Cardiff Garden Blog

So I know you are going to think why would I want to cut the tops off my young pepper plant? Won't it die? Won't it hurt the plant?  Take this example above of this young Shishito pepper plant. Now you can see with my snips I am about to cut just the top section of the leaves. Below the cut area I still have three levels of leaves. I don't recommend cutting your plant if it only has one set of leaves. Only perform topping when there are more than one set, preferably multiple leave layers. The cut will force growth back to the lower levels making your plant more stable with more lower branches as well produce more fruit. One stalk will be unstable when fruiting and limit production but the topping will add more layers and depth to your plant. This topping exercise can be performed more than once to help make a more dense plant. Some will even go so far as to remove flowers to help the plant grow larger or stronger before producing peppers.

I grow a lot of lettuce in the winter/spring season. The one I've come to love growing the most is a particular variety called Red Sails.  They tend to have a reddish brown hue on the ends of leaves. Such vibrant color and crisp taste. I love adding fresh lettuce to my tuna salad.  I'm the type that won't buy lettuce at the store for fear of it going bad in the fridge before using it.  When you grow your own its the freshest you'll ever taste.

I don't really delve much into flower growing, mainly because flowers themselves do not reap an edible product.   But in the past few years I've been more open to growing flowers if for pollinators to come to my garden but also just for common beauty. So when cruising through the garden department of Home Depot one day I stumbled upon the bargain bin shelf (every store has one). Usually you'll see plants that need a little TLC on these shelves. I always check them out because they usually come at deep discounts up to 50% off or more. So when I saw roses for only $5 I couldn't help myself. I planted them last fall on a whim thinking they may or may not take off. I was pleasantly surprised when this spring the bush went full bloom. Now I have fresh picked roses on my window sill to look while I wash my dishes.

Probably my favorite pepper to grow. It starts as a black pepper, then green, and then turning red when ripe.  I've had the same plant for over three years growing. It's almost four feet tall now and still putting out healthy shoots.   The fruit themselves grow no longer than a couple inches and tend to be on the spicier end of the heat spectrum.  I've had to support the plant with stakes because of the plants height and single stalk. Because of our climate here in San Diego I am fortunate to be able to grow things like peppers and tomatoes for more than one season at a time. If you cannot eat the fruit at time of picking the peppers can be dried out on a table or hung to dry and used as pepper flakes or tossed into a soup. The seeds can be saved for next year's crop.