In this update: Some Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes have begun to form. Sprouts have Round Black Spanish radishes are growing. We even find one with a tri-cot. It’ll be interesting to see how it grows.

Peppers (also known as capsicum in parts of the world) is a favorite plant among gardeners. With their many characteristics, some grow it for the shear joy of growing, others for culinary experiences, and some for both. Here is a look at what peppers are growing in the Never Enough Dirt gardens in the current year.

So far, it seems that peppers in Southern California zone 10b prefer partial shade.

We have seen our share of cutworms, cabbage worms, tomato hornworms, corn earworms, beetle larvae, grubs but never this one. The most interesting one to date are tomato hornworms with their size and hook-like rears. Ironically, we are trying to attract even more interesting caterpillars (like monarch and swallowtail caterpillars) by planting milkweed.

Spying this caterpillar resulted in mixed emotions. It is now most interesting caterpillar seen in the garden. The caterpillar’s attention was drawn when it was noticed that something had chewed off a significant number of leaves from the young King Mandarin / Cam Sanh citrus tree. (Usually citrus trees are not the delight of caterpillars.) Nice to discover and witness but too bad there was some damage.

Update: This is a Giant Swallowtail caterpillar. Thanks, A.B., for the identification.

Saving seeds is one way to stretch out the gardening budget. By saving the seeds, we can use our budget to purchase other kinds of seeds. Furthermore, the seeds saved and planted may be better adapted to the climate in which they were recently produced in.

However, not all seeds can be saved. Hybrid seeds (in general) cannot be saved and we’ll go over why that is in a very generalized explanation.

Afterward, we’ll go around the garden and look at the various plants and ways their seeds are saved.

A look at one way to shade young fruit trees using materials from around the yard and live plants.
Then, we finally found a site for our Panache or Tiger fig to plant into the ground.

Mid September. The change in the weather has been gradual. Temperatures have fallen off and the skies have been overcast. With a slight chance for rain we set up our receptacles in hopes of harvesting the rain for later use.

In the desert, rain is a scarce event. For this gardener, rain barrels do not see enough rain to find them practical. Rather, we use various receptacles like the green waste bin to collect rain. When not collecting rain (which is a good part of the year), those receptacles can be used for other purposes.

For many, Summer is a season to have fun, relax, and travel. For gardeners, it is also the season that provides us with many delicious goodies to taste. As we prepare Fall’s welcome, we first celebrate Summer’s retirement with a Night Market / Street Food themed get-together.

Herbs, what can you say about them that we do not already know? Herbs are a versatile group of plants– they are added to food to give it freshness or complexity; they also provide us with medicinal elements in the process.
One of the easiest types of plants to grow, herbs are great plants for beginners. There are so many types with so many uses for them. Here are some of the herbs growing around the house.