Last year I decided to start a garden.
I made a typical small garden with rows and such. I also did some container gardening. I grew every single packet of seeds I could find of varieties of herbs and vegetables from Home Depot, Walmart, Ace, and anywhere else I could find them. There were also your basic peppers like cayenne, bell pepper, and jalapeno. No super hots or exotic varieties yet. I did have some datil plants.
This was a first year, first time kind of thing.
I tried my hand at growing garlic from cloves. I tried to germinate citrus seeds. I saved seeds from green bell peppers from the store (don't try it, it wont work ). I read a ton of books. Anything plant related I was getting into.
The in ground garden did not do too well after a while and after the six or seventh time pulling weeds I got sick of it. I grew winter crops in the summer and wondered why they never took off. I had no idea what I was doing.
That first year I learned so much.
I learned that I don't like using the ground to put plants in and decided to do all containers this year. I also learned it is a little hard to take care of a ton of different types of plants and herbs that all have different needs, so I decided to do only one type of plant this year. That was peppers. Oh yeah, no more "basic" peppers with the exception of Jalapeno. Mostly supers and wilds and other exotic sorts of varieties this year.
This year was a success. But enough bio, time to answer your question.
This is an improvement over last year in which I used top soil, MG garden soil, MG container soil, soil from the yard, and whatever else I could find laying around. I had no job and no money so this was the best I could do.
Needless to say, the plants did not do too well last year.
This year I decided to get a little more technical about my soil and while I would have liked to do the whole myco/fish tea sort of thing I consider this to be another learning experience and I think I sort of got it down now. Next year will be even more technical, so maybe I will be ready then.The plants did awesome this year but could have been better I think. I had a late start and did not use any fertilizer at all, next season those are two things that will change.
Two key things about this year that I think helped a lot:
Shade and shade.
I did not need to water as often and the soil stayed moist, but not soggy. I swear I only watered like three times all year, the other times it rained, so I was good on that. I know people say peppers like full sun but I have noticed they flourish in partial shade. So I built a shade house and they all loved it. Just some advice to consider.
Here was the setup. Cheap but effective and it worked VERY well. Pic is from way earlier in the season, about a month after I started I think.
The perlite allows some drainage, the peat keeps it fluffy, and the MG helps retain some moisture with the addition of providing some nutes for a while (good for first timers on a budget and time constraint).
A pretty basic mix which I have found to be very helpful on the water bill and keeping out of the hot sun. It takes a long time to thoroughly water 90 plus pots in the hot ass sun in Florida in July, and starts to suck when you have to do it every single day.
It looks like where you are in Perris, we probably have just about identical climates. All of these things should work for you as well, of course with your own improvements and tweaks.
Hope I helped. Good luck.
