Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, April 06, 2009
Rudi Rudi Rudi
This is Rudi. The largest one there is the first full-sized radish this year. The other ones - they're either impatience or thinnings. I say thinnings.
Rudi came to me as a free packet of seed last year and it's the first round red radish I've grown in a long time. I've been choosing the carrot-shaped ones over the round ones, and I probably wouldn't have chosen this on my own. I like it though. The camera exaggerates a little, but the color really is very red. And the flavor is nicely radishy with just a little kick to it. The Royal Horticultural Society likes it too.
I spent the weekend pulling weeds again and doing general garden cleanup and, oh yes, sowing more seeds. I took the photos for my seed-sowing post, but haven't done the writing yet.
Labels: radishes
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Catching Up
Ya know what happens when you take a week off from blogging and blog reading? You get well over 300 unread blog posts in your Garden Folder in Google Reader. Oh, and the daffodils and other bulbs continue to bloom, completely unphotographed (by me). Happily, this blogging backlog is coinciding with a rainy weekend. This morning I only have 127 unread garden blog posts.
Though I was mostly away from the computer, there were a few blog-worthy items in the past week. In reverse chronological order:
- The wisteria is starting to bloom along I-64.
- Yesterday, while driving through a residential neighborhood in Richmond, we spotted totally-leafed-out Japanese maples. That was a surprise - the flowering trees aren't even finished here.
- We visited a HUGE garden center in the Short Pump area of the Richmond burbs. I didn't look at everything - they appeared to have a good selection of plants at reasonable prices, although nothing too out of the ordinary. They were very well stocked with tools, pricey tchotchkes, garden furniture, bird feeders, pond kits, etc.
- The coriander/cilantro and radishes from seed sowed in the cold frame in late January are now are at a usable size, so yesterday's lunch was an Indian-style Omelet Sandwich with a Indianish Radish Relish.
- Mid-week we visited Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of James Monroe (the 5th US President). During the visit I learned many things I should have learned in school about James Monroe, but the place just doesn't have the star power (or the extensive gardens) of Monticello, its near neighbor. Still, there are huge trees and boxwood hedges; a nice flower border currently blooming with narcissus, tulips and fritillarias; a huge rosemary blooming with the largest flowers I've ever seen on a rosemary; and in a pen in back of the house live 2 pairs of gorgeous pea fowl. Also notable was that I saw my first tiger swallowtail butterfly of the season there.
- On Picasaweb, I posted several photos of a pileatead woodpecker. The first good ones I've ever taken of this cool bird.
If it ever quits raining I'll get out and take some photos of the progress of spring here at Tangled Branches, but until then I'll be catching up on my reading.
Labels: birds, coriander, garden centers, radishes
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Cooking from the Garden, Early March
I never expected to be cooking anything from the garden early in March, but that's exactly what I've been doing over the last couple of weeks. I've written up three spinach meals over on my food blog.
The overwintered spinach (Bloomsdale Long-Standing) is in very good condition - sweet and tender leaves, but with a good substance that's excellent sauteed. I pulled up one green garlic stalk to mix with the spinach for last night's frittata.
I can't decide whether the one radish (French Breakfast) was a garnish or a salad, but it was very mild in taste. They're still a bit too small to harvest.
I expect to get one more good harvest of spinach from my winter experiment and then I'll pull up those plants and replace them with some transplants currently in the cold frame.
