Projects
Hot Sauce Batch 20 – Entry 3
It's the first day of Autumn and the peppers are coming in hot and heavy. I'm picking around one pound every couple of days right now, which means I'll be moving the peppers to the five gallon fermenter this week. The weather has been very warm so the initial ferment is off to a good start. It smells spicy and yeasty, which tells me the lacto ferment is happy. Once I pitch it to the big fermenter, things should really take off.
Keyhole Garden Update – Sept. 21, 2020
It's day 548 of production for the keyhole garden. The recent heatwave ended what was left of the tomatoes and most of the sweet peppers, but the squash is doing great. Plus, I discovered some garlic.
Hot Sauce Batch 20 – Entry 2
2nd addition of peppers was a full pound split between Hidden Lake Hot and Culebra Negra (see photo). This should be more than enough to get a good ferment going before I pitch it to the barrel and add 10 - 15 pounds of fresh peppers over the next 10 weeks.
Hot Sauce Batch 20 – Entry 1
Batch 20 of my 6 month fermented hot sauce begins with 5oz of Hidden Lake Hot, a Cayenne/Thai cross, and 7oz of Culebra Negra, a Central American pepper I got from a friend.
Keyhole Garden Update
After 521 days of continuous production, the early summer veggies in the keyhole garden are all played out, but the mid-summer crops--beans, squash, and pumpkins--are doing just fine. The second half of summer and most of early fall is brutally hot and dry, so I'm going to give part of the bed a couple week's rest before transplanting the late summer and early fall stuff.
Build a Bee Hotel
Here's how to build a "Bee Hotel" to welcome native bees (which are solitary, stingless and great pollinators) into your garden.
How to Make a Simple Window Flower Box
Here's how to make a simple but attractive and durable window flower box for under $20 with a cedar fence board, a piece of corrugated steel, and a little paint
Garden Path Refresh
I turned a drab wood walkway into a cool, colorful path through the tropical garden in a couple days for under $20. Here's how I did it.
Keyhole Garden Progress Update
It's been a month since I posted on the progress on my year round keyhole food garden so I thought now would be a good time for an update with a few photos.
Lessons from the Keyhole Garden
A year after building my keyhole garden I've learned a few lessons. Here's a quick list of tips to keep your keyhole garden happy and productive through the growing season.