I’ve been thinking about and starting to plan the garden next summer. I’ve gotten a couple of great ideas from my friend Carol. She writes a gardening blog for gardeners along the Front Range of Colorado and a couple of weeks ago, she posted an article on peppers (http://gardeningafterfive.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/peppers-a-sweet-hot-summer/) that got me to thinking. In the past I have planted peppers in the greenhouse, but I consistently get aphids colonizing the flowers and new buds and consequently get very little, if any, fruit from the plants. The same happens with the eggplant that I try to grow in the greenhouse. After reading Carol’s post on peppers, I realize the problem may be that the soil does not get hot enough and the peppers and eggplant are too pampered in the greenhouse. I mentioned before that growing tomatoes outside in ‘walls of water’ might be something to try, but this could be the solution to growing peppers and eggplants as well. If the soil temperatures can be increased by using walls of water, there actually might be a harvest of peppers and eggplant next year. This may also reduce the incidence of aphid infestation because they may not be able to find the plants through the plastic surrounding them. Even though there has never been an aphid problem on the tomatoes, it might be fun to see what would happen if I did grow them outside as well as in the greenhouse. I don’t anticipate any wildlife helping themselves to the plants outside either since all these plants are solanaceous crops and they seem to be immune to herbivory (at least so far).
