At 92, pepper-growing itch persists

My neighboring and not so endearing deer have effectively ended my 6-foot pepper plant reign as the pepper king. For 20 of the last 22 years, I have been able to raise 6-foot-plus pepper plants with stalks like corn stalks and loaded with long sweet red frying peppers. Two years ago, my era came to a screeching halt, because of the not so dear deer.

That year several plants had reached 4 feet and were heading toward heaven when the deer gave them a crewcut pruning, and that was it. That was one of my life’s unpleasant shocks. Having lived in this area for 56 years and never having a problem with deer for 54 of those years, the deer came out of the woodwork or woods.

Having won many prizes at the Canfield Fair for my giant pepper plants, I had a standing invitation with Mike Case of 21 WFMJ-TV fame to be on his program, but the deer did me in.

Many great photos of my giant plants were taken by The Vindicator’s ace photographer Bill Lewis.

Having reached 92 years of age, my grandson Jeff Vicarel advises me to stop gardening. I guess it’s time to stop, since I have been puttering around gardens since age 6 helping my father Giovanni [John] on the East Side with his 100 goat-horn pepper plants, which grew about 2 feet high and produced the then fillet of peppers. They helped us to avoid starvation along with our 300 tomato plants during the height of the Great Depression.

Those were the victory over starvation gardens. You can now take me out of the garden, but you can’t take the gardening urge out of me.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and member of the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.