Esta Caliente!

Okay, where the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks have I been?

Well, frankly, since the August scorch-a-thon baked what I had growing into a crispy early death, not much.

No squash, no freakin' punkins, nothing. SuburbanGuy got into a "mother-nature-hates-my-guts" type of funk.

Not having punkins hit me hard. No punkin pieeeeeeeeee, no punkin seeds, no Jack O'Lantern, no freakin' nothin!! (I sit with pouty bottom lip protruding while arms crossed, and yes, I know it's spelled "pumpkin").

So SuburbanGuy would just sit at the window breathing nose fogs upon it, looking at my garden, and sigh with images of me running bare foot through it; dancing in my head. Ahem, excuse me, that maybe a little too much information.

But there was a ray of hope. While my dead punkins mercilessly crushed my soul to tiny bits, a spark of life remained. Oddly, it was something that I tried on a lark. Something that, if it remained alive, would replace that punkin pie with the hot firery  zap of FLAVOR!

My crazy lark you ask? Jalapenos and Cayenne peppers!!! Get a load of these bad boys!



And...



This little guys are tough! I really didn't do much at all. A little fertilizer and mulch was it. They pretty much raised themselves and now I get to eat them! As things got hotter and everything else took the dirt nap, they said, MEH! Heat? HEAT? I ain't afraid of no stinking heat! BRING IT ON!!! (I just can't use enough exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Not having grown these before, I have to consult the Pepper King. A gentleman by the name of David,  whom I work with, grows peppers as pretty much his only thing. I will be bending his ear right off his head for info. Who knew that these things would grow so well??

In the mean time, while I moped around, I wasn't completely idle. I emptied out my composter and remediated my soil. Aka dug up the soil, l put down the compost, spread the soil back and sweated bullets.

That was 2 weeks ago. Between then and now, our August derth of rain has been replaced by the monsoons of September. The monster tanks are topped off and better yet, the rain was spaced in such a way, that I haven't had to water for the past week and a half!!! That's a mini-vacation to me.

The temps are getting somewhat normal as well. No more crispy leaves. Stuff grows like it should. And in out of places I would have never suspected. (you can use your imagination with that one.) I forgot to take a photo of it (I will get one soon and  post it next week), but our back fence is virtually covered with wild Morning Glories. Really beautiful.

Now that the weather is cooperating again, with seeds in hand, (and a few starter plants) I attacked the garden yesterday.

I went with a few favs and a few new faces this time around.

Cabbage



(There are actually 6 of these)

Broccoli



I kept my second round of tomatoes, just to see what happens. Now the temps at night are cooling off, they should start baring fruit again...I hope.



My experimental new faces: Kale, Chard and Brussels Sprouts



I also put down Beets and Lettuce, but they are just rows of dirt so I thought I would spare you the over exciting photos.

However, since I did put down my compost and since the green part of the compost is made up of scraps from our kitchen, something very interesting has happened...



Any idea what they heck this is? I'm thinking it's a melon of some sort, but I haven't the foggiest as to what kind it could be.

So for the moment, I'm just going to leave it and see what happens.

I don't have to put in my onions and garlic until next month so I can just let this grow.

As a friend once said, "Mysterioso".

I will keep you all updated as things change. I know you are all on the edge of your seats, personally I can hardly contain myself...um yeah.

That's it for this week. I just want to give a shout out to my old friend James whom I haven't seen in a few years.  He stumbled across this blog of insanity and has joined the other 5 1/2 people that read it. My readership is now up to a grand total of 6 1/2 people!!! Thanks James for the very kind words. :)

For those folks in the hotter climes, now is the time to put in your fall/winter crops. And for you folks, with more ambition that I pretend to have, now is the time to get out your winter frames, if you haven't done so already. Just what are Winter frames? I think I just found the topic for my next blog! Whew! I hadn't a clue as to what to write about next week.

So with all that said and until next time!

Green is Good and can be muy caliente!