What I Grew This Summer
By Marissa Yelenik
During my internship at Washington Gardener Magazine, I've learned a lot about plants and gardening as a whole. While I had some knowledge—primarily of growing plants indoors—I was able to see the firsthand growth of a large variety of outdoor plants.
I was given the opportunity to grow my own edible plant and a cut flower. I chose to grow Peppers and we used some seedlings that had been sent to us to try out. Unfortunately, some had been chewed down by a garden critter and labels were mixed up, so some pepper varieties were more of a guess.
We grew three 'Sweet Cherry' Peppers, one 'Where's the Heat' Pepper, one
'Prism' Pepper, and one unknown 'Habanero' Pepper, which we initially had mixed
up with the 'Lunchbox' Pepper, which is supposed to be a sweet variety. For my
cut flower, I chose the Cosmos 'Apricotta', a beautiful variety with orange and
pink hues to it.
The Peppers were incredibly simple to grow. We planted them on June 7, fertilized them a couple of weeks later, and consistently weeded and watered the surrounding area. The Cosmos weren't planted until about June 21 and those were direct-sown seeds—giving them less time to grow and mature before the end of the summer session.
The Peppers quickly shot up and did a great job of growing. I took some home and found they were each delicious. The 'Sweet Cherry' was not quite ready to be eaten, but we found the 'Where's the Heat' Peppers held a small amount of heat with a good flavor for Pepper lovers that struggle with eating very hot varieties. The 'Prism' Pepper, which had just turned orange, held almost no heat but had a very distinctive true-pepper flavor that would be good to add to any recipe that uses peppers. The unknown 'Habanero' Pepper was incredibly hot, even while green, and didn't hold a lot of additional flavor. Each of them could be used for different individual purposes.
However, the Cosmos took their time in blooming. While the Zinnias that were planted from seed at the same time started blooming in late-July, the Cosmos didn't form any blooms until mid-August. When they did bloom, they were absolutely beautiful and made an incredible addition to arrangements of garden flowers including a pink Dahlia, some Celosia, and the Zinnias.
This experience really reminded me of the importance of getting your seeds into the garden. While they take off quick, it will take some time to let the blooms (or vegetables/fruits) really thrive in the garden. I absolutely love growing my own plants that I can bring home and enjoy myself or watch others enjoy. Giving fresh Peppers to my brother and showing my mother the beautiful flower arrangement really reminded me how much bringing the outdoors in can do to lift up people's mood. I will absolutely be working to expand my talents and grow my own little garden at home.
About the author: Marissa Yelenik is a rising junior journalism and psychology major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is a Savage, MD, native and amateur gardener.
No comments:
Post a Comment