The Veg Patch Diaries: Entry 06

Disclaimer: I am in no way a professional gardener. In all honesty, I have basic knowledge at best and next zero practical experience. This is simply me chronicling my adventures in vegetable gardening!

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Crazy December

December months always seem to be filled with tragedy for our family. This year was no exception to that. Though for a change, it was not with an unhappy ending. My mother spent December in the hospital, state-owned hospital. (If you know, then you know.) But she is thankfully now at home.

As a result, though, my veggie garden did not get much attention. I knew it wasn't going to be lacking in water though, as we had been having plenty of rain. But I wasn't sure what I was going to see when I finally walked out there one day.

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Monster Radish

Yikes! That was my first thought as I walked out to inspect my veggie patch. I could see at least one giant radish poking out of the ground. I know you aren't supposed to let them grow to that size! In addition, two of the radishes had bolted.

I decided to harvest what there was immediately. Though I left the two bolting radishes as is in hopes that they might produce some viable seeds between them.

Freshly harvested radishes.

As you can see, I managed to get six radishes out of various shapes and sizes. The largest radish was white and split in the middle. Upon closer inspection, I could see mold in that split. It clearly was no longer healthy or fit for human consumption. The second largest was almost in the shape of a human heart! I gentle squeeze revealed that it wasn't solid and when I finally got around to cutting it, there were several porous and spongy areas inside. I decided not to risk the consumption of this one either.

Monster radish poking out the ground and two bolting radish plants.

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Pickled Radishes

Despite discarding the largest two there were still a lot of radishes left. Too many to consume between my husband and me before they were no longer fresh. So I decided I would opt for pickling them. @lex-zaiya had done this and she happily shared the recipe she had made use of which you can find here.

Freshly washed radishes.

It was a simple enough recipe that even someone as inexperienced in the kitchen as myself could manage without difficulties. The result was a jar of pickled radishes ready to go onto sandwiches or crackers or to snack on alone. And they would last a few weeks!

Heart-shaped radish in my hand for size reference, and jar of pickled radishes.

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Forest of Spinach

Look at how crazy well my spinach plants are doing! They of course are thriving in the wet weather. I have a small forest of spinach now. I plan on doing a decent harvest but allowing enough of the plants to remain so that they can continue to grow. You can also see my parsley thriving just in front of the spinach too.

Forest of spinach growing wildly.

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Looking Ahead

I will need to start looking at a trellis structure soon as the tomato plant is starting to get sizeable. This will probably be the biggest next project for my veggie garden.

I have left the area where the radishes were currently fallow to give the ground a little bit of a break. I have a bag of compost that I would like to enrich the ground with a little before planting that area again, though I have not yet decided what with.

South African gardeners, suggestions on what to plant in the next few months are most welcome!!

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Thanks!

As always, thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my ramblings. There you go @zakludick and @lex-zaiya, my veg patch update.

Credits:

• Photos by me;
• Canva for helping me make the photos look pretty.