Spring is here again, and it’s still a little chilli…

Sooo…I’m currently trying to grow a few different types of hot peppers (Cayenne, Jalapeño, Ghost and Habanero), which I plan on using in various ways, including marketing my own hot sauce (yeah, right).

This is technically my second attempt at germinating and growing hot peppers. One that I hope is a success; well, more of a success than last years operation which ended after my beautifully germinated army of seeds got caught up in a fight for their lives as I sent them to battle in our sun soaked garden…

…they’d been flourishing indoors for several weeks and so we chatted amongst ourselves (the seedlings and I) and we concluded that they were ready for the great outdoors. They seemed prepared. Well, little did I know that this was a suicide mission. They were outside for what amounted to only a brief few hours before my children (only eight, five and five at the time – bless their poor souls) discovered the horrendous murder scene.

How, I hear you ask? Well…we have a raccoon family who we time-share our garden with. A divorced mother and her four children. They’re typically quite friendly, but I guess we must’ve rubbed them the wrong way (my kids do regularly beat the rear windows in our living room when the raccoons pass by to scare them off), as they took it upon themselves to butcher my poor seedling friends. Literally nothing but soil, plant pot debris and chewed up leaves remained. It really choked us (me) up…

So fast forward twelve months and here I am again. Only this time I came prepared. I invested in a “Click and Grow” system (clickandgrow.com) which I understand will allow my young seedlings to remain indoors throughout their entire lifespan, and so I hope to have a more successful harvest this season.

Anyway, here we are, two weeks in and we have leaves sprouting. Week one saw the seeds sweat it out with their overhead incubation domes in place, before week two’s tremendous growth saw the dome removal. I’m really feeling it this time around. With a strong start under their belt things are looking good.

It’s my intention to post updates throughout their journey, so please keep checking in to see what transpires. Here’s to a raccoon free hot pepper endeavour…