Fenton Friday: Winning Peppers

Guest blog by Jamie Amadea Oberg

This summer, I planted peppers, celosias, nasturtiums, and marigolds in the Fenton Street community garden. Overall, each did fairly well! 

 

The peppers were the only plant I did not start from a seed. Instead, I transferred a starter plant from the ladies at GardenSpots into the garden plot. The plant was biquinho peppers, a variety I had never heard of before. 

After a week or two of regular watering, with the help of Kathy Jentz, a liquid fertilizer was added to the watering mix. Another week or two and peppers started to pop up! 

At first, we weren’t sure if the peppers were ready to be picked. They were firetruck red, but they were the size of my thumb (and I have small hands). After a bit of research, we found out that biquinho is indeed a very small pepper. 

After the peppers started showing up, they just kept on coming. Every week or so I’d pluck off the reddest peppers and leave the rest to ripen. Eventually, my harvest went from two or three peppers a week to five to eight a week. The peppers themselves were a little bit sweet, but with a refreshing kick of spice. 

 

Last week, we harvested enough peppers to submit our 10 best to the county fair. I’ve never submitted anything at all to the fair so I was thrilled when they won second place in the “peppers - other” category. A red ribbon now adorns my red peppers. 

 

While the peppers were the only edible thing I grew this summer, I also planted three different flowers to varying degrees of success. 

 

With marigolds, I planted seeds one inch deep with one inch of spacing between them. The nasturtium seeds were similar, one inch deep and three inches of spacing. For the celosias, things were a bit different with the seeds closer to a quarter of an inch deep and five inches spacing in between. 

 

The weekly care for the flowers was identical: regular watering and weeding with the help of Kathy Jentz. When the seedlings first appeared most all of them germinated, so we had to thin them out. It was painful removing perfectly healthy plants, but I reminded myself it was for the best. From that point on, the care was never too complicated. No fertilizer, just watering and weeding. 

 

The nasturtium grew the fastest. The big, round leaves sprouted quickly, but succumbed to the heat just as quickly. Despite the abundance of cupped, dropping, or yellowing leaves, the nasturtium still bloomed beautiful peachy orange flowers. 

Next was the celosia 'Flamma Orange', a All-American Selections winner for 2022. It took a little bit longer to bloom, only starting to show flowers in the last few weeks. Still, the leaves show no signs of damage and the little spikes of warm color are delightful. 

Finally, the marigold. The marigold has yet to flower. This is most likely due to the fact that it was planted in close proximity to a large batch of more established zinnias. The marigold has had trouble getting enough light living in the shadow of the zinnias, but I have hope it will still bloom given the tall and healthy state it’s in. 

Overall, the peppers were the most rewarding to grow. Being able to eat something grown in the garden is simply a magical experience. Still, I enjoyed the trials and tribulations of growing the flowers, and the excitement of seeing them bloom. I was even able to take some celosias home in a bouquet one week.

About the Author: Jamie Amadea Oberg is a rising senior at the University of Maryland (UMD). Jamie is an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener.

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.