A few years ago, I told you about a raised garden I created in a relatively small space behind my apartment building, in which I grew tomatoes and peppers.

My memory fails me, as I can’t seem to recall if I ever followed up on the outcome of my gardening adventure.

Let’s just say that during the peak of the season, I had so many tomatoes and jalapeno peppers that I couldn’t give them away.

My life has changed a bit since then. I now have a house with a backyard. Obviously, that means I have much more room to play with for growing my own veggies.

Since I’ve always been one to buck tradition, I decided to kick my new garden space off with a bang this year and opted to plant a few favorites, but with a healthy mix of the exotic.

Let me explain.

The first time I tried a genuine “ghost pepper” was a few years back when I was given a slice of ghost pepper cheese. I’m a huge fan of super hot food, but the paper-thin slivers of the unbelievably hot pepper in the cheese was so spicy that for a few minutes, I think I was transported to another dimension.

That is not an exaggeration. These things were unlike anything I’ve ever consumed – and I liked it.
Since then, I’ve had more than one person ask me where they could get their hands on a real ghost pepper an short of taking a trip to Soulard or a specialty grocery store, they’re fairly difficult to come by locally.

So I decided to grow a batch or two myself.

But it didn’t stop there. After ordering a few live ghost pepper plants, which until a few years ago held the official title of the “world’s hottest pepper” in the Guinness Book of World Records, I went hot pepper plant shopping.

I ended up with five different varieties – everything with the name “scorpion” and “devil” in it, I ordered.

And since there’s a new “hottest pepper in the world” title holder on the market, known as the trademarked

“Carolina Reaper,” I picked up a few of those as well. They’re reportedly almost twice as hot as the ghost pepper, which I truly can’t even fathom.

They’ll be delivered later this month and I can’t tell you how excited I am to begin my super hot pepper growing adventures – which I’ll gladly share with you later in the year.

If I can coax a good crop of them in time, you might just see them on a display platter at the Monroe County Fair this year.

I’m going for complete domination of the pepper category. Wish me luck.