Starting my 2011 Garden - Peppers - jalapenos & cubanelles - Tomatoes

It's been a long time coming this year. But finally, it's almost planting time, here in a suburb of Chicago! The search words that usually make it to this blog is cubanelles or cubanelle peppers. I grew them a couple of years ago, but it really is still the most searched for this site. So, I gave in this year and bought two cubanelle peppers to grow with my jalapenos.

I bought plants this year, as the room that I used for growing seeds in was made into an office space for my husband. And he doesn't like it too warm. Big hmmm there. So I bought my peppers this year at Lowe's. From $3.49 for the mammoth jalapenos to $1.18 for the regular jalapenos. I got 6 mammoth jalapeno, 3 regular jalapeno, 2 cubanelle and 1 New Mexico Big Jim chile pepper. I'm still looking for some poblano plants....  I also bought some Roma Tomato plants. I like romas, because I make a ton of salsa and spaghetti sauce. Salsa is my favorite thing to can every fall! I'm getting ahead of myself! None of these plants are ready to put in the ground yet. I like to wait until the weather is at least 50 degrees at night. Shouldn't be but another week or so. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I always wonder if I am getting different peppers when buying them from the store. The leaves look identical on the jalapeno, cubanelle and the Big Jim pepper, at least at this point in their young lives. You never know untill those peppers start growing, LOL! I do know when I grew peppers from seed last year, my poblano peppers took a lot longer to germinate than my jalapenos. And they do tend to look alike until they start growing in height. While jalapenos are little bushes, the poblano plant grows tall (I've had over 4ft high). It's almost like a little tree. My husband and I are just totally fascinated with the poblano plant. But all peppers are truly interesting to us. The shape, smell and of course the flavor of each one. Fascinating!