It is a saga, that's for sure! I sprayed my porch down with animal-be-gone at noon today -- this is a chemical combination of some predator traces and various oils that I guess squirrels and deer dislike? And some other oils to make it not reek of blood and poop and rotting eggs and stuff. :-/ I took the peppers (and my onion) inside beforehand, to make sure I didn't hit them with any of the spray, and put them back out around 1:15pm. I also gave them all a shot of MiracleGro fertilizer, more concentrated for the ones in the gray circular plastic pots, and much more diluted for the ones in the terracotta pots.

The thing about the gray plastic pots is that they retain more water in general, which slows plant growth, and then the smaller plants also use less water and so dry out even more slowly. It's a positive feedback cycle in the wrong direction. Ah well, hopefully the fertilizer will help, and I will continue helping them shed excess water after heavy rainstorms. (I think the lack of that additional drainage while I was gone was not good for them.)