July in the Garden: Updates from Right Side Beds 2 & 3

Welcome back to the garden, friends. What's growing well for you? In my ongoing July garden tour, we're heading to Right Side Beds 2 and 3, where I've been tending to everything from fiery jalapeños to cool cilantro and an unexpected surprise of beans.

In bed 2 I planted jalapenos, cilantro, onions, and some flowers to keep our pollinator friends happy and help us achieve our harvest. I divided the plantings to have jalapenos on the outer edges for ease of harvesting. In the photo below, the cilantro towers over the jalapenos and onions. The photo below that is a closer image of jalapeno plants and you can see some jalapenos just growing.

If you've ever grown cilantro, then you will know that it prefers cooler temperatures, typically up to 75 degrees. The cilantro was doing well, nice leaf production and height most of June until we had a spell of 90 degree days. These hot, sunny days caused the cilantro to start flowering. I tried to keep ahead of the flowers so I could continue harvesting leaves, but I was no match for the weather. At this point, I decided to let the flowers bloom providing some nourishment for pollinators and a future harvest for me in the form of cilantro seeds or coriander!

This unexpected turn, though, proved to be a learning opportunity. While some of the leaves I was able to harvest went into the freezer to await tomatoes and peppers for my salsa recipe, it also pushed me to research more.

I started looking for slow-bolt varieties of cilantro and the best time to plant from seed for my growing zone and was fortunate enough to find seeds locally. With a 30 to 45 day window to reach maturity I still had plenty of time to plant a second crop. With cooperative weather I should be able to harvest tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro at the same time to go into the salsa.

Peppers are one of the tougher crops to grow in my zone due to the length of time they take to reach maturity - hot peppers can take up to 150 days depending on variety. One of the other factors to growing hot peppers in zone 5b is waiting for the spring temperatures to warm up. I have planted my pepper seedlings in ground in May and taken the chance that I didn't get a late frost. In the few years I have been planting peppers early I have had mother nature on my side and not received late frost.

I worry about the day the good fortune will end and I get a late spring frost or an early fall frost. I have a plan in my head to help extend my harvest. I just need to find the time to execute. This plan is to build a cold frame to cover the plants and night and take off during the day. Let me know in the comments if extending your growing season with a cold frame is something you'd be interested in learning about!

If you are thinking the cilantro doesn't look like it is growing normally, you would be right. Once I decide to let the plants go to seed, I tied them in a bunch with garden twine to give more room for sun and air to hit the peppers and onions.

Looking at the peppers, in the close up picture you can see a stake on each of the four corners. Warmer climate growers will prune their pepper plants once they get to a certain height to encourage a bushy pepper plant with more off shoots to produce more peppers. I have found that this is not a good practice for my zone. Pruning can set the pepper growth back a few weeks and that is too much time lost to flower and fruit production. Since the peppers can get pretty tall, any fruit that grows on the upper section of the plant can cause the plant to become very top heavy. This can pose a danger to loss of future growth if the plants were exposed to a lot of wind as a top heavy plant may snap from the force of the wind.

To combat this potential damage, I incorporated the Florida weave system this year. In previous years, I staked each pepper plant to a bamboo stick. To save time and money this year, I decided to try the Florida weave. The plants are protect from an east/west wind by the support of the plant next to it. A north/south wind however might cause the plants to suffer from breakage. This is where the Florida weave helps. I tied a piece of garden twine on one of the corner stakes and then wound it through the plants to the stake on the other end. I looped the twine around the farther stake and came back to where I started, tying the two ends of twine together to complete the weave.

The twine supporting each plant goes on one side of the first plant and then the opposite side of the second plant and so on. On the return, the twine goes on the opposite side of the plant thus forming an X between each plant and providing support on both sides. And, since the twine is not as s turdy as a stake, any wind will allow the plant to sway back and forth but still be supported. As the plants get taller, I add additional sections of twine as needed. Pictured below a view of the set up and a close up to see how the twine forms the X.

Moving over to Right Side Bed 3, it's looking a little chaotic, but that's mostly due to the lush greenery of my potatoes. (In the picture below, you can see Right Side Bed 2 to the left and Bed 4 to the right, helping you get oriented.) This bed also houses my Purple Queen bush beans, which, in a classic gardener's 'oops,' I mistakenly planted next to the cattle panel trellis, thinking they were pole beans! I guess I'll be reading the package more thoroughly next year.

In the center are red potatoes. On the right edge are a combination of snow peas and shelling peas. I am quite surprised that the peas are still hanging on and producing as they usually grow better in cooler weather.

As you can see, the peas are growing vertically. To achieve this, once the peas reached about 6 inches in height, I attached garden twine at the bottom of the plant by wrapping it loosely around the plant a few times. As the plant grew, the pea tendrils grabbed on to the twine (and each other) to continue the vertical growth. Using vertical space is a great method to grow in small spaces.

I did have to do a little maintenance work on the peas from time to time to make sure they kept growing up the twine but, mostly the peas took care of themselves and all I had to do was harvest.

So, that's the latest from Right Side Beds 2 and 3! It's amazing how much growth and learning can happen in just a few weeks. Every challenge, like the bolting cilantro or top-heavy peppers, has led to a new strategy or a better understanding of what my garden needs.

Next up, I'll be sharing one of my favorite watering hacks that's making a big difference in these dense beds: my homemade olla system. If you're looking for an easy and efficient way to water your plants, you won't want to miss it!

What are you currently tackling in your garden? Leave a comment, and let's chat!