Bekajoi, first of all, this was a very odd summer and hard for most everyone in Colorado in one way or another. For every success, there seemed to be an equal failure, for me at least.

You aren't alone with bell peppers not getting big, even in the ground. I gave up several years ago and just grow non-bell sweets. That saves me a lot of frustration. :)

I have grown summer squash in containers but gave up on that because they just don't have enough room, so they have their own bed when the hail leaves them alone. :)

Just my two cents. Don't you dare give up! :)

I'm an awful long way away from Colorado Springs but know something about the "odd" cool spring running straight thru the season and into summer. I understand that much of the US hardly saw summer this year

Cool weather lingers too long here about every 8 or 10 years, or so. When that happens, I have stunted peppers and cucumber plants. They won't produce well even after it finally warms up! Actually, peppers struggle every year but if the weather isn't too tuff - they can come out of it.

Like Jaliranchr, non-bell sweets are much less risky than bells in my garden. Italian Sweet, Marconi seem to always come thru reasonably well and usually, real well. And, these ones with the Caribbean names, they are Italian-types also, as best as I understand.

Biscayne is one that does well. The seed companies call them Cubanelle-types but I prefer the hybrids to Cubanelle and they have all done well that I've tried. Very nice peppers, wonderful flavor and fully as nice as any bell in that regard . . .

Steve

This list was from last year, I moved in the middle of the summer this year and decided it wasn't worth it to start up again when my sprouts all died upon moving them outside. (very sad!) They would have been really really hard to move in July had they all been large plants. :)

No giving up! I'm dead set on turning most of my yard into a large garden in the spring and I've been prepping the soil and doing all I can before the ground freezes. I do actually have some frost hardy stuff sprouting in pots right now (kale, spinach, some herbs that can move inside, carrots) so I'll have *something* to show for this year. :)

My bell peppers were good, just tiny. Like, half the size of the smallish (green) ones you can buy for $.75 in stores in the middle of summer.

Not sure if it makes much difference at all either, but I'm trying to stick with heirloom varieties so I can seed save year to year. Maybe I'll have to suck it up and deal with (some) hybrids that were bred to do better here?

I should go talk with the people at the Venetucci farm (pumpkins grown for all Springs area school kids, free on field trips!), they're right across the highway from me. Maybe they'd have tips for the immediate area, I know they welcome helper intern types. Could be a fun project for my little guy and me. Hmm...

Bekajoi, my bells got BIG this year but it's been an above-average warm 'o9 in my neck of the woods.

Big bells are a happy change of pace. We've talked about this before on RMG. I said that I like to grow Whoppers. David says something like, "Well, they are nice for humongous bells." I say, "What humongous bells? I'd just like to have 'normal' sized bell peppers!"

I grow Peto peppers for the same reason. They can get big. Usually tho', they and the Whoppers realize only about one-half of their potential.

This year, I grew Snappers. They are real, real nice. Now, I just gotta question whether they'd have amounted to anything in a normal year . . .

Steve

Up until this summer, California Wonder has been the staple that works well. This year, nope. The only thing I picked, pepper-wise, worth mentioning was Big Jim chili, which finally pulled through. My Big Jim chili plants are about a foot high. The same variety down in New Mexico gets about 3 feet high.

Steve, I grew that Whopper one summer, and had one or maybe two fruit per plant, the fruit 8" long, 4" in diameter, and the bottoms were touching the ground, propping up the plant.

What grows well for me are alliums. Garlic, leeks, onions, green onions. They take a frost, grow well in early spring. Can't grow shallots because I'm too far south.

This was my first year, so I had plenty to learn. I planted only hybrid tomatoes because I didn't really know much about heirlooms. My Beefmaster was my star and I'll plant it again, enormous and tons of fruit. Early Girl was a loser, determinate that stayed tiny and wasn't early. Husky Cherry Red was solid for sure.

My jalepeno plant did pretty well, got probably a dozen jalepenos. Took forever to start growing, but when it did it really took off, probably August or so.

Accidentally planted pickling cucumbers first, then burpless. Of course the pickling did great but the taste was average. Burpless struggled, but made a few great cukes.

Bell pepper was a failure, but likely because I had to transplant it away from my monster zucchini plant. Got one tiny pepper.

Zucchini grew like weeds, more than enough. It stays out of the raised bed next year.

Basil did great. Cilantro did well for a bit but quickly bolted, need to keep replanting next year. Dill went to seed too quickly to use much also. Onions were great.

Plenty of time to plan for next year now...

My bell peps did fine, my trick here is to start them WAY early in February. Another way to overcome this is to plant Italians or cubanelle peppers for similar taste. Same with hot peppers, and my habaneros will be started in January. Abandoning pole beans and solely bush beans and peas next season.

Dan