The garden is a Memorial Garden, a garden of benevolence, a garden of love. It is a gift to our community from the God of Love, Jesus the Christ. The first “seeds” for our garden have come from members of the congregation and a designation from the congregation’s memorial funds. These seeds have brought us to the beginning of a journey that will last for many years. Guided by the Holy Spirit we will plow forth until row upon row of our work is accomplished and our community is better nourished. The Lord invites you all to be part of His work on earth strengthening and feeding His children. The garden is made possible by generous donations from the community, and grants from the ELCA Domestic Hunger Grants, the Alaska Food Policy Council through the Municipality of Anchorage, the Alaska Women's Giving Circle, The Alaska Master Gardeners of Anchorage, the generous support by the congregation of Lutheran Church of Hope, and support from the Alaska Synod of the ELCA.

Food from the garden in 2019 was sent to Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry, the Tudor Road Gospel Rescue Mission, and to Bean's Cafe.

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Pepper Update

Jalapeno
On the solstice my true love sent to me 2 jalapenos. On the second day of Christmas (the 26th) my true love sent me 1 pablano. On the third day of Christmas (the 27th) I received two more pablano and one Hungarian yellow wax pepper. So for future reference the jalapenos sprouted after 12 days in the ground, the pablanos 17, and the yellow wax 18.

Don't know if that's normal or not. From what I have read the ideal germination temperature is 75 - 85 F. It turns out the temp in the room averages about 60 because of the big window in the room. I did order a heat mat and installed it on the 23rd. Don't know if that helped the pablanos and yellow wax or not. Would have to do some more tests to find out

Pablano
The jalapenos still don't have any true leaves. I haven't kept track enough in the past to know if this is slow or normal. I will keep better records and should be able to make a judgement on that in a couple of years. Or find some literature that will point me in the right direction.  According to Wikipedia the plants with produce peppers in 70 to 80 days. That of course implies that the temperatures will be much warmer than in my house. 80 days would put the first peppers at the middle of March. My bet is not before the end of March or the beginning of April.

According to Wikipedia the pablanos, these are also called ancho, will take about 200 days to mature. I'm pretty sure that means to go to red color. I harvested a couple of these last summer in some elevated beds I have at church and I know it wasn't 200 days. They would have been frozen solid. So green pablanos in probably 120 days. Again all I can do is wait.

Hungarian Yellow Wax
According to totally tomato the Hungarians should mature in 67 days. That would mean I can have peppers in March sometime. These are know as cool climate peppers by many. In 2016 I was able to harvest about 15 pounds of these from about 30 plants. In 2017, a much cooler summer I go only about 4 pounds from as many plants but there were other problems as well. So once again will see what happens in the house.

The jalapenos are easy enough to see. The pablanos, there is one each in the center of the cells on the right side and there is one in the cell with the probe. The picture for the yellow wax there is one sprout in the the lower left cell. They will be more visible in a couple of days but they are there and growing. I was beginning to get concerned that I would have to replant. Collectively these peppers are called chili in North American and Central America. They are called aji in South America.

Plan to try some basil this winter too. Will plant that in a few days. 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a most joyous New Year.


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