Grow your own!
Put on your hat and sunscreen, this is prime sowing time for summer veggies, except in subtropical areas where planting is almost at an end.
Pick a pepper
Sweet bell peppers are wonderfully versatile: they are sweet and crunchy in salads or stir-fries, and pop with flavour when roasted for adding to pizza, pasta, and pesto. They are healthy too, being rich in vitamin C.
SWEET SUCCESS
Sweet peppers need plenty of sun and well-drained soil. Pinch the growing tips when they are 15cm tall, as bushy plants produce more fruit. In the heat of summer, water daily; mulching will keep the soil cooler. Fertilise when they start to flower and again after two months. Allow fruit to turn yellow or red for the sweetest flavour.
BEST FOR POTS
Compact mini-bell varieties such as ‘Sweet Snack’ in orange, red or yellow, and ‘Snackabelle’ with red, sweetly flavoured fruit are great for growing in containers. These dwarf peppers produce up to 30 fruits in two flushes. Place pots where they receive morning sun and afternoon shade. Water every day as pots dry out faster, and feed once a month with a liquid fertiliser.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Grow ‘Candy Cane’, a stripy-green snack pepper that ripens to bright red, and ‘Mad Hatter’, a taller variety with fruits resembling red three-cornered hats. ‘Candy Cane’ (60cm tall) has variegated leaves and does well in the ground or in containers. ‘Mad Hatter’ (115cm tall) bears 40–50 fruits per plant that have a fresh, citrus-floral flavour. • Sweet pepper seeds can be ordered online at gropak.co.za.