{"id":810,"date":"2012-06-11T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=810"},"modified":"2014-09-03T21:54:28","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T01:54:28","slug":"are-your-peppers-laying-down-on-the-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=810","title":{"rendered":"Are your peppers laying down on the job?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the garden is really starting to get going there isn’t a lot to do. \u00a0The plants pretty much know what they’re doing on their own. \u00a0A little water and weeding is all I have to do for the most part. \u00a0 That and walk around every morning with my coffee, yelling “Honey, we have strawberries!” and \u00a0“Honey, the basil is getting big!” like a five year old. \u00a0I’m pretty sure TB completely ignores me.<\/p>\n

So I did my morning ‘surveying my lands’ walk the other morning and noticed that my little pepper plant looked like he needed a V8.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Last year this happened to the one pepper plant that made it into the garden from a seed started indoors. \u00a0TB “was helping” and tried to straighten it. \u00a0Since it had been growing crooked for so long, it didn’t want to be straightened. \u00a0It snapped right off. \u00a0I was almost in tears when he called me at work to tell me. \u00a0 So this year before we get to the point of no return I wanted to put stakes in to help. \u00a0Now just like with the tomato cages you really should put this stuff in at the time of planting. \u00a0That way you don’t harm any of the roots that have now stretched out. \u00a0But, you know, I didn’t do that. \u00a0So whatever, we will do it now.<\/p>\n

First step is get a stake. \u00a0Since I only needed two and didn’t want to buy a whole pack, I went to the wood working section by the lumber at Lowes. \u00a0You can buy 4 foot dowels for 80 cents in different widths. \u00a0I think this is around a 5\/16 wide but I don’t really remember. \u00a0I cut it in half and presto – two pepper stakes. \u00a0Shove the stake into the soil near the plant but not on top of it \u00a0as to avoid the roots at least a little.<\/p>\n

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Next we will need something to tie the plant to the stake. \u00a0I recently cut up an old shirt to use for rags in the shop and I cut strips out of the collar. \u00a0I like the idea of strips of cloth since they won’t damage the plant or impede it’s growth.<\/p>\n

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I tried to find a good flat spot on the plant’s stem where the cloth tie wouldn’t interfere. \u00a0I made a big loop around both the plant and the stake and made a knot. \u00a0I left a bunch of room for the plant to grow inside the loop in case I forget to check on it’s progress.<\/p>\n

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After the knot was secure I trimmed off the excess cloth so nothing was hanging on the ground. \u00a0No sense and making a lovely walkway for bugs to travel up.<\/p>\n

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And here is a pic from this morning’s ‘surveying my land’ walk with the pepper all adjusted, happy and standing at attention!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that the garden is really starting to get going there isn’t a lot to do. \u00a0The plants pretty much know what they’re doing on their own. \u00a0A little water and weeding is all I have to do for the…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,20],"tags":[122,140,141],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/standing-tall-1410.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1J4KT-d4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":840,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=840","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":0},"title":"Mid June Garden Update","date":"June 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The weather around here has been crazy. \u00a0It rains for a week straight then its sunny but in the 50s. \u00a0I went from a fleece at night three days ago to the middle of a 100 degree heat wave today. \u00a0While this is irritating to me, the plants seem very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/side-garden-view-6-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2404,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2404","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":1},"title":"It’s seed planting time again!","date":"February 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The holidays are over. \u00a0It's been snowing every other day for weeks. \u00a0The walls are starting to close in. \u00a0Summer seems so far away. But spring is not so very far away. February is one of my favorite times of the year. \u00a0After the fall clean up and the holidays,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Veggie-Seeds-Ridiculous-Redhead-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":852,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=852","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":2},"title":"Mosquitoes Suck (no pun intended)","date":"June 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I was told that because it was so warm this winter there was no freeze to kill things off. \u00a0Like bugs for example. \u00a0This meant that this summer would be more buggy than last year. Last year I was eaten alive every night by mosquitoes. \u00a0So what does that mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Green Ideas"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/opie-pitcher-6-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1377,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=1377","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":3},"title":"Asparagus – The First Year","date":"August 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"So from time to time I can get a little gung ho when I have a new idea. This is usually when TB runs and hides, hoping he won't have to help and I won't make a huge mess. Last fall as the garden was winding down I was already\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Asparagus-aug-16-13.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=748","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":4},"title":"Our first harvest","date":"May 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Everything is starting to really grow around here. \u00a0I think we have been transplanted to Seattle like we are in the new NBC Wednesday night drama. \u00a0It feels like it has been raining for months. \u00a0Granted it was beautiful and sunny this weekend and don't think that I didn't enjoy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/first-harvest-1288.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1098,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=1098","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":5},"title":"Another reason the neighbors think I’m crazy.","date":"February 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It is the time of year where I regularly walk around outside in my yard and look for any signs of life. \u00a0In the five years since I bought this house, there have been many discoveries because you never know what's going to happen. The first year was a complete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Ridiculous-Redhead-spring-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/2176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}