NEW DEP Website & Gardening Quiz

The PA Department of Environmental Protection has set up a "Public Participation Center" website.

 

Check it out here.

 

I've signed up for their email alerts on the Be Informed page.

 

You should, too.

 

Well, it's the fourth quarter, and that has been my busiest time of year at work for the last 14 years since leaving corporate America and joining the legal industry. This year is no different, and I'll be heading into the office earlier and getting home later at least through the end of December.

 

I will be posting less frequently and, except for weekends, more than likely be keeping my offerings fairly brief.

 

As two quick updates; no more visits to the orthopedic surgeon for this guy. I've been released to take complete control of the rest of my rehab/recovery. I can run...or at least start jogging short distances for starters. I can get into, albeit slowly, the jumping/plyometric thing. Looking forward to seeing where I am in 3 months at the one year mark.

 

As far as my garden this year? My pepper plants continue to blossom and are yielding an incredible amount of super-duper hot peppers. The Moruga Scorpions and Caribbean Reds are doing the best. My one pumpkin plant is darn near 20' across, yet appears to be suffering from some type of blossom-end rot as, so far, I haven't found one pumpkin that got beyond the stage in the last pic below. If nothing else, it will be a major addition to the year-end compost pile when I clean up the garden after the first round of killing frosts.

 

Above: Two Moruga Scorpion peppers and a piglet.

 

 

 

Above: Bountiful Caribbean Reds

 

 

Here's a quiz for the gardeners out there. The person who gets the correct/closest answer will get a Susquehanna River-related gift.

 

Here we go:

 

I gave several Moruga Scorpion pepper plant seedlings to our neighbors earlier this year. We planted them at about the same time.

 

I stopped over to talk to him last weekend and asked him how the scorpion seedlings turned out. He pointed to the plants, which were about as tall as mine, but looked very lanky. He said they had not blossomed at all, i.e. not one flower or fruit...and it was the first week in October! Mine, on the other hand, are still producing both new flowers and fruits.

 

He claimed it was the unusually wet year that created the problem, as peppers like it "hot and dry." I believe it was something else.

 

First guess that comes the closest wins.

 

Later.