Is it Too Soon for Peppers?

OK. It’s only mid March here in southwest Missouri. The outside temperatures are doing wild gyrations up and down that are indicative of the approach of spring. Just this morning a brief but strong squall line of storms made a quick passage west to east and I saw the outdoor thermometer go from 72F at 9AM to 67F in just fifteen minutes. Tonight, the weather service is predicting a cool down to 40F or so. Not your typical pepper growing weather, for sure. However, seeing as how I will be keep my plants indoors for at least a month. I figured why not! The little plant pictured here is one of five the germinated a week or so ago and came from a packet called Big Dipper. The seed company is Burpee and I’ve always had good germination results with them.

Very shortly, I will be making a trip to the lumber yard here in town to purchase a few 2x6 boards in preparation for the building of another raised bed. This will be my third one in the back yard and will increase my growing space by another 32 square feet. I also plan to use a more custom soil mix containing peat moss, compost and vermiculite that will be separated from the ground by a weed barrier. (I’m doing my best to try and keep the local crabgrass from getting all the nutrients out of the soil). Once established, I hope too plant a wide variety of vegetables including romaine, peppers, radish and beans. I will try and videotape this from start and on into the growing season. It will appear on my You Tube page at DanoManno. Anyway, wish me luck.