small peppers

I wondered why my bell peppers were so small.

Just read Dan Gill:
Every home gardener who grows bell peppers complains about the size. There's not much I can tell you to do. The beautiful peppers you see in the supermarket were not grown locally. Really, all you can do is provide the best care you can -- which you and your neighbor have been doing. When selecting what varieties to grow, look for bell peppers that produce unusually large fruit. An example would be Big Bertha. Since you will not reliably be able to find large-fruited varieties at the local nurseries, you may have to order seeds and grow transplants yourself. One other important point: Bell peppers are always small from mid-June to October because of the extreme heat here. Our largest bell peppers are harvested in May and early June and in October, November and early December.

But since my goal isn't to stuff them, doesn't matter to me - small is just fine!

By the way, if you don't grow them yourself, bell peppers are one of those things most important to buy organic because they're one of five vegetables most likely to expose us to pesticides. (The others are celery, kale, lettuce, and carrots - all very easy to grow organically in New Orleans!)

vermiculture

I made a bin with directions from here.

I found a young fellow in Gentilly with worms to sell from Craigslist (he's still in my phone as "worm guy"). I think I bought about 250 worms from him (though I think it was less - I just got tired of him searching & counting them); maybe it was only 100.

That was back in April. Now into August, there is some indication of castings (falling out the holes on the bottom, and when I put more food in) but they're nowhere near ready to move to a new bin.

When I first set up the bin, I had it outside and was quite happy with that until my landlord's handyman, not knowing what it was, moved it into direct sun and used it as a sawhorse. Lots of cutting and hammering on it. Poor worms. When I finally arrived home and saw the situation, I grabbed them to bring inside - opening the lid, it was really hot inside there. They didn't all die though.

I read not to put onions in, and to chop things finely. I put some whole half-egg shells in because I read baby worms like that shelter. Otherwise, only vegetable matter and no oil.

The worm bin cannot keep up with all my kitchen waste - I am only one person, but I do have a lot of vegetables in my life - so I still have a compost pile outside. I think that at a couple times I overwhelmed them and the population died back while the food rotted. I was recently gone for three weeks, and before I left I chopped up four large cucumbers that overgrew in the garden, with seeds and all, and threw that in. When I got back, the seeds had sprouted (!) but there was a very healthy worm population in there, though when I took off the lid about four worms were near the top - trying to escape? I threw a big layer of ripped, dry newspaper over the top and it soaked up the excess moisture. I just added a bunch of cantaloupe peelings which I didn't chop up, so I'll be curious how they handle that.

So, overall: it takes a lot longer than I expected to create the rich compost, and the worms are kind of picky but do best with neglect. It's too hot outside most the year here for the bin to stay out there because the plastic bin just really holds in the heat. It takes up more room than I would like it to in my house. But, if I can stick with it, once I move to a new house I'll be darned excited to have this great stuff to build up the soil.

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Today I went to put some cilantro in the bin, opened it, and there was a cockroach.

The bin is outside now and will stay there. I'm sorry, little worms, for the extreme heat, but you partied with the wrong crowd and now you're all evicted.

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1/22/10
We had some bitter cold here a few weeks back, so I did bring the bin in until it warmed up. I can't seem to find an authoritative source on exactly how cold the worms can take it, but if it's not warming up about 55 or if it's getting into the low 30's, it's probably good to keep it inside. They survived and I've seen quite a few in there when I've added food - but they haven't been keeping up with all the food waste I have (and no citrus or onions or garlic for them), and it's nowhere near ready to harvest. Nine months now? I must be doing something wrong, as I thought these were advertised as creating garden-ready castings in a few months - perhaps keeping outside? But, they are still living and that counts for something! Perhaps I just need to slow down my expectations.

okra

Okra has been the most wonderful of surprises here. It thrives in this heat & humidity which wipe out most other plants, and it shrugs off all pests and problems with a special grace. Last year winds from Gustav and then Ike knocked the okra over - but when I just picked them up and staked them down (stakes at either end of the row and rope between), then kept on producing well into October. I had so much okra I didn't know what to do with it, so started pickling it - and that is a special joy as well.

Perhaps the first surprise okra brought me was the beauty of its flowers. Holy moley! They knock me flat every time I see them.

In The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch, she says to get new seed every year and to speed up the normally slow germination process by soaking the seeds overnight in tepid water. I found if I plant when it's very warm out, there's no need to soak.

I was dismayed when mine this year had a very bad infestation of aphids and ants (the ants tend the aphids like cattle) and then mealy bugs, and I went to some great lengths to rid myself of them. (Really I was just an idiot for laying a garden bed on what was clearly an ant trail - but what to do in these tiny New Orleans yards?) I sprinkled cinnamon, turmeric, and cayenne pepper (it looked like this in July - now it's September and it's producing).

It looked like Indian food, but it did no good.

Then, I tried vinegar water based on website & a friend, and it killed all the leaves I sprayed it on. But, the plant came back. Neither bugs nor poisons killed it, and now I'm getting some wonderful okra pods each day.

The trick is to pick it when it's little and tender rather than too large and woody. This can be tricky because sometimes the pods seem to hide, and the day after being sure you picked all possible pods, you find one 8" long which is tough like a tree. You need to pick every other day at least - because when you stop picking, the okra stops producing.

I like Clemson Spineless because those pesky spines are irritating.

When I pick, I make sure they're fully dry, then stick them in a green bag and accumulate until I have enough for a gumbo or to pickle. They can also be frozen (sliced or whole). I try to accumulate less than a week though - don't want quality to deteriorate too much.