I’m so tired of this rainy June. All the chile plants are small, though pulling through all the storms admirably. I guess all the rain proves that my new container layering strategy is draining well. I am so ready for some heat up on the roof to get me motivated to install the drip system.
All four gardens well in process with over 80 plants planted out in Staten Island, East Village Manhattan, Fort Greene and Boerum Hill Brooklyn. Yeah! Hopefully up to another 50 to add if things go well. I think I took some of the plants too quickly from indoors to out. I overestimated the importance of temperature and didn’t think enough about stem strength and wind. Many plants look teeny and spindly when planted outdoors but thankfully they seem to mostly be surviving and thriving.
Bought a batch of seedlings from chileplants.com at the last minute. Now that I see how full and healthy their plants look I really feel like my indoor babies are starting out weak. But hopefully they will toughen up. A week of coolish temperatures and massive thunderstorms may cull a bunch of the weakest transplants. Very exciting to see these gardens coming together.
Recently back from setting up satellite garden number three in St. George, Staten Island. Thanks to the kind hospitality of Jason and Ondine around 25 containers and baby chiltepin, de arbol, and hatch plants are in the field. This site will be a real experiment as it’s definitely what I would call semi-shade. Hard to tell exactly how many hours of full sun the plants will get but I’m guessing less than six. It will be interesting to see how the plants produce in these conditions. I’m super thankful for the space in any case.
That’s what work is these days. Containers delivered to two new sites since last week, and some seedlings are now out in the “field.” I am so psyched about the new soil mix. Containers are so much lighter than last year – typically 20-25 lbs damp compared to 30-35 lbs last year. Walking up endless flights of stairs with buckets under my nose the growing medium smells fresh, like dirt that just took a shower.