Edible Balcony Update - Hello Red Peppers, Hasta La Vista Marigolds

The first red pepper bud flowered on the weekend. It's as delicate as a snow drop; pure and white with velvety teardrop-shaped petals - in sharp contrast to the hot pungent red peppers they'll metamorphose into!

I planted the seeds in the second week of November and, according to the growing instructions, come late February I'll be cooking up some long red horn peppers on the barbie. ....

Sadly growth and death are part of every garden and I returned from my south coast trip to find the marigolds I'd planted around the base of the curry leaf tree curry covered with strange grey spots.

A quick google search helped me identify it as botrytis blight - a common fungal disease that strikes marigolds.

The leaves were completely covered by greyish patches.

There was nothing I could do to save them. They would all eventually look like this and potentially contaminate other plants. They had to be pulled.

I'm trying not to view their demise as a failure but I can feel the other plants now watch me more furtively wondering which one of them I'm going to kill next! I've become the MARIGOLD MURDERER.

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I'm off to the garden centre to select a shade tolerant plant for the base of the curry leaf tree. Something edible would be a bonus. I'll also get some new marigold seeds and plant them in full sun this time.

I guess life has to carry on ....... (after a little therapy perhaps?)