We planted 3 pepper plants (poblano, jalapeño, and Anaheim) in a raised garden bed. Tomatoes in the same bed are doing just fine. We feel like they are getting enough watering but any help would be appreciated!
We planted 3 pepper plants (poblano, jalapeño, and Anaheim) in a raised garden bed. Tomatoes in the same bed are doing just fine. We feel like they are getting enough watering but any help would be appreciated!
Just curious: by pollinator plants you mean pollinator attractors around your single pepper plant, correct? You may wish to use blooms that go to seed right before your peppers bloom. There’s lots of advice out there about planting flowers to get pollinators in the habit of being in the space where your food plants are growing, but not as many sources that talk about the scheduling of it all. For the best mileage out of that kind of setup you generally want pollinator attractors > food plants > predatory wasp attractors (pollinator plants with big flower pads, like umbellifers).
The idea of scheduled blooms to complement edible foods is an interesting one for sure. I guess I assumed that there is more wildlife wanting the flowery bits than I have flowery bits to offer, so that none would necessarily eclipse the other, if that’s what you were meaning. My pepper plant is in a pot in the thick of lavender, rudbeckia, alyssum, basil that has gone to flower, and a couple other things. Everything seems pretty well occupied at the moment since it’s all in full bloom, with different types of insects specializing in feasting on different plants.
I don’t necessarily want to think too hard about it. My tomatoes are in the backyard, and they’re doing fine. I added the pepper plant to a container with petunias, coleus, and lantana just to offer some height and to help shade the coleus (the sprawling petunias are doing just as well of a job at that). But it’s fun to think about how to time things just right, if not also somewhat difficult. Similar to cooking.
In any case, my perennials are there and getting fully established so the best I could do would be to maybe change location of my peppers next year. But the season is still young. I have hope.
Hah I don’t mean to pressure you, I just spend a lot of time thinking about producing food from gardens. You’re totally right, though, it’s still early in the season, and if your garden is providing you joy, then it’s doing its job!
I’m … not great at the timing of it all, but we do stage early ephemerals around our earliest flowering fruit trees and shrubs. Once the season gets going it’s difficult to get just one thing to be in flower so we often leave high summer as its own free for all.