First Harverst

As the title suggests today I started to harvest a few veggies from my garden. My Easter Egg blend radishes are ready and so is the spinach. The spinach leaves are getting big and are now the perfect size for a nice salad....albeit a small salad..but a salad nonetheless. Today I just clipped a few to taste and tomorrow I hope to make the aforementioned salad...lol

1st harvest of 2011... a very yummy radish

My radish crop has yet again been treating to a lovely mess of radish maggots. The first few I picked, like the one above looked great and I thought I was in the clear. However by the 3rd one I noticed the tell tale signs of worm "tracks". EXTREMELY disappointing. I had planted radishes 6 years ago in my first garden only to have to throw them all out do to those stupid little bugs. At that time I researched what to do, found out there was little I could do unless I wanted to use heavy pesticides, so I just didn't include them in my garden again. I had heard a few people here and there say the same thing in the past so year after year i left them out..Until this year that is. I had heard that since it was going to be a dry summer that the radish maggots would stay away and therefore I figured what the heck lets plant some. Oh well you live and learn right. I looked online and it says that the radishes are still okay to eat they are just no longer store quality. They suggests to just wash as normal and cut off any of the brown worm paths..so maybe not all is lost. I have an entire row of the Easter Egg blend and half a row of watermelon radishes. They are a few rows apart so we shall see what happens. I may just dig them all up in the next few days and plant something else. There is still a couple of months of growing time. The trick is to find a store that still has seeds out and to find something that will mature in 60days.

The root maggots can attack all root veggies. I noticed that my cabbage already have a few holes in them, but the Kohl Rabi appear to be okay. As for the cauliflower, beets, potatoes, and onions I can only keep my fingers crossed and try to not think about a horrible outcome at harvest time.

The wet weather has helped to keep the weeds down. I still have to go in and go between the rows. I think my mom is going to come out tomorrow to help me. I did about 20mins today and it was too much. At least I was smart and went in.