Update on the main garden. One squash is flowering. Lost two squash randomly. Too tired to walk to the other two gardens.

Hard frost coming Wednesday morning. What's your plan Chickenman?

I have enough buckets to cover my squash. Going to completely plastic wrap my tomato cages and cucumber trellis. Peppers are small enough I can stuff their leaves into a cup for a night. Wanted 44oz but could only find 32oz. Should work fine though. Even If I can't completely cover them as long as there is a top on it, it should radiate enough of the escaping heat back downwards to keep them warm enough. That's my plan anyway.


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I bought 20 buckets last year got another 20 this year for the squash and peppers

Looks perfect David. I’m rolling with this tomorrow night. Might lose a leaf or two due to damage but won’t lose the plant.




Cucumbers will be more challenging. Going to wrap the lower foot or so in plastic. Insert garden bars and lay some cardboard on top.

Cover what I can. Pray for the rest.

Water the heck out of them as well before you cover them, it's harder to change the temperature of water than it is air. In fact if you have anything that you can't cover, just set a water sprinkler on from around 3:00 am till 9:00 am you will be good.

Looking at growing a few plants on my patio. I live in an apartment and have a small patio on the second floor. I was hoping to grow some peppers and herbs. Is this doable/does anyone have recs. on what's easier to grow since I'm new to this?

Is your name Luka?

How much sun does the porch get.

It gets a decent amount of sun.

You've picked two of the easiest to grow imo. Peppers and herbs. With herbs you can get some planters that will hang on your patio fence or pots. Some potting mix and you're ready to go. With herbs I will use dill as an example. I like to buy a plant or two and then seed the soil with dill seeds. That way I have herbs growing in different stages. A lot of herbs are also host plants for butterflies. Mostly Black swallowtail butterflies. So don't be surprised if you see a colorful caterpillar on your herbs. Depending on what herbs you grow.

Peppers are easy too. I grow a lot of peppers in 3 or 4 gallon containers I get at Dollar General for like $6-8. If you want to get nice and pretty containers go with it. Drill a few drain holes in the containers if they don't come with any. Again use a good potting/container mix.

Fertilizer keep it simple. Get miracle gro plant food. Get the one in a box that you mix with water. Follow the label directions. When your pepper plants get big and start to bloom switch to miracle gro bloom booster.

As we go into summer you might have to water your pots a little daily as they will dry out pretty quick. Right now around once a week water is fine.

Just go get what you like and get it planted.

Awesome, Thank you!!!

I don't grow many box store plants. But a couple that I have. If you're looking for a jalapeno I like Mammoth. Big pepper and not a lot of heat and a good producer. The standard orange habanero that Bonnie plants stocks is a big producer and the Dragon cayenne is a good. If you hit some of the off the path nurseries you can find more exotics like scotch bonnets and many others.

I'll start doing some research to see what's available around here.

Lowe's has red Ghost peppers right now ( warning : not for the faint of heart) .