Spring has Sprung

It is hard to believe that parts of the country are deep in winter and cold, snowy weather. It should be near 80 degrees here today again and I ordered a few new seeds for this summer’s garden. Over the past few months there has been discussion of what to grow. What didn’t work so well. What likely didn’t work well because of the extremely hot and dry (even by our standards) June last year. And, what can we readily buy at the farmers’ market.

The red onion seeds are busy growing bigger everyday. I am hoping there are enough to replace the bunching onions I have grown in the past. These are the same red onions I grew last year. They will be moved to a sunnier spot in the garden to, hopefully, encourage more growth than last year.

I have also started the habanero, serrano, and some new ghost pepper seeds. Most of them have sprouted. These varieties seem to be the hot peppers of choice around here. I am also hoping to be able to transplant a few of the pepper plants I brought down from the garden last fall and have been growing around my house all winter.

Tomatoes have been hard to narrow down for this summer. Last year was so hard on them it is difficult to get a good sense of what varieties should do well and what varieties just can’t take the high mountain desert. The only tomato I am adding is a Striped German. This is a bi-color variety (gold and red) that should be smaller than the Arkansas Marvel I grew last year. While the Arkansas Marvel tastes great, they grew 2 -3 times as large as anticipated. Most of them were near 1.5 pounds – which is a very large tomato.

The other big change is that I am swapping a miniature bell pepper and an Italian frying pepper for the Anaheim and Poblano peppers I grew last year. While those two varieties did fine, one of the growers at the market grows great, meaty chile peppers and I can steal that space in the garden for varieties I cannot buy. One of the trade-offs of having a small garden.

Although the rest of the garden space has not been finalized yet, it should closely resemble last year’s garden. We will hope for a more hospitable early summer so the tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos can set lots of fruit for an earlier and more abundant harvest.