Peppers aren't something that I eat enough of to make it worthwhile wasting a pot on them. Also, I try to grow what I can't get in the stores (certain Chinese and Japanese greens) or veggies that are much better home-grown like tomatoes and scallop squash. I do various things with the tomatoes other than eat them in salads. Some are stewed, some are turned into passata, some are dried (I have a large dehydrator). I don't can, I freeze. They keep that way for years. I use this mill. I've had it for years and it's proven more durable than the smaller Italian one I had before it. I've thought of making tomato leather but as long as I have freezer space for passata there's not much point.
The ecosystem... Well, the tree frogs love the tomato vines and climb into the pots - and sometimes up the vines - at night. Then I started seeing garter snakes on the deck and of course lizards. The finches love the kale, I have sparrows nesting in an oak next to the deck every year, and everyone comes to drink the water I put out. And then there are the pollinators and predators - bee species I'd never seen before, dragonflies, damselflies, many kinds of butterflies. The previous owners kept everything on the property cut back to the ground. I've allowed it to return to what it was before the house was built - to the extent possible - so I have more habitat than most of my neighbours. And then there are the clouds of tomato pollen - great for the bumblebees, not so great for my sinuses or my eczema. I saw a tweet the other day from the UK about the expense of restoring habitat. There's no expense. You just leave it alone and it returns. I realised that when I started seeing unusual plants I hadn't seen before on the land behind the house.
Whatever the variety the non-fruiting plum must be more temperature sensitive. You might have to be ruthless...
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branchandroot
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Date: 2025-06-08 08:31 pm (UTC)The ecosystem... Well, the tree frogs love the tomato vines and climb into the pots - and sometimes up the vines - at night. Then I started seeing garter snakes on the deck and of course lizards. The finches love the kale, I have sparrows nesting in an oak next to the deck every year, and everyone comes to drink the water I put out. And then there are the pollinators and predators - bee species I'd never seen before, dragonflies, damselflies, many kinds of butterflies. The previous owners kept everything on the property cut back to the ground. I've allowed it to return to what it was before the house was built - to the extent possible - so I have more habitat than most of my neighbours. And then there are the clouds of tomato pollen - great for the bumblebees, not so great for my sinuses or my eczema. I saw a tweet the other day from the UK about the expense of restoring habitat. There's no expense. You just leave it alone and it returns. I realised that when I started seeing unusual plants I hadn't seen before on the land behind the house.
Whatever the variety the non-fruiting plum must be more temperature sensitive. You might have to be ruthless...