I have sprouts! Again, the radishes are the first to make a move.
Before I planted this time, I spoke with a farmer at Kits Farmers Market who said my first radishes probably bolted because the sprouts were too close together. If you don’t catch them in time and thin them right away, they get stressed and bolt.
This time, I seeded them really far apart.
Despite the late start in the season and with some encouragement from my fellow community gardeners, I’ve decided to try seeding a few things in the newly launched plot.
I tried radishes, beets, carrots, spinach, lettuce, and a number of other items in my temporary garden earlier this year (when I didn’t think I’d be getting a spot at 16 Oaks Community Garden), but they just never took off, for whatever reason. Or, as in the case of the radishes, they took off running and completely bolted!
I’m hoping to have better luck this time. It will help that the community garden is in close proximity to where I live so I can check on it more regularly — in contrast to my first garden attempt, which is located in a friend’s backyard a half hour’s drive away.
When transplanting the nursery seedlings I bought, I left 2 open spots for seeding, one on either side of the box. This time I’ve seeded 2 kinds of radishes, 2 kinds of beets, some lettuce and some spinach.
Gotta go, it’s time to water my seeds again…
The mutant radishes were a bit of a bust. They sprouted like crazy, then started going to seed, but hadn’t turned any shade of pink let alone red.
I pulled one really big round one, but the rest were pretty thin and many had been attacked by worms that left trails (and poo, I think) throughout. Overall, not a great harvest.
I’ve now pulled out the whole lot and re-seeded. Before I put the seeds in, I added some manure, blended it in with the existing soil and then topped that with some new topsoil. I’m hoping that will encourage the little blighters to grow like the picture on the package this time.
Hey, maybe that’s why people sometimes put the seed packet at the end of the row, so the seeds know what they are supposed to look like when they grow up!
Not sure what, if anything, I can do about the worms.
After 10 days away from my garden, I was keen to check in and see how things are coming along.
In a nutshell, stuff is growing! This in itself is a wonderful thing, which I don’t take for granted. I mean, if it were up to my expertise, the seeds I planted would be sunk. Fortunately, they know what to do without much help from me.
The broccoli is growing like crazy without much to show for it. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m supposed to be clipping off the lower leaves to help the plant focus on bearing fruit, so to speak. I’ll have to check into that. In the meantime, after dinner I did discover one floret which will be eaten soon. The book I checked recommended harvesting to encourage more growth, and that’s all the encouragement I need.
A few weeks back I mulched the garden via a couple of found bales of straw. As far as I can tell, the mulch isn’t doing much to keep the weeds out, but I think that may be because it’s not laid out thickly enough. This I can remedy.
Radishes Gone Wild
The kale is coming along nicely, now I just need to find a recipe and try and figure out how to get the Scientist to try some. He’s not really a veggie kind of guy…unless there is butter or sugar slathered on for disguise. He has, however and thanks to my efforts, discovered that he quite likes asparagus as well as grilled bell peppers of all colours. This is progress!
Happy Snow Peas
And finally the bell peppers. Those poor guys have been completely eclipsed by the broccoli and are now completely shaded. When I originally planted, the plan was to keep the smaller stuff in back. Note to self: broccoli grows big, fast. Peppers, not so much.
We have radishes! They are little, they are peaking out of the soil, and the stick says Radishes. So that’s what they are.
I’ll toast to that!