Last year I had a couple of Burpee Pepper plants grown from Koanga Gardens seed (gorgeous shade of red, and very tasty!). One was in the ground, one was in the pot (the latter didn't do very well at all), and although they are apparently best grown as annuals they can survive more than one year if they don't get any frost, which we don't. I had therefore left it where it was on the offchance it would survive, which it evidently has done as today while photographing some mushrooms at its base I spotted new growth! Now that I know it survived and can see exactly where the new growth comes from (just below where the individual fruits grew from last summer), I have removed all the dodgy old nibbled and storm-damaged leaves and decaying baby capsicums that came too late to grow properly, and pruned it back a bit ready for the new season.
Bedraggled before the pruning:
After the pruning:
Closeup of new growth popping out from under last year's stalk:
The same plant back in mid-February - I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for this season
I'm Alex and I'm documenting the fifth year of edible gardening in an Auckland (NZ) garden. This year I have an appreciation for the importance of my mini tiered greenhouse for giving seedlings a kick-start. I've also removed a few more of those boring non-edible plants to free up space for a herb garden - and I'm preparing the soil along the fenceline for berries. What to choose, what to choose.....
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