Aside from the pepper and tomato plants in my plastic bottle and cement bag garden, the rest of the plants are either vegetables that I have been harvesting for a while now or potatoes and yam plants of which I expect to harvest by the end of the year.
Eating spicy foods or at least meals with a moderate amount of pepper in it is something I enjoy doing and as such, I carefully nursed the seeds of every pepper fruit I bought from the market.
After a week of nursing the seeds in clean water, I went ahead to plant the seeds in plastic bottles and cement bags. In total, I was able to plant four entirely different species of pepper plant. Why the different species? One may wonder.
The different species of pepper plants have different roles to play when making a dish.
The Scotch Bonnet Chile specie. This particular species of pepper is used to make meals taste more spicy, creating a balance.
The Serrano Chile species is yet another specie. I wouldn't exactly say this species is as fiery as the scotch bonnet peppers but when added in a good amount, one can easily feel the sizzle.
The next species is the long hot pepper. Despite the name, long hot peppers are on the extremely mild spectrum of spiciness. More often than not they are either used to add colour to dishes or for their mild flavour.
Finally, Ghost Peppers
This specie is easily mistakened for scotch bonnet pepper but it has a distinct difference and that is in the aroma. Personally, I feel this specie is more spicy than the scotch bonnet and evern more aromatic.
How does gardening help me SAVE money?
Planting a variety of pepper plants is one of the best gardening decisions I've made so far. This is because pepper is added to every dish made in my household.
Before now, I always had to buy pepper from our local market before preparing a meal but it is more cost effective and certainly easier to be able to harvest a few pepper berries whenever there is a need.
I have about twenty different existing plants of pepper and this means I will not be lacking pepper any time soon. Also, I can always harvest seeds from the already existing plants if I decide to breed more pepper plants in the future.
The tomato plants have been equally doing incredible. I've noticed that tomato berries do not fruit as fast as pepper berries and whenever they do, touching them can cause stunted growth which is why I avoided close contact while taking a few pictures.
This particular tomato berry is unripe but I'll give it three days to fully ripen before harvesting.
We happen to be in the rainy season and with rain comes blossoms:)
The feeling of harvesting fresh produce from one's garden can be a very fulfilling and satisfactory feeling. Aside from the fact that gardening saves cost and unnecessary market hassles, one is always assured that they are eating fresh, healthy and “natural” farm products all the time.
Love🤍
All images used belong to me and were taken with my mobile device except stated otherwise.
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