's nature friends. Those buds slowly mature and dry into the sage we all use in our recipes. That process takes about 55 days to get really decent sized petals and you can dry them out in your oven on the lowest setting, just keep an eye on it time varies with altitude. Or you can let it dry by itself on the plant, then harvest when needed. So friends, that was fun going through my garden yet again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Until next time, Keep it Green and Keep it Growing! Ciao!!






HyperSmash

Harvesting Carrots, Leeks, Peppers, and Red Onions!!

I had the awesome ability to pick some crop from the garden that had looked good enough to eat. So I decided to take some pictures to savor the miniature harvest. I felt like pulling some carrots out so we could roast them later. I asked my fiancee to come out there with me and pick some of the crop she liked as well. My first choice to harvest was this big guy you see right here, it's actually a yellow carrot. This particular carrot was fairly enormous considering the space I gave it to grow was under the recommended space between seeds. I was thrilled to see this size of a carrot coming from my garden, I felt proud!

My fiancee went to go pull the white carrot and the other two carrots came up with it, the orange and yellow one. They all smelled fresh and delicious, so we decided to roast these carrots as well at a later time. And I still have around a dozen carrots that will be hopefully done by Thanksgiving. I planted my carrots specifically so they could of been harvested for Thanksgiving and I hope that I was correct!

After picking some alliums' that were too close growing to another crop, I then pick two nice looking bell peppers that were on the mild spice side. The onions are Red Torpedo Onions, the leek is an English Leek, my peppers were Fajita Peppers, and the carrots were Rainbow Heirloom. I then cleaned these fine looking crop so I could freeze them for later use. Growing your own food is completely rewarding and nutritious for you. You will feel accomplished after growing and eating your food. If you have children, this will also be a fun activity to do with them. Let them learn where and how their food source is coming to them. Your children will be completely fascinated with the concept of fresh food, just like you will too!  Until next time fellow gardeners, Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!
HyperSmash

Man oh man! It's looking good!!

Hey guys! It's been quite a buy past week! I had my nine year anniversary with the love of my life and had a freak bit of thunderstorms hitting the Las Vegas valley. My anniversary was wonderful, but my garden didn't like the wind that came with the storms we had. I'm going to share with you guys a few photos of how far certain plants are progressing through this weird weather. Enjoy :) !!

Here's my straight-neck yellow zucchini squash that just formed the morning after another weird Las Vegas storm. 

 I picked this guy off the plant because it turned just the right shade of pink. I learned how to tell when it's ready for harvest through trial an error, lots of error. That's how we learn and improve :). 

These spicy boys are a real treat. They're called Santa Fe Peppers and get a real kick to them once they change to a red like you see here. If you are a fan of spicy peppers. I'd say give this one a go! 

Some beautiful Italian heirloom Roma tomatoes. What can I say? These are super flavourful and provide just the right amount of acidity to sauces, soups, and salads. 

This Cubanelle Pepper is one extreme eye-candy. I mean wow! Not only is it a mild sweet pepper. It's an awesome pepper for gourmet plating. Does quite well in the desert dry climate!  

Pimentos' are my top Five Spicy Peppers to grow. They are gorgeous and dreadful at the same time. Why did I say dreadful? Well, it's a super spicy pepper when matured, and with the ribs left in it. Watch out!

 It's an amazing thing to grow your own food. It has more flavour than the average market and more nutrients in them! Thanks for reading and enjoying these beautiful bountiful plants. Until next, keep it green and keep it growing. 

HyperSmash

Morning after the storm in the Garden

      Man oh man! That storm was nuts last night! We had high winds with loads of thunder and lightning. It rained quite a bit and I'm quite certain that my garden was happy to receive Mother Nature's bountiful blessing. Plus, it was a pretty cool light show!

So I decided to check the garden pretty early to see how everything was looking, and of course there were some bugs. (But that is fairly typical with any morning after a big storm.) Everything in the garden looks amazing. I decided to take some pictures to share with you guys!

¤ Eight Ball Zucchini Squash : I love eating and growing this squash because its just so easy and flavorful. The crop grows as a little ball at the end of the flower. In the desert it usually takes 25-30 days to produce these flowers. I didn't have any problems pollinating them because of my garden ants and the garden bees that fly by to snack in my garden.

¤ Hungarian Wax Peppers: This is by far my most pepper producing plant in this year's run. I've harvested about 5 times and as you can see here, it's still producing. Lovely colors aren't they? ☻

¤ Italian Batavian Full Heart Escarole: What can I say? I'm Maltese! I grew up eating specific Italian greens because that's what my Mothers' side of the family ate on a daily basis. Plus, it's total eye candy! ♥

¤ Italian Rosalita Greens: Yet again, another Italian green. I love my greens. I love Italian things. ☻ Look at how pretty those leaves are. They get a bitter note once they mature about 2 or 3 more inches from this size.

¤ Waltham Butternut Squash: Another Winter Squash I'm starting in Summer! I'm crazy right?! I love the way this squash looks and the taste of the crop. It's just a Fall/Winter classic for any cold night. I'll eat these roasted over a fire or baked in the oven. Completely sublime!

Thank you guys for following and taking the time to appreciate my garden as much as I do. Nothing can be better for you than home-grown food. Especially food that you grew or food you and your family grew together! Until next time friends, Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!!

¤ BYE!! ¤

HyperSmash

Garden Summer Update!!!

              Hey guys! I'm giving you a glimpse into my place of peace, my Desert Garden! I haven't done an update for a while and I felt like I needed to show you what has been thriving!! First off I'd like to say it's awesome to grow my own food. I get the tastiest, freshest food....about 15 feet from my kitchen backdoor! Who could resist that?! Anyways here's some shots of what is doing amazing in this crazy 104 F + heat!

¤ These are my Chocolate Cherry Peppers. They are sweet and I cook them up completely whole. They are completely addictive and delicious.

¤ These are Fajita Bell Peppers, and yes they have a slight kick to them!

¤ Here are my Heirloom Italian Roma Tomatoes. These tomatoes taste like no Roma tomato I've bought at any market. Completely sweet and not that acidic.

¤ Yea that's right! I'm starting my Winter squash run...in July! Why you ask? Well Winter Squash do extremely well with the heat but not with the sun. SO... I decided to try out a theory of giving my winter squash complete shade and seeing if it still produces as much as it would grown the normal way.

¤ Of course I had to show you guys some beautiful flowers! Specifically my watermelon flowers. So you guys know watermelons LOVE the heat. You have more of a chance of getting fruit in a place that has heat for about 2 months or so.

Man oh Man!! I'm so excited to cut into this watermelon. Unfortunately, one of my fruits cracked due to the constant sun so I gave them more shade than before. But, I got to smell the inside of the cracked fruit and WOW! It's so sweet and actually made my mouth water. lol

Well, that's it for this mini update guys! I hope you like whats growing cause I know it's all looking pretty! Thanks for watching and reading my channels, blogs and vlogs. As always, grow some food for yourself! It's super rewarding and satisfying! Until next time guys!

Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!

¤ BYE!! ¤

HyperSmash

First Garden Update!

Hey guys!
I'm gonna show you some of the stuff I was growing in direct sun! I got several fruit and veggies, some greens and even herbs that just love the sun up until the end of June beginning of July. First I'll show you a mini video tour of my garden. Then, I'll list what I'm growing in no particular order.


¤ Here's a list of what I'm growing organically ¤
-Lemon Thyme (Herb)
-Sage (Herb)
-Tuscon Rosemary (Herb)
-Thai Basil (Herb)
-Sweet Marjoram (Herb)
-Sweet Basil (Herb)
-Lemon Basil (Herb)
-Greek Oregano (Herb)
-Sugar Baby (Watermelon)
-Honeydew
-Cantaloupe
-Italian Torpedo (Onion)
-Cippolina (Onion)
-Rocket (Arugula)
-Roman Wild (Arugula)
-Black Seeded Simpson (Greens)
-Caesar Romaine (Greens)
-Carrots
-Spinach
-Red Russian (Kale)
-Vivian (Greens)
-Yellow Bell (Pepper)
-Green Bell (Pepper)
-Red Bell (Pepper)
-Sweet Banana (Pepper)
-Pimento (Pepper)
-Cubanelle (Pepper)
-Hungarian Wax (Pepper)
-Santa Fe (Pepper)
-Roma (Tomato)
-Brandywine (Tomato)
-Hawaiian (Tomato)
-German (Tomato)
-Yellow Pear (Tomato)
-Purple Cherokee (Tomato)
-Green Zebra (Tomato)
-Beefmaster (Tomato)
-Super Sweet 100 (Tomato)
-Italian Heirloom (Tomato)
-Heirloom (Tomato)

Thanks for watching and reading again guys! Remember we can change everything if we just each grow one plant or start a small garden anywhere! We can change people! Until next time.... Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!


¤ BYE!! ¤


HyperSmash

Update on the Garden, Mini Harvest July 9th 2013

      Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of update on here. I'm going to be working harder on updating more. I had to deal with a little heat wave in my area that pretty much killed the majority of plants I had in pots growing in the garden. The main thing I forgot, SHADE! I'll talk about that in another blog or video. Anyways, I wanted to show you some of the crop I was able to save before the plants completely died :(.

Here's some photos:

My Super Sweet 100 Tomatoes.

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomatoes

Purple Cherokee Tomatoes

Hungarian Yellow Wax Peppers

Follow me on Instagram (http://instagram.com/ourdesertgarden) for more daily pictures from the garden! Remember, always try to grow new things! Even different types of foods you already know! Be adventurous! Take a bite out of something grown yourself. Until next time, Keep it Green and Keep it Growing! 

HyperSmash