I bought this one in September and it is called 'Contorted Coco' apparently ....
...and will eventually turn a chocolate colour like this and is extremely hot!
Then there are some Bird's Eye chillies appearing which are also hot...
...Thai chillies - hot again...
...and Bishop's Crown chillies which I don't find too hot. It looks like there are going to be hundreds of these. Oops! The hot ones are for the menfolk but last Saturday I bought a mild chilli at the farmers' market for myself as I can't cope with the really hot ones. I had bought a dehydrator from ALDI a few weeks ago and plan to dry a lot of chillies this year and make chilli powder.
The hot weather seems to bring with it lots of pests which like chewing on my Zion Red African Daisy...
...and makes my nice crop of lettuce go to seed prematurely. Sigh!
The Vietnamese Mint has plans to take over the whole 1/2 acre I think....
...and so far the pumpkins seem to be doing well. I haven't grown pumpkins before so am just chuffed that they have grown this much considering I have no idea what I am doing.
I have been picking and drying chamomile flowers each day to infuse in goat's milk for a future batch of soap as Jan Berry has instructions on how to prepare herbal milk infusions in her fantastic book...
...Simple Natural Soapmaking by Jan Berry which is currently on special at Fishpond.
I have already frozen some elderberry berries and am waiting for the next batch to appear so I can freeze them too until I have enough to make some medicinal recipes as there are lots of ideas in the post How to Make Elderberry Medicine by JES from Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth. I was going to use the flowers to infuse in oil for some soap batches but decided instead to use the berries.
So there will lots of watering done over the next few days while it is so hot but spare a thought for those who live in the Outback at Birdsville as it was 46C (114.8F) today with several more hot days to follow so Christmas Day there will be fairly sizzling. I have been really enjoying blog photos from those in the Northern Hemisphere showing Christmas in the snow as it is very appealing at the moment. LOL!
Chel, you grow a lot of hot chilies though you don't like them. Lol.
ReplyDeleteMy lettuce also went to seed too soon, and I used the seeds to grow more. I still have to thin them.
114°F? That is really hot. I hope it's not that hot where you live.
No only 91.4F here, Nil. Hot enough for me though as we don't have aircon. It is worse out west.
DeleteI have a variety of chillies growing here. Some were planted by me and others have been deposited by the birds. I cant get over how everything has dried off. We had such good rain a couple of weeks ago but the heat has really taken its toll. I am so thankful for the working bore we have here. I'd better head off and get it going on the garden right now.
ReplyDeleteJane it has really dried out here too. Hopefully we will get some rain in the next few days.
DeleteIsn't it starting to warm up! I've got a gazillion grasshoppers in the veggie patch, They are having a party in the celery leaves so I'm leaving that it in (even though it's not really celery-growing weather) in the hope they'll keep munching on that and leave everything else alone! I don't grow chilli because we don't eat all that much of it, it must be popular at your place! Meg:)
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting and varied garden you have Chel. I envy you growing elderberry and chamomile, and what a variety of chillies.I have found red lettuces last
ReplyDeletelonger than the green ones but a challenge in Summer. Pauline x