Getting growing in So. Calif!

Stuff is growing and radishes are ready! Nothing like Southern California weather!

your radish are purtier than mine

Seriously looking GRRREEEEEAAAATTTTT sg

Pepper wrote:your radish are purtier than mine

Seriously looking GRRREEEEEAAAATTTTT sg

haha Pepper. Last week, they looked like "strings" with no bulbs, then poof! So happy to finally be getting some good results. I've seen pictures of your stuff...you got me beat! haha!

does anyone know if you can eat radish greens???

Gorgeous radishes! Just gorgeous.

Well then you also saw mine last year when things did not look so good. This year I am blaming the rabbit poo for everything!

[quote="southern gardener"]

Pepper wrote:

does anyone know if you can eat radish greens???

Yes, you can.

We picked a few of the radishes today..WOW! They're huge! I'm going to let a few go and see how big they get!! My new soil is doing great!! wahoooo!! Corn is about 18" high, full heads of lettuce and spinach ready. Pumpkin vines are massive! Getting baby brandwines on the vines. Peppers are loaded with flowers. Been feeding them with epsom salts and fish emulsion and they really seem to love it! How are you guys doing??

southern gardener wrote:We picked a few of the radishes today..WOW! They're huge! I'm going to let a few go and see how big they get!! snip

Wow!! those radishes are huge and they look yummy, bet you can make a beautiful radish "rose " outta those .

I pulled up one yesterday and all it had was a itty bitty root. But then everything is growing slowly because of the cold spring we have been having.

Here's our corn with beans growing underneath for a "two sisters" garden
our turnips are also huge, but it got too dark to take a pic...so will try tomorrow

Your corn will definitely be 'knee high by the Fourth of July'! Lucky you!

What kind of radishes did you grow that got so big? They are a must for the Big Stuff thread.

Yes...they'll be about head high by 4th of july! haha! The radishes are Cherry Belle...and they were fairly old seeds too. I just sort of threw them in for a practice run with the new soil. I'll have to get a picture of the turnips...one looks to be about the size of a baseball! The tops are so big, I just now started looking to see what's happening under the tops and WOW!! So much fun

Here is a picture of the turnip I was talking about. I have more pics, but can't figure out how to post more than one pic in a post

This is the garden I posted a pic of last month. You can see the growth!!




There is a pic of a yellow zucchini, twice it's size in two days! beets, George sweet onions with actual BULBS!!

OH I love your garden! And I love the look of the pebbles surrounding it. It looks so nice and tidy. The beets look YUMMY! I love shredded beets in salads. Everything looks so delicious!

Here is my little garden in So Cal. Clearly you can see I've just gotten started and my drip system isn't even finished. I'm just praying my garden is half of what you have...awesome!!

btw - what is your new soil made up of???

Our mix is fully composted lawn clippings, last year's gardens, trimmings from the landscapers when they do our yards, household leftover fruits/veggies/, two "tubs" of worm castings, a barrel of alpaca manure, one sack of steer manure, starbucks coffee grounds, shredded paper and cardboard, dryer lint, hair from hair cuts...really anything that we can find to compost, we do. The two thirds of vermiculite and peat moss we REALLY lucked out on. We found a local company makes compost and soil products; they had a mixture of peat and vermiculite mixed, so we brought our yard of compost we had made and they added it to 2 yards of their mix and mixed it with a big tractor, and loaded it up in our trailer! We ended up with 3 yards of MM!! It turned out to be a fraction of the cost of the pre made mix, and there is no comparison to the results. We are happy with the mix, but are finding the plants are starting to yellow up a bit. We will add some types of nitrogen to green things up. Thank you for the kind words. Your garden will be looking good in no time I'm sure! Happy Gardening

Success is yours southern gardener! You worked so hard last year and didn't have the results you should have had but this year is the payoff! You guys have worked so hard so it's nice to see your wonderful success! Your garden is doing so amazing and I am envious, lol! But in a good way!

grownsunshine wrote:

Here is my little garden in So Cal. Clearly you can see I've just gotten started and my drip system isn't even finished. I'm just praying my garden is half of what you have...awesome!!

Wonderful you have a drip system and just starting out! It looks like you are off to a great start! I like your name "growsunshine". It brings a smile to my face!

Southern Gardener, are your onions about ready to harvest? I started pulling mine yesterday. Tops were folded over on about a fourth of mine.

Lindacol wrote:Southern Gardener, are your onions about ready to harvest? I started pulling mine yesterday. Tops were folded over on about a fourth of mine.

I dont think they're ready yet? The tops are still green and upright. The bulbs are about the size of small tennis balls? It's weird, the tops are small and fairly large bulbs, and out front garden, HUGE tops and stems, but no bulbs...yet?? They are about 3 feet tall, dark green with 13 leaves. The base stems are about 1" across..some maybe even more. I wish I could figure out how to make them bulb. I've done nitrogen, bone meal, my "good" compost, more water, less water etc etc...

jazzycat wrote:OH I love your garden! And I love the look of the pebbles surrounding it. It looks so nice and tidy. The beets look YUMMY! I love shredded beets in salads. Everything looks so delicious!

Thanks Jazzy. We put weed barrier down..about 16 years ago?? under the gravel, and it works REALLY well. We like things tidy, and keeps the dust/dirt down too. I too love beets. We sliced a couple up for our salads for dinner, They were so pretty inside! Dark red with lighter colored pink circles inside, and boy were they good!! I put that turnip in our salad too, and YECK! it was so bitter I don't know if it was because it was too big or what, but no more of that for me! haha

southern gardener wrote:

Lindacol wrote:Southern Gardener, are your onions about ready to harvest? I started pulling mine yesterday. Tops were folded over on about a fourth of mine.

I dont think they're ready yet? The tops are still green and upright. The bulbs are about the size of small tennis balls? It's weird, the tops are small and fairly large bulbs, and out front garden, HUGE tops and stems, but no bulbs...yet?? They are about 3 feet tall, dark green with 13 leaves. The base stems are about 1" across..some maybe even more. I wish I could figure out how to make them bulb. I've done nitrogen, bone meal, my "good" compost, more water, less water etc etc...

Mine are from Dixondale Farms and are a mix of Texas 1015Y (yellow), Texas Early White, Red Creole and Texas Legend. Some of the whites are over 4" but the reds are all smaller. It's my first time trying these short day varieties. They are still green on top but started folding over a couple of days ago.

Lindacol...can you post some pics? I don't know if mine are early, late etc. The ones with bulbs are Georgia Sweet. The others are red, some are white, and some are yellow. It didn't state the variety, just bought them as bulbs from home depot in the fall. The Georgia Sweets were also from Home Depot and almost DEAD little threads, not even close to being a bulb and look the them now!! All the others were fairly plump bulbs when they were planted and now they're all leaves with no bulbs??

southern gardener wrote:

jazzycat wrote:OH I love your garden! And I love the look of the pebbles surrounding it. It looks so nice and tidy. The beets look YUMMY! I love shredded beets in salads. Everything looks so delicious!

Thanks Jazzy. We put weed barrier down..about 16 years ago?? under the gravel, and it works REALLY well. We like things tidy, and keeps the dust/dirt down too. I too love beets. We sliced a couple up for our salads for dinner, They were so pretty inside! Dark red with lighter colored pink circles inside, and boy were they good!! I put that turnip in our salad too, and YECK! it was so bitter I don't know if it was because it was too big or what, but no more of that for me! haha

I don't know if I would like raw turnips... I do love them cooked and mashed though. Or roasted. YUM.

Getting some garlic too! Smells so good. I didn't get any "scapes" do all hardnecks produce scapes?