March, 4th Week - Radishes
Dirty Nails writes from personal experience, having supplied his family of four over the years with enough fresh produce to eat their fill. His book combines his love of gardening with the natural pleasures of being outdoors and 'in amongst it'. The author seeks to de-mystify the art of kitchen and allotment gardening, making the thrills, spills, triumphs and tribulations accessible to all-comers, whatever their level of gardening experience.
RADISHES
Dirty Nails has been sowing seeds this week, direct into the soil. Quick growing French Breakfast radish is a favourite, and will be sown every ten days or so in short lines to ensure a summer-long supply of chunky, peppery roots. The drills only need to be less than an inch (2½ cm) deep, and can be grooved out of a level raked bed using a trowel edge or with fingers. Radish seeds are large enough to handle individually. Dirty Nails carefully places these in the bottom of his drill at 2 inch (5 cm) intervals, and brushes soil over the top of them with the back of his hand. He gently firms, or ‘tamps’, the covered drill with the back of a rake, and waters with the rose on his can. Radishes are thirsty veg and like to be grown in soil kept moist.
The French Breakfast variety is prolific. Sown individually, thinning is kept to a minimum, and therefore so too is wastage. Dirty Nails pulls his radishes when they are showing their bright red shoulders proud out of the soil and are approximately 2 inches (5 cm) in cylindrical length, which should be in a few short weeks.
NATURAL HISTORY IN THE GARDEN
Jackdaws
VEGETABLE SNIPPETS
A RUNDOWN ON RADISHES
Radishes (Raphanus sativus) are related to cabbages. Therefore, although a quick and easy crop to grow, they should be spared from sowing on ground either side of cultivating kale, purple sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts and the like. This is in order to allow the soil time to recover fertility, and break the life cycle of any of the many pests and diseases which are prone to afflict this family of foodstuffs. Having said that, radishes are otherwise generally very rewarding, with predation by slugs and snails the only major problem that Dirty Nails has encountered with them.
The first domesticated radishes are believed to have originated in China many moons ago. French Breakfast is an old heirloom variety which has been widely grown since the late 1800s on account of the beautiful looking, peppery tasting, red and white roots. Nutritionally high in potassium and vitamin C, radishes are wont to bolt (flower and set seed) in dry conditions. If this happens the young seed pods can be pinched off and eaten as a tasty nibble.
