An assortment of pepper and tomatoe varieties.

planted mine last week, seeds started end of december, im in zone 8, shouldn’t have any frost coming
At least those are currently easily coverable with buckets or cloaches.
I’ll risk a few in a couple weeks to see if I can start hardening them in the cold frame.
There’s still risk of snow until the end of May though, and I mean like a foot in a day, so it’ll just crush anything not covered.
Those look like they’re coming along very nicely. Are they all eventually going in the ground or will you have extras to give away?
I’ve got about 300sq/ft to plant with, so it’s totally a judgment call at planting week. I’ve got my non-dominate hand carpal tunnel surgery this week, so I’ve been planning on only having these. But if I feel up to it, I’ll plant some straight to ground stuff like peas, radishes and carrots, but I’m expecting thinning to be a pain (pun intended).
None of my neighbors really garden, they’re all just having kids age, so under 4 years old for most of them, mine are 9 and 8. And friends, all have too busy of lives to try and risk the weather gauntlet here.
Last 2 years have had water restrictions as well, so couldn’t legally water with tap water, had to collect rain and hand water. That puts a damper on people’s spirits unfortunately.
I made a ‘sub irrigated planter’ this year and hooked it up to the downspout. We’ve only had a couple of rains, but it takes less than a centimeter to fill the planter reservoir. I’m not really a big gardener, so I’m hoping this will take a lot of attention out of the equation. Peppers went in three weeks ago and the first buds are already starting.
We are a desert climate and the sunniest city in Canada. I have 2 large rain barrels and it wasn’t enough.
Also, little rabbit hole if you want to go down. It’s not recommended to collect roof rain water (caveat, especially shingles 99% here), due to the chemicals in the tar, and for every roof, diseases from bird and rodent shit on the roof.
Fine for flowers and other stuff though.
I’ve got a filter for chunky runoff. I’d worry more about chemical runoff if I was growing anything high volume consumption, but for peppers & herbs, not a personal concern. May rig up a first flush diverter if it seems like there are perceptible issues.

