Radishes are me-firsters!

So this is how it’s going to be, isn’t it?  Every year, the radishes jump up and shout after a few warm days and some rain…”Ooh, ooh!  Pick me first!  I’m ready!  Over here!”

2009’s First Radishes

 

Canned Good Jars

Canned goods in jars.

 

Chili sauce, apple-pear-cinnamon jelly, sweet bread and butter pickles, victorian BBQ sauce, turkey stock, ham and bean soup, salsa, green beans, applesauce, dill pickles, asparagus.

We have already finished all the ketchup, spaghetti sauce, cinnamon applesauce and a couple other things I’m forgetting.

I *so* love canning!

Up next:  strawberry rhubarb jam, strawberry jam, strawberry preserves, strawberry syrup!

May 2009 Backyard Garden

     

Gardening by numbers

Bed 1 is my wife’s herb garden with an 8 foot row of cucumbers along the fence. Just seeded this weekend.

Bed 2 has strawberries, three kinds of peppers and a couple eggplants I got at the farmer’s market this weekend.

Bed 3 is seeded with sweet corn on the left side, white onion sets down the middle and melons on the right.

Bed 4 is seeded with bush green beans, beets, sweet potatoes and carrots.

Bed 5 has rapidly maturing broccoli and was seeded a few weeks ago with beets and radishes.

Bed 6 has broccoli, a zucchini, cabbages, a couple lettuce and my sons’ 2×2 squares on the left corners.

Bed 7 has hybrid Big Mama tomatoes, supposedly a huge paste tomato. The perimeter is planted with radishes.

Bed 8 is planted with 8 heirloom tomatoes and has a perimeter ring of carrots.

Bed 9 is a row of straw bales planted with lettuce and a couple extra herbs.

Bed 10 is an 8 foot wide narrow bed planted with a double row. Cucumbers and snow peas will climb the lattice.

I’ve been getting some sun!

The weather was really rainy for the last few weeks, with very little sun showing through.  When the sun did come, it was wonderful!

Last weekend I was able to move 4 yards of topsoil and fill up my two new garden beds and the ones I raised higher (finally!) I got two beds of tomatoes planted.  Sixteen tomatoes plants at home with 4 square feet of space for each one.  8 plants are Big Mama hybrid paste tomatoes.  Also a mix of heirlooms with a couple hybrids (all indeterminate) Phenomenal, Cabin, Pineapple, Beefmaster, Dad’s Barber’s Paste, Super Marmande, and Grandeur.

My wife planted a perimeter ring of carrots around one tomato bed and I planted a perimeter ring of radishes around the other one.  The radishes will definitely be done growing before the tomatoes need that space.  We’ll see about the carrots.

I have been weeding my broccoli beds, which also have a few cabbages, beets coming up from seed and a few earlier radishes growing their third set of leaves.  I mulched these particular beds last fall with lawn mower clippings that included a LOT of tree seeds, so there is always some weeding to do in there.

My 5 year old son S. has planted lettuce starts in the straw bales down by the fence.

Today I planted 13 peppers and an 8 foot row of cucumbers that are going to grow up the side of my kids’ play fort (shown in the distance at the top of this photo).  I think I’ll go back tomorrow and plant some sugar snap peas in the same area. They love browsing on those.  That reminds me, I need to make them a pole bean teepee soon.

Lots more is going on.  I’m so busy with it, I forgot to blog!

Community Garden Plot

In addition to my home garden this year I’ve been given a spot at a community garden.  I stepped off the size of the plot and it seems to be about 10 x 30 feet.  There is quite a rabbit problem in the yard at the community garden, so I have fenced in my area.  I have big plans to try a full blown three sisters garden in a 10 x 20 space, leaving me about 10×10 for “miscellaneous.”

I planted 10 tomato plants there already, but there is much work left to be done.  Planting is supposed to be completed by the 15th of May, so I need to get a move on.

Pictures are coming!

P.S. Tomato list for community garden:

• Ace 55 (determinate)
• Celebrity (determinate)
• Supersteak (determinate)
• Oxheart
• Banjan Roomi
• Rutgers
• Tamina
• Murray Smith
• Gardener’s Delight
• Spoon

Saving Seeds from Radishes

 

Did you know that radishes will grow over 4 feet tall?

I planted a pot of radish seeds in the greenhouse this December. The seeds took a month or perhaps even 6 weeks to germinate in the cold temperatures. While they were growing, I was actually able to eat 4 or 5 small ones, pulled out in the name of “thinning” before the majority of the plants started to grow seed stalks. I guess the winter weather was a bit too much stress for them.

Instead of just throwing them out, I decided to let the radishes go to seed…as an experiment.

The seed stalks kept growing and growing and growing. After growing about 4 feet tall, the stalk in the center of each radish opened up a flower very similar to what a bolted broccoli looks like. Some of my radishes grew white flowers and some grew pink flowers, although all the seeds came from the same packet. Some are still flowering now, almost 6 months after putting the seeds in the ground.

  

Now that most of the flowers have died back, seed pods are beginning to grow. They look like tiny green beans at the moment. I’ll update this post when they have grown up and dried so I can harvest the seed.