Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 1 JunePlanting day on 3 June, looking straight down the gravel drive between the outbuildings with the transplants still too small to tell apart, pots set out along both verges and the photographer's own long shadow thrown up the middle of the frame.Week of 1 JuneOn 3 June the whole edge of the drive is one long line of single seedlings, each alone in fresh dark mix and none of them yet grown enough to tell one from another, with the house and its mature trees behind in low early sun.Week of 15 JuneAn Ancho pepper on 18 June, shot from directly overhead so its dozen narrow blades wheel out and slightly down from one short crown, several folded along the midrib and beaded with rain, on turf that runs green above and bleached straw below.Week of 22 JuneAn Ancho on 25 June, one erect stem already forking near the top and carrying nothing yet but glossy pointed leaves, with lavender and bright blue ribbon bows knotted to the handles of the bags standing behind it in flat overcast light.Week of 6 JulyA crowd of young plants on 6 July, nearly every leaf on them notched back to the midrib and some left as rags, one node holding only a broken green stub where a flower stalk went, and the toes of the photographer's shoes at the frame edge.Week of 6 JulyAn Ancho pepper on 9 July, its leaves chewed into deep scallops until the outline is ragged and dusted over with kaolin white — one flower hanging pendant from a thin curved stalk, creamy petals pointing straight down, a bud waiting on the same branch.Week of 20 JulyAn Ancho pepper on 20 July, dark and glossy over its top half and buff papery below, where a sunken patch has wrinkled into concentric ridges and wrapped round one side, droplets standing on it and its calyx flared over the shoulder like a cap.
