Last
night I was on a radio program and we were discussing fall gardening.
What to plant, what not to plant, when to plant and so on. During the
course of the interview, we began talking about how to protect plants in
the colder months. Without hesitation I replied "use a cold frame".
A cold frame is a great way to extend your gardening season well in to
the cooler months. It works similar to a green house, however it is
lower to the ground, which in turn, at night, will keep the warmer air
closer to the plants. It will also have a means to ventilate easily so
that if it does get warm during the day, you simply open up the
ventilation and let the heat out, which helps prevent "burning" your
plants.
Here is a great step by step instructional that I found on building your
own cold frame out of some recycled material. It's easy to build, and
if you have some basic skills, you should get this done in no time.
Here are the Step by Step instructions
I do very well here in New
Jersey growing peppers. For the past two season, I have had peppers
grow (and thrive) well into November, even after a couple of frosts also
with no cover protection.
I grow a lot of sweet peppers and some hot peppers, but as a total, I
grow a boatload of peppers. Enough to share with the neighborhood my
wife tells everyone.
With that said, I wanted to share some of my tips on peppers, that I
believe has lead me to have such great pepper harvests. Of course I
can’t control the weather in the cooler months that would do peppers
harm, I do believe that by using these tips, I am able to have my
peppers grow very hardy, and that helps out a great deal.
Your Site
As with any other fruit or vegetable plant, peppers are no different,
and that is, good peppers start with an excellent foundation. In this
case, the foundation for your peppers is the soil itself. Obviously
some might disagree and say “no, Mike, it starts with the seeds you
use”. While I do agree with that statement, that good peppers start
with seeds from a reputable company (or a friend), I am assuming that
you have already completed that step.
Before you plant your pepper transplants (or direct pepper seeds), make
sure to mix in plenty of compost. I like to do a mix of compost from my
compost pile, vermicompost from my worm bin, and seasoned livestock
manure (cow manure). I would like to add that I use so much
vermicompost that I added a worm tower this year to my yard and plan on adding another worm tower next season. They can be a bit pricey.
As a side note. If you started your peppers from seeds indoors, be sure
to harden them off, that is acclimate them to the outdoors before you
plant them in your garden bed.
Bring the Heat
Pepper plants love heat. Which bodes well for us here in New Jersey,
because around July to August, between the heat and humidity, it can
become unbearable for humans in the summer. If you live in a cooler
climate, you can always help increase the temperatures around the plant
using cold frames,
greenhouses and so on. You want to keep the temperatures for your
pepper plants above 60 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 16 degrees Celsius).
Spacing
Peppers are abundant producers when given plenty of space. You may
produce bigger or more quantities of peppers if you grow just a few,
spaced out wider. With that said, I have done well spacing them out
eight to ten inches, although one gardening friend of mine has his
spaced out further (more like 12 to 16 inches), and does great.
Care
Keep your pepper area weed free. I like to use newspaper as a weed
barrier, then place some straw on top of that. I won’t go into all of
the benefits of using straw in the garden, but in this case it further
helps keeping the weeds at bay.
Be sure that your pepper plants receive plenty of water in the early
stages and then a maintenance watering of at least 1 to 2 inches of
water weekly. Water a little more often if your conditions are
extremely dry and/or hot.
The straw we used a couple of paragraphs up also help in retaining moisture in the garden.
To build a healthier, sturdier plant, pinch off the first few flowers in
the early going. You want your pepper plants to direct their energy
towards growing the pepper plant itself, not peppers just yet. This
will pay big dividends later in the season.
Harvest and Enjoy
Once your peppers reach their full maturity, gently pluck them from the
plant making sure you don't damage the plant itself. Some people like
to use scissors to cut the stem, me I will simply pull the pepper with
one hand while holding the branch that it is on with the other hand.
Whatever works for you!
If you have been following our blog, facebook page, or our website, then you already know that we are very enthusiastic about growing vertically.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to growing vertically with many
varieties of fruits and vegetables, and herbs are no different.
Herbs grow great in containers, and this project combines the best of
both worlds, container gardening and vertical gardening. If you have
some basic tools and handy skills, then all you really need is to get
started.
Here are the Step by Step instructions
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By now you have probably seen
those inverted tomato planters. You are probably also wondering if they
really work. The answer in short is yes. So as long as you give the
tomato plant plenty of sun, water, and room for their roots to grow, it
will work.
However, did you also know that you can build your own upside down
planter with some basic material and of course a tomato plant? Well,
you can. Here is a great step by step instructional to do just that.
If you are short on garden space, but have a lot of hanging space, then
this is yet another tool for you to use to expand what you can grow, by
utilizing vertical area you may not have thought you had.
Here are the Step by Step instructions
