Peppers/Field Planting

This morning I planted the peppers in my bottom bed. I was originally going to do 6 plants of each variety but because the Cal wonder did surprisingly well and the Hungarian not as much I made a small adjustment. I ended up planting 2 Calwonder, 4 Hungarian banana and 6 each of purple, chocolate, jimmy, king of the north and Alma paprika. They are all sturdy plants and have started to branch out, a side effect of pinching off the blossoms I think. There are a few plants that look a little yellow but I think some natural light and the ability to spread their roots should help.

After the peppers were planted at home, I headed over to the field to finally plant it. Last night with the help of my uncle and cousin we spread a few yards of sandy soil and compost on top of the one end of the garden. This is where the potatoes were going to be planted.

The garden is laid out with 6’ sections and then a 2’ path between each one. The potatoes are spaced 3 feet apart.

I started by planting the beans in 2 rows 1’ apart at the south end of the field. In the outside row I put my remaining green beans around 15 seeds, and then in the rest of the row I planted 50 seeds of Vermont cranberry bush beans. In the second row I planted my remaining yellow beans also 15 seeds and then the rest of the row was planted with tongue of fire beans around 60 seeds.

The next large 2 sections each have 6 large hills of watermelon. I planted 3 hills each of sugar baby, small shining light, golden midget and Siberian. At the next point in the garden I shortened up my sections lengthwise so that I could put a section the other way to plant corn. The corn runs along the North West side of the garden closes to the bush so that it doesn’t shade out other plants.

The next section is planted with a hill of cantaloupe, and 4 hills of straight eight cucumbers. Nothing has been planted in the middle section yet, but it will be getting some peppers as well as lettuce and other greens. The next section and a half has 7 hills of various pumpkins, and gourds. Following that I have another section and a half of tomatoes. I used all of my leftover tomato plants from home as well as some my aunt had.

This is where the potatoes start. In total there are 6 rows. The first 2 rows have a mixture, then there is a row of red Pontiac, Yukon gold, red chieftain with a few Russian blacks on the end, and the outside row is all banana fingerling. At the end of these rows I have large hills, one is planted with Atlantic giant pumpkins seeds and the other has sweet Siberian watermelon. The corn that was planted at the back was planted in 4 short rows to create a block to help ensure pollination. I have Bloody butcher around 24 seeds and then Seneca Blue Bear Dance roughly 40 seeds planted.

There is room for some pole beans I just need to finish cutting some suitable poles and then set them up. Looking to do this in the next couple weeks and at the same time the lettuce, peppers and anything else will be planted.

The garlic and asparagus are doing very well. The asparagus is all up and starting to increase in size. It could really use some rain, and should get some in the next couple days. The garlic is tall but I am not sure what the bulbs are going to be like. I tried to dig one up and the soil was very hard. I think I may end up with some huge plants and tiny bulbs. If the potatoes are successful where they have been planted this year, I will put garlic there this fall.