No, it's not Christmas (yet). It's the first trip to the greenhouse to find this year's plants - a little bit like the mother ship calling you home. My wife just dreads this day, shaking her head as I fill up the garden wagon with plant after plant.
People ask me all the time - are you nuts? why in the world do you grow all that? there's only three of you, and you don't even like peppers? Well first of all, yes, I'm probably nuts but the simple answer - it's fun, it's relaxing and a sense of satisfaction. Nothing real fancy. However, the folks down at work do tend to really appreciate the Farmer's Market that usually happens in early September.
This year's first stop was to Miller's Greenhouse in Greeley. Every year I seem to find really good stuff there, well tended, strong looking plants. And this year was no different, $100 bucks later we left with three flats of flowers, peppers and tomatoes. We'll always find our way to the Lowe's and Home Depot, but more times that not you can find unique and different stuff when you go to the greenhouses - this year's surprise - a Ghost Pepper, commonly known as the hottest pepper in the world.
So I spent most of Thursday prepping the raised beds. I'm using Eko's Compost again this year to amend the soil in all the beds. It's good stuff - not too hot, but very fertile. Usually comes in bads about $5 each at Lowes/Home Depot. If you ever really need HOT compost, better for churning into the ground rather than containers, the Home Depot generic brand is awesome. Great stuff, very hot !!
Turned over all the soil (pretty deep in all the beds), spread about two bags across the top, and then only worked it in gently (not wanting the good nutrients to get buried deep where the plants can't really get at 'em). Before planting, I then added Miracle Gro's Vegetable and Tomato fertilizer - the granular kind - across the top.
And with that the beds are ready; 18 raised bed pepper spots, 10 tomato spots, cucumbers on a climbing trellis and 4 rows of carrots, 3 hanging baskets for ever bearing strawberries, 5 upside down planters for tomatoes and peppers, and 10 containers ... all ready to house this year's hopeful bumper crop.
