Claire
Master Chef
I'm adding this even though I was the last contributor. I've been wondering why the peppers in two of my barrels are doing so much betters than the ones in the ground. Husband and I have been pondering ... the drainage? The soil and watering can't be the answer, and neither can the sun (one barrel is actually almost in the shade for most of the day). WE've come up with many solutions, but one that was funny was that this Spring, during spring housecleaning, I came upon two boxes of loose tea leaves, probably expensive, that someone gave me a year or two ago. I had no idea if they were any good, but I knew that coffee grounds and tea leaves were things you could turn right under the soil rather than waiting to compost (heaven knows where I heard that). Well, nothing's even remotely suffered from the coffee grounds, but the pots I (for the first time) put a package, each, of loose tea in are going at twice the speed of those in the ground (that didn't get any coffee or tea). Heck, who knows?
