Welcome to Day 18 of my 30 Day Challenge: How to Start a Vegetable Garden.

This weekend was a gardening weekend! I think I have enough dirt under my nails to plant another seedling! Just kidding, but a lot was accomplished in the last 2 days, so expect some great information in my next couple of articles.

Peppers, Peppers Everywhere?

It's actually more like, "Peppers....where are you?" It has been between 2 and 3 weeks since I planted green peppers, jalapenos, and banana peppers seeds. Since we were having a warm spell, I decided to plant the seeds directly in their permanent homes - gardening pots - instead of starting the seeds indoors.

This was a big mistake. Two days after planting the seeds, they were caught in a terrible storm and I still don't know if the seeds are still in the pots or if they got washed away.

Our April showers seem to have come in May and we have had a lot of rain and our temperatures are running a little below average for this time of year.

With that being said, my peppers have still not started to sprout. It was time to research why they are not yet growing.

What I Learned About Starting Peppers From Seeds

Pepper seeds like warm weather. According to a few websites I researched today, they do not begin to sprout until the temperature reaches 80 degrees. We've been in the 60s here (cooler at night), so it's no wonder why my seeds didn't sprout!

My lesson: I should have started my seeds indoors or in a mini greenhouse instead of directly in their pots.

What Do I Do Now?

Instead of starting new seeds, I decided to see if I could get the existing seeds to germinate using a variation of my mini greenhouses. Since the marigolds I am growing in my mini greenhouses no longer need their lids, I cut them off and placed them over the soil in my pepper pots to create a little cover.

However, I only had 4 of them and I needed 6, so I took plastic wrap and covered the other two leaving approximately 1 inch open on each side for breathing.

I made sure all 6 pots were well watered prior to covering them to get the full humidity factor that the seeds should love.

I'm going to give them another week. I hope to see some little green sprouts coming up soon. If not, I will need to decide if I will start some seeds indoors or if it's too late in the season now and I need to purchase them as seedlings.

We'll see what this week brings.

30 Day Challenge

I am learning a lot about gardening during this 30 Day Challenge. In many ways, despite how much you read about gardening, you don't really know how to grow a garden until you jump in and try it.

I encourage everyone to grow a garden this year. Small or large, one plant or 100, if we all grow a little bit of food imagine what we could do. Especially for those who have the room to grow more than they need. We could share with those less fortunate in our neighborhoods, churches, and soup kitchens. What a wonderful world that would be!

If you have missed any of my articles so far, please visit my website for access to them all. A link can be found in my Street Articles profile.