Search Results

Sphagnum Moss vs Peat Moss There is a lot of confusion about the labeling of sphagnum moss and peat moss. The important difference between these two mosses has never been clearly explained to most gardeners. So, this article will try to clear up the confusion and describe how they are both similar, yet two very different soil amendments. Sphagnum moss is pH neutral. Yes, you read that right. Generally, the pH of sphagnum moss is pH neutral. It is soft, pliable, and very water-retentive. It is used to line baskets, a...

Summer Succotash with Peaches & Cream Corn Succotash is a celebration of all the vibrant vegetables coming into season. It is an American dish created where the Three Sisters of corn, beans, and squash are native. Although succotash is mainly composed of vegetables, it is not unusual for bacon to be added for flavor. Succotash knows no limits when it comes to substitutions. The cherry tomatoes have a nice fresh flavor, but when ripe red tomatoes are at their peak, dice and add them for a rich flavor. Early season jalapeños can be us...

Best Mulch for Vegetables Mulch in veggie gardens helps suppress weeds, retain moisture, and also breaks down to enrich the soil life which then feeds your plants. The best mulch for a vegetable garden include organic, biodegradable materials like untreated grass clippings, clean straw, leaves, and pruned plants and herbs.IMPORTANT TO NOTE:Keep mulch 1-2 inches away from around the base your plants to keep them from rotting. Piling mulch against the stems of your vegetables can trap moisture and create an environment ...

Best Hot Sauces: Our Top Picks for Heat and Flavor We are starting this post to talk about our favorite hot sauces! As spice-addicted chileheads, we love both homemade hot sauce recipes and commercial hot sauces – and we have a whole fridge shelf full of them and the selection is ever-changing. What are your favorite hot sauces? Best Hot Sauces: Our Top Picks for Heat and Flavor Marie Sharp's is one of the best hot sauce companies out there, we haven't met one of their hot sauces that we didn't like. Based in Belize, Marie Sharp ...

How to Identify Squash Leaves Trying to identify squash by their first leaves? Good luck! Squash seedlings emerge with two smooth, rounded, oval-shaped cotyledons (seed leaves) – and they all look identical across most varieties... so it's best to label them if you want to know what you're growing. Unless you have an exceptional memory, of course. The Cucurbitaceae also called cucurbits or the gourd family, includes cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins, and are hard to tell apart until the fruits come in!The true...

Pasilla Peppers Pasilla Pepper / Bajio Chilaca Pepper Pasilla peppers are are known as Chile Negro, or Chilaca when picked fresh. The name, ‘Pasilla’ means ‘little raisin’ in Spanish, referring to the dark brown, wrinkled dried pod. The plant height grows 30 inches tall and produces a large fruit in the size of 8 – 10 inches in length and 1 inch diameter. Like most peppers it is astronomically classified as a Capsicum annuum. It carries a very mild Scoville unit rating of 1000, making it a mildly hot fruit. ...

Organic Control for Tomato Hornworms on Peppers Tomato Hornworms are really big green caterpillars that can devastate your pepper garden. Giant brown moths lay pearl-like eggs on your pepper leaves, from which the monsters will hatch and start to eat voraciously. They can decimate all the leaves on a plant overnight. The best organic control might be picking the caterpillars off the plants, but by then it could be too late to save your plants. Also, touching and pulling them off is gross, but depending on how mad you are, you won’t mind! ...

First Tomato of the Season - Bush Early Girl The hybrid Bush Early Girl Tomato is another great ultra-early tomato, harvesting in just 59 days! Compact, space-saving ultra-early tomato plants reliably produce abundant early yields. Extra-early and dependable tomatoes! Bush Early Girl is always one of the first tomatoes of the season. It's an extra-early tomato that matures in 59 days and continues to produce fruit all season. The tomatoes have excellent flavor and grow on compact 3' tall space saving plants and always a favo...

Good Crop Rotation is Important A good crop rotation plan is critical for a productive vegetable garden. One of the rules of organic gardening is to rotate plant families from one season to the next, so related crops are not planted in the same spot more often than every three years. The purpose of crop rotation is to help maintain the balance of nutrients, organic matter, and micro-organisms necessary for healthy soil. When the same vegetable, like hot peppers, are planted year after year in the same plot, they become dise...

Plant Seeds for 2016 Now! The time is now to plan your garden and get your seeds started indoors! Every garden has its own personality, just like every gardener has their own personality. Is your garden the ‘very precise decisions all the way’ or a ‘let’s just see what happens’ plan? It really doesn’t matter, but what matters now is starting tomato and pepper seeds indoors. If you start your seeds early, your plants will be larger and have better root systems developed before being transplanted outside. If you're ...

Growing Tomatoes from Seed It takes about six to eight weeks to grow tomatoes from a seed to a seedling plant that is ready to transplant outside. Start seeds indoors for best results. In 5 to 12 days your tomato seeds should germinate. Germination is best in warm temperatures (70° to 80° Fahrenheit). A heat mat for seed starting will dramatically hasten tomato seed germination. Sow seeds in cells filled with seedling mix and lightly sprinkle a bit on top to cover. Gently moisten the cells with water and place on a see...

Gifts for Gardeners Gifts for your favorite gardener! We have tried everything listed, and I have wrote my personal opinion for each one. The pictures are at the bottom. I hope this list gives you an idea for your special gardener. ~ Patsy Coles - Owner Sandia Seed Company Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. Looking for the perfect gardening gift? This food garden seed col...

Guajillo, Fresno and Red Cherry Hot Peppers... ...are just a few of the new varieties we will offer for the 2016 season! Also included will be Trinidad Scorpion 'Butch T', 7 Pot Douglah, 7 Pot Jonah, 7 Pot Barrackpore, Yellow Brain Strain, Peach Bhut Jolokia, White Bhut jolokia, Sweet Banana, Golden Greek Pepperoncini, Pimiento, Legacy Big Jim, Jamaican Hot Chocolate and a few more! We are so excited to be adding these the great peppers to our collection. They will all be available the first week of November!

Bird Seed Garden: Sunflower, Echinacea and Hot Peppers! Bird Seed Garden: Sunflowers attract Goldfinches! Grow your own Bird Seed Garden to produce organic bird seed with sunflowers or Echinacea flowers – plus you can grow some super hot peppers to help keep the squirrels and rodents away from your seed mix! What kind of seeds are in bird seed? There are a lot of different kinds of seeds marketed as bird seed from the stores, many include seeds for millet, safflower, and cracked corn – and of course sunflower seeds. We've found that most bir...

Jalapeno - Black Seeds? Recent Customer Question: Can you eat a jalapeno that has black seeds? Answer: Yes, as long as you don't see any mold! If peppers have black seeds inside, there are a few reasons this could happen: 1. Immature Seeds If peppers don't fully mature, sometimes you'll see brown or black seeds inside when cut open - or they may look shriveled. These are seeds that simply didn't fully develop.This doesn't mean they are bad, we usually remove and compost the black shriveled seed...

Homegrown Chile Relleno Recipe If you grow our Hatch Chile, Poblano, or Anaheim Chile varieties, one of the best ways to enjoy them is in the form of a chile relleno! A delicious serving suggestion is to plate your rellenos and then drizzle warm Ranchero Salsa over the top of them (see the recipe below). Rellenos are usually topped with red or green chile sauce, other additions include guacamole, sour cream, or salsa. There's no wrong way to enjoy them! Here's an authentic recipe to make your own Chile Rellenos f...

What to do with Hatch Chile after Roasting Recent seed customer question: I am asking for suggestions for what to do with my hatch chilies after I roast them? Well, the possibilities are endless! Roasted Hatch chile can be added to all sorts of recipes. Here are some of our top suggestions on what to do with roasted hatch chile: After roasting, steam them and then deseed and peel the skin off the roasted chile. We like to steam them in a pyrex glass dish with a glass lid to cut down on plastic use. Dice the chile and put them in a ...

I have flowers on my pepper but no peppers! Do your pepper plants have flowers but no peppers? This could be for a variety of reasons: Hot or Cold Weather: Temperatures – Peppers can be fussy when it comes to temperatures, they don't like it too cold or too hot! Peppers fruit best during daily temperatures between 70-80 °F. (Peppers don't like temperatures below 60˚ F and won't likely produce much if too cold – except for these special cool-weather loving peppers). If it's getting into the 90˚ F temperatures, your pep...

Pepper Plant Companions Wondering what to plant with your chile peppers to help them thrive? Flowers, chives, carrots, radishes, squash, basil, parsley, dill, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, cucumbers, eggplant, and onions all do well when grown in close proximity to peppers. But don't plant them too close that they will shade your pepper plants: Squash and cucumbers, for example, need ample space so we plant them at least 3-4' away from our pepper patch. You can also use trellises for your cucumbers to grow th...

Vegan Stuffed Peppers Vegan Stuffed Peppers Here is a Vegan Stuffed Peppers Recipe below, including lots of delicious variations and ideas for making the best vegan stuffed peppers. These are some great vegan stuffed pepper recipe ideas if you are vegetarian or vegan, or if you have dairy allergies. You can stuff any pepper, although some of our favorite pepper stuffers are Jalapeños, the Mini Orange Bell Pepper, Red Cherry Hot peppers, Pimento Peppers, the large Beaver Dam Pepper. Of course, all of our hatch chi...