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.

River Run Park Post Flood Report

I just finished a short You Tube piece (River Run Park Post Flood) on a local park that had been flooded for most of last year. It’s called River Run, I think and is run by the Core of Engineers here in southwest Missouri. The heavy rains we had last spring and summer contributed to the rise in what is a flood basin, so I shouldn’t be too surprised. I have lived in the Forsyth area since 1992 and have seen numerous times when the Bull Shoals River has risen out of its banks. This was the first time, however, that the flooding was so persistent. In years past the water generally receded after a month or so. That was not the case this time and I fear that the damage will be much more pronounced. For one thing, many of the trees that line the water way now have big red X’s on them. To me that means they must be removed. If true, there will not be many trees left come summertime when campers will be looking for some shade from the heat. As if that was not bad enough, the ground has an even quarter to half inch of much that was deposited evenly over every surface. This stuff has dried into a hard adobe like substance that looks to be impervious to growing blades of grass. River Run has always been a great place to camp and it is my hope it will be again.

Low Sodium Stuffed Bell Peppers

While waiting for spring gardening activities to begin, I came up with this recipe. I needed something that would be relatively low in calories, low in cholesterol and low in sodium. Instead of salt, I used so-called fake salt (potassium chloride) for the seasoning. I then only eat one half of each pepper at meal time. The result was much better than I expected.

Ingredients:

2 bell peppers, seeded & tops removed
1/3 lb ground beef, browned & drained
3 tbsp onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1/3 cup rice
1 slice of American cheese

Directions:

Make up the rice according to package directions. Blanch peppers in hot boiling water for about 5 minutes. Combine the hamburger and onion, brown in a pan over medium heat and drain off any excess fat. Add the rice and garlic. Mix a little then add about half the can of tomato sauce and mix well. Add this mixture to the bell peppers. Overfill the cavity slightly. Place these in the crock pot that has been set to low. Add the rest of the tomato sauce.

Cover and cook on low for about 3 hours. Cut the American cheese into four strips and make X’s over each bell pepper. Re-cover and cook for another 15 minutes or nuke briefly in the microwave.

Ice Storm aftermath

What a wild ride that ice storm was! I cannot believe the luck we had here in Forsyth Missouri to come so close to disaster without actually stepping over the edge. Too bad it hit the Harrison Arkansas area with such a vengeance. I understand that a lot of folks have been without power for three days now. Other states like Tennessee have been even more adversely affected with over 600,000 without power at one point. Even so, the damage done to trees was bad enough. I would estimate that about 15% of all the trees in this area have lost one or more limbs. That adds up to lots and lots of piles of debris in front of most homes in my neighborhood.

My cold frames slept through most of this under a blanket of sleet that is over five inches deep in some spots. It’s Saturday today and most of this stuff should melt as the weather is supposed to warm into the mid fifties today and tomorrow.

My Garden Plans for 2009

Once the month of January is behind me I find I can begin to concentrate on the how and why of my spring and summer gardening efforts. The month of February is a time for two things to kick in gear. One, I get my catalog orders done. In recent years it seems that seed cost has really gone through the roof. Or is it just me? In either case, I have gotten much more selective concerning what I order and who I order it from. Increasingly, I find myself drawn to a company called Pinetree Garden Seeds (www.superseeds.com). They have a good selection of seeds that do not cost an arm or a leg. They accomplish this by offering packets that contain fewer seeds. This suits me fine as my small raised beds rarely require a packet of 30 tomato seeds to get me through the season. Pinetree offers packets of 15 to 20 seeds. An example of this would be a heirloom tomato, Brandywine, that I love to grow each year. One very popular online company offers a 50 seeds packet for $2.95 while you can get them at Pinetree for $1.15 for 20 seeds. I don’t know about you, but I’ll go for the fewer seeds since they generally have a limited shelf life and I like fresh seeds at the start of each season. This does not mean that I do not order from companies like Burpee Seed (www.burpee.com) or Park Seed (www.parkseed.com) from time to time. They all have great products and service. I just need to keep my eye on reality. (It would be nice if you could order seeds in little micro packs of 5 to 10 at a time. That would be perfect for small time home gardeners like me).

So anyway, I plan to get my computer warmed up and will peruse the electronic pages to see what’s being offered for 09. My two little raised beds are 4x8 feet each in size and produce more than enough for a bachelor like myself. My focus this season will be on the following vegetables for springtime planting; romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes and beets. These all grow fairly quickly and do not require much growing space. In the late spring I will also plant beans (pole and bush), tomatoes and bell peppers (both sweet and hot).

The second thing I like to get started in the month of February is some plant starts using 10 cell seed starters I’ve had around for ages. By starting some plants indoors (lettuce, radish and spinach in the early spring) I find I can get a great jump on most everyone around me. By the end of March when many gardeners are just beginning to peck at the soil in their yards, I plan on harvesting my first cole crops. I get this done through a combination of early planting and cold frame propagation techniques. I also work my garden soil just as early as possible. Here in southwest Missouri, it’s generally warm enough in late February (see graph) to work in some compost, sand and vermiculite and to get a few early starts out there. More later in the month as I get cranking.

Looking for a little sun

The good news. It’s mid January so we’ve got a month of winter behind us. The bad news. We’ve got at least another month to go. Record cold has made this winter seem longer than usual. Combine this with the cold state of our economy and I think we could all use a bit of warmth sometime soon.

My cold frames are clicking right along. Like me, they’ve gone into hibernation for the time being, just waiting for that magical morning when the sun comes out and temperatures warm up enough for growth to resume. For my part, I’m planning a more aggressive campaign by relocating, if only for a week or two, to warmer climes. This coming week, I will be taking a trip down to Little Rock Arkansas to check out local conditions and to do a little photo journalism. If time and conditions permit, I may even go the extra distance to New Orleans where I can warm my old bones on gulf breezes.

Cold Frame Update - Early January 09

Well. Well. It’s the first week in the New Year and I’ve finally harvested my first morsel of lettuce and spinach for a grand total of nine grams! Yes, I said grams. Not much to show for my efforts at this point. I also had a single radish that was about half and inch wide and weighed in at 5 grams. As I think I have pointed out in another entry, the crop is more or less in suspended animation at this time. Everything looks healthy; it’s just not growing very fast. Had planted the seed back in September instead of late October, I think I would have a lot more to eat at this time.

The radish got consumed first and tasted great! The lettuce and spinach was next. I added a small amount of iceberg lettuce and a short stalk celery, then sprinkled on some oil and vinegar. The result was a very fresh and tasty addition to my lunchtime fare.

My big hope is that as the weather moderates, I will see more and more growth. So that’s it for now. A total of 9+5 grams for a whopping total of 14 grams. My basket runnith over.