It has been so hot and dry and windy -- it is really getting disheartening -- yet another week of NO RAIN! Thank goodness for our nearby cistern and all the garden plot volunteers who keep it refilled from a nearby hydrant.
This week, several peppers are forming on our plants. My favorite so far that we are growing for the first time is 'Buena Mulata'. We got the seedlings from the Silver Spring Garden Club's GardenMart plant sale. This photo (above) doesn't do them justice -- go to Rareseeds.com to see them up close and in their many color phases. After starting out purple, they go to orange-tan, and finally a bright red. They are listed as moderately hot similar to Cayenne peppers. The foliage of the plants is very attractive as well, so could just be grown as an ornamental plant. It is an heirloom variety that was from William Woys Weaver's Roughwood Seed Collection. "His grandfather received the pepper from African-American painter Horace Pippin in 1944," says Rareseeds.
We also saw tiny tomatoes forming on our 'White Currant' and other tomato varieties. No fruits are showing up on the eggplant yet as that is under a cover cloth for now.
I ripped out the last of the Radishes and Broccoli plants. I hung the radish pods to dry and will collect the seeds later.
In their place, we made mounds and planted Gherkins and Zucchini. I left a row of Carrots in and hope to dig them around the time of the Montgomery County Fair to enter them.
The Blackberries have slowed down to just a few fruits every couple of days so I'll take the covering nets and mesh off them soon.
The sprouted Sweet Potato had a slow start and is now taking off and putting on lots of foliage growth.
A late garden addition is two variegated red Cotton plants from a garden I visited last weekend that was part of the Region 3 Daylily Summer Meeting. I planted them in the heat and they are NOT happy, but I hope will recover with some TLC.
What are you growing in your edible garden this week?
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 13th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).
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