When I planted pepper seeds in March, I knew they were pretty close to the tomatoes and might get overtaken. I didn’t feel I had much of a choice though because my garden consists of four 4-foot-by-4-foot raised beds. There just wasn’t a lot of room.

At first the peppers didn’t do much, so I wasn’t too concerned about the tomatoes taking over their territory. But a couple weeks ago, I noticed they were finally flowering. A few days later, I noticed a green pepper growing, so I pulled some of the tomato branches away from them to give the peppers room to grow.

Over the weekend, I decided it was time for the dried-out tomato bushes to go to make room for a few pumpkin plants. In doing so, I was pleasantly surprised to see several more peppers growing where I couldn’t see them before. And one of them is pretty big, too (the one in the top photo).

With all the dried-up tomato plants out of the way, I can see at least a half-dozen peppers, and quite a few flowers, too. I can’t wait to have fresh peppers in salads and stir-frys. Maybe I’ll even freeze a few to use in the winter. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.