How was your gardening season?

[Dotch]

Yup, there are some varieties designed for late summer planting. It's easy to grow them, pretty much the same as growing radishes in the spring. Getting them thinned down is key. They generally are larger diameter radishes that keep well into winter. They include but are not limited to varieties such as Red Meat (watermelon radish, pale outside, reddish-pinkish-purplish inside) Black Spanish (black outside pale inside) China Rose (red outside, white inside) and things like April Cross, a Japanese daikon type radish. At first glance the root looks like a large white carrot. The daikon types can be grown in spring as well. I have not grown the Black Spanish but rumor has it they may tend to be among the spiciest of the bunch. Overall though winter radishes tend to be mild flavored. My experience is they tend to vary some with variety, soil fertility, and the season. Also, the closer to the top you eat, the more heat you may get.

There are lots of ways to use them including cooking with them in stir fry. I've never used them that way but reputedly they lose their bite and impart their true flavor and texture to the dish being cooked. I've been eating them raw, sliced up like kohlrabi. The initial flavor and texture is similar to kohlrabi but give them about 5 - 10 seconds then look out! They make for an interesting, eye appealing relish tray especially when Red Meats are included. We did that last year at Thanksgiving. Put a little dip or ranch dressing out to help cool them down a tad for those not into getting their tongue burned and they're a hit. I also keep a supply sliced up for lunchbox purposes. Here's a link to one article about winter radishes. Enjoy!

http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/lifestyles/food-cooking/in-season-winter-radishes/nTpc5/

[Down Deep]

My garden (Duluth Area) is gradually winding down. After having 50 plus inches of snow in April and a very cold May and early June I finally got everything planted during the first week of June. The lettuce, onions, and radishes did ok in the cool weather. My set plants like tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli and even the zucchini and summer squash just sat there till almost July. After some warmer weather everything pop fast. I've had a banner crop of everything I've planted. The bean crop was excellent. I picked broccoli all of July until today when I pulled the plants. My tomatoes are 6 feet high and still yielding lots of fruit. Cabbage, chard, beets, carrots and late squash were also good producers and some are still yielding. The shelves and freezer are full with enough veggies for the winter and the neighbors are all eating good. There will be a lot of green bean and pickles delivered for Christmas presents this year. I never thought we would have much of a yield of anything given the cold start to the season.

[smurfy]

Dotch.................. where does one buy these seeds? to late this year but next year.

sorry about all the ??? but this is the first I heard of this and am real interested!

[Dotch]

No problem. You don't know if you don't ask. I got the Red Meat, China Rose and April Cross (daikon) seed from Jung's. I had sourced the Black Spanish from a couple other places including Gurneys but did not order based on the uncertainty of even having a garden this year.

[smurfy]

cool......THANKS!!!!!! I order my onion plants from jungs!!!!

[paceman]

My son with a big cucumber he was growing. Wanted to see how big it would get. H

e later used it for BB gun practice!

[Ufatz]

Okay. Lets see now......the question was "how was your gardening...."

Well, our season was fine. We hauled peat and special dirt, rebuilt some of the sidewalls on a slightly raised garden, got the water system all rigged from lake to garden and spent long sunny days planting and weeding.

The deer ate all the tomatos. The raccoons ate all the raspberries and many of the squash and cucumbers. We had a gorgeous shiny black woodchuck who loved the zucchinni and squash too. Mrs. Doe and her two kids cleaned up most of the rest.

We got one tomato and three cukes.

It was a lovely summer of gardening. Just like last year! HA HA HA.

[paceman]

Okay. Lets see now......the question was "how was your gardening...."

Well, our season was fine. We hauled peat and special dirt, rebuilt some of the sidewalls on a slightly raised garden, got the water system all rigged from lake to garden and spent long sunny days planting and weeding.

The deer ate all the tomatos. The raccoons ate all the raspberries and many of the squash and cucumbers. We had a gorgeous shiny black woodchuck who loved the zucchinni and squash too. Mrs. Doe and her two kids cleaned up most of the rest.

We got one tomato and three cukes.

It was a lovely summer of gardening. Just like last year! HA HA HA.

Dude after all that work you should have put up a fence Last year we had deer and woodchuck that were eating pretty well until I got the fence up and trapped the woodchucks. This year the fence went back up as soon as the plants started emerging..

[fishindon]

Same as last year, my tomatoes have mostly all cracks on top. Last year we watered from the top. This year we used a soaker hose and still have cracked tomatoes. We have several different varieties including some heirloom ones with same results. Our garden is not big and we alternate planting cukes and tomatoes in one area. Our bell peppers are going strong as were the green beans. Cukes are still producing strong also.

can't really complain as canning has gone excellent (stewed tomatoes, salsa, pork relish).

[otterman91105]

This was the best year we have had in quite a while. We did are tomatoes in the hay bales and that worked great. Otherwise we did lots of peppers, cukes turned out good lots of them and onions.

[KEN W]

fishindon.....cracks in tomatoes comes from inconsistent growth.Plants sit during cool weather with little growth.Then all of sudden it gets warm to hot and the fruit expands faster than the skin can handle it and cracks.Not much you can do about it.Heilooms are the worst for this.

[fishindon]

Thanks Ken, did not even think about that!

[KEN W]

I usually plant 6-8 heirlooms and had the same thing happen.It's called cat facing.