Last weekend, I finally removed the old plants from the garden box in the backyard, and cleaned and turned the soil in the box, and then reset the watering line to its position down the middle of the box, ready to provide water to some new occupants.

Tonight, I was glad to finish the reset process.

After clearing the box last Saturday, I went on down to Lowe’s where I had picked up some Big Jim green chile plants last year. This time around, for some reason, there were no Big Jim chile plants to be found, and I asked a staff person about it, and she looked up their inventory and said they weren’t carrying them this year.

I couldn’t raise a crop of non-Big Jim’s.

My sister this week called the two local nurseries- Osuna and Rehm’s- to see if they had any Big Jim’s. She, after all, gets half the crop because she helps process them with me year end. The two nurseries did not have any Big Jim’s- but they would be getting some in later in the week.

Knowing that, I called Rehm’s on Lomas this afternoon, and the fellow who answered said Yes, they had gotten some in. After work, I headed to Rehm’s and directed by a staff kid, found several trays of Big Jim’s on a rack.

The best surprise of all: where I had paid $3.00 a plant last year to fill the garden (12 plants, $36 bucks), Rehm’s had the Big Jim’s priced at 4 plants for $3! I ended up paying almost a quarter of what I paid last year for plants.

After picking up the plants, I made a stop at Walmart and grabbed a bag of rich soil to set the plants in, and then I came home and dug 12 holes where the water lines would reach the plants. And then the plants went to their new homes in the box.

The box is entering it’s third year of use, and the long boards on the front long edge of the box are kind of iffy. One section is warped skyward on the ends- you hammer down one side, and the other on rises up. I thought about replacing the board, and then I figured I’d just drive more nails into it. We’ll see how that goes.

I am thinking I will put a better sun shield over the plants this year, and provide each one with a tall stake it can climb, to try and keep the plants a little separate from each other. We’ll see how that idea progresses tomorrow.

And we’ll see how these peppers do this year.