Planting Peppers

It looks like we are finally going to get some warm weather, so I put in my peppers.

Pepper plants like warm weather and lots of sun.  I placed mine in the hottest bed in the garden, two feet apart.  It seems like they are so far apart, but these will grow into some big pepper plants.  This variety of red bell pepper plant, ‘Karma’, will grow to be two feet tall.

Pepper plants are slow growing, so I planted some beets and summer lettuce varieties between and in front of my peppers.  The beets should be well on their way and the lettuce completely finished before these peppers are getting big.

These tall plants will need staking, especially as they begin to develop heavy fruits.

Peppers will continue to produce all the way to first frost.  The more peppers picked, the more the pepper plant will produce (say it five times fast).

Last year, I roasted all my extra red peppers and froze them for winter recipes.  Before the last frost, I picked all the peppers off the plants, diced them, and froze them in one cup servings to be added to chili and other recipes.

These ‘Karma’ pepper plants will add color and antioxidants to our diet all summer long.  I also slipped in three jalepeno pepper plants to fuel my salsa making machine.  Last summer I put away loads of pint jars of salsa for the winter and we were happy that I did.

I have only one jar left for tonight’s enchiladas.