Our first year gardening was hit or miss, mostly miss. But the hits were platinum, and I think I’ve learned enough from my rookie mistakes to achieve a higher success rate next summer. My biggest lesson learned: plant a lot of basil and lot of salad greens, because they don’t mind the heat. Also, soil quality really matters. I think poor soil is what doomed our tomatoes from the start.
We continuously sowed lettuce seeds and reaped regular harvests every couple of weeks. We’ve quit sowing now and are focusing on our late summer plants, like these onions and habaneros.
Despite the fact that the habaneros have looked healthy since midsummer heat set in, they haven’t been producing any peppers. We figured our plants were duds or that we might need to wait til next season, but this week, we noticed something.
A shy, tiny little pepper. A few days after that first little guy appeared, we noticed a few more.
Success! And hopefully they’ll be more than worth the summer-long wait.
I’ve been getting ready to plant for fall (kale, chard, beets, carrots, turnips) but there’s been a change of plans. Instead, I’ll be heading to Arizona for a while for work. So I’m shifting gears and thinking cacti and summer herbs rather than sweet potatoes and first frost.
Daniel will be holding down the fort, which means our Brooklyn rooftop garden is in good hands. For now, I’m southwest bound and ready for adventure.
