House Creature #9

Garden recap, Chili salt, and hygge prep.

Parts of our garden are winding down, while others are just ramping up! We’ve removed both cucumber plants, and both zucchini plants, which all eventually got powdery mildew. Our cayenne and carmen pepper plants are being attacked by chipmunks, and I’m just letting them win this year. A few plants have also just dramatically slowed down production (same here, friends).

All our peppers look like this now - at least 75 damaged.

But a couple of weeks ago I planted radish, spinach, and salad green seeds, and all of those little sprouts are very happy right now. This is totally new for me, I’ve never planted seeds this late, but was encouraged by my Master Gardener mentorship team, so I went for it! Our fall raspberries are also going full speed and we’re still getting plenty of tomatoes, eggplant, beans, and other chilis.

I’ve been taking better notes this year on what things went well and what I’d like to change or add next year. Hopefully, my garden journal will mean next season is less of a guessing game.

Happy harvest season! If you’re swimming in chili peppers, this issue’s recipe is for you. If you’re not swimming in chili peppers, this issue’s recipe is also for you because you can go buy a basket of chilis at your local farmers market for $3 and join in on the fun. Let’s make chili salt!