Planting our Vegetable Garden Finally!

We're supposed to have beautiful weather the whole weekend and I can't wait to take advantage of it. I got my run in early this morning and I'm getting ready to go into the backyard and plant our vegetable garden. My girls and I sowed some seeds early this year, but it didn't work out. Almost all of the seeds grew but our weather was just so cold and windy all the way past Easter that I waited too long to plant them outside and eventually some of them started to die. I planted the survivors last weekend, but the 30 mile an hour wind and subsequent downpour took everything except my watermelon plants. Oh well, I learned a couple of things. If I attempt to sow my own seeds next year, I need to invest in a grow light and take the time to transplant my seedlings to larger pods if I am unable to plant them outside due to weather conditions. Anyway, we went to the nursery yesterday and picked up a few pepper plants. I purchased two bell pepper, two serrano pepper and two hot cherry pepper plants. I am planting seeds directly for everything else. I have a very limited space so there won't be much to plant. We'll have some green beans, cucumbers, okra, yellow squash, zucchini squash, watermelon and of course the peppers. My husband worked in the compost a few weeks ago and I have my saved pine bark mulch from last year to put down once everything is planted. It will be interesting to see what grows. Last year the only thing that I planted direct from seed was okra, carrots, onions and jalapeno peppers. The okra and carrots did great. The onion and peppers, not so great. We'll see what happens.
I did learn a few things about peppers recently. They are self pollinators, but occasionally, they will cross pollinate from pollen carried by bees or other insects. To minimize this possibility, you are not supposed to plant hot and sweet peppers too close. They suggest that you separate them by 500 feet. I obviously don't have that much space and will be planting mine side by side. I don't have to worry about it affecting the fruit of this year's crop though. The cross will show up in the genetics of the seeds, if I save them. I won't be saving mine. Also, you should pick bell peppers when they get shiny, dark green and firm. When left on the plant, most peppers will turn red and are still good to eat. You should pick most hot peppers when they turn red or yellow, depending on the variety. Jalapenos are mature when the reach good size and become a deep, dark green. A fully mature jalapeno pepper, regardless of size, generally exhibits small cracks around the shoulders of the fruit. Lastly, by weight, green bell peppers are supposed to have twice as much vitamin C as citrus fruit; and red peppers are supposed to have three times as much. Hot peppers contain even more vitamin C, 357 percent more than an orange. Those are pretty good reasons to eat peppers, huh?