Zucchini + Radishes = Love; Plus More Outdoor Plantings!

Although it was REALLY hot and humid today and ever threatening to pour, I still was able to get some work done in the garden.  I worked until I felt the first drops of rain, and was lucky enough to get in before the downpour and thunder!  I had hoped I could do some planting in the pots on the porch today, but I guess that will have to wait.  Everything I did today was out in the garden.

I started with some more weeding with a focus on the beet rows and the area where I wanted to put the peanut plants.  I also harvested a bunch of radishes from the beet rows, to give the beets more room.  (At left you can see the radishes.)  I have found, especially with root plants, that once you harvest them, you need to get them in a cool setting as soon as possible.  If you don't they will start to go limp on you.  I sprayed the radishes with the hose to remove excess dirt, brought them inside, cut off the stems, and put them in the fridge.  Because of that, they are nice and firm still.  Now I just have to trim the excess root and they will be ready to eat!  I will probably give them another washing as well, just to be safe!

After I got the radishes taken care of, I moved on to planting the pumpkin, water- melon, and peanut seedlings.  The picture on the right is pumpkins.  There are two Sweet Sugar Pie plants, and one Batwing pumpkin.  The Batwing is ornamental, so I figure I am safe with just one vine.  We will see if I am correct!

Next we have the water- melon.  I had four seedings, but as you can see, I only planted three.  I will keep the fourth for a little longer in case one of the three I put in the ground doesn't make it.  That happened last year, and I was very glad I had some back ups!  I have some back up pumpkin seedlings as well, so I am good to go.  There is nothing worse than putting a lot of time and effort into your seedlings just to have them die after being transplanted!  And in some cases, there is no discernible reason as to why one or more of the seedlings fail.  That is why it is helpful to have extras!

My final project for today was to get the peanut plants in the ground.  Once again I had three plants, but I only planted two.  The main reason this time was lack of space, but it still provides me with a back up especially since I have never planted peanuts.  I had to clear the entire space shown above of a prosperous weed forest.  I then made two mounds and planted the peanut plants in them.  The mounds are mainly for added drainage, and are optional.  I figured since the directions say you can put them in mounds, it seemed like the best option.  Anything to aid their growth!  What is not pictured is the hay mulch I ended up putting around the peanut hills.  The rain started as I was just finishing that step up, and I wasn't about to expose my camera to the elements!  You will have to use your imagination. :-)

In other news, the cabbage baby seeds I planted directly in the ground came up!  The photo shows two different ones.  They sort of look like butterflies at the moment.  Very exciting!  Three of the zucchini seeds I planted on the 20th are up as well.

I expect them to get insanely large like they did last year.  I will be planting some radishes in the zucchini mounds (something else I didn't get too today because of the weather), and letting them go to seed.  Last year I unintentionally allowed two radish plants to make flowers and eventually seeds.  This occurred next to one of my zucchini plants, and it turns out that is a good thing!
My compainion gardening book, "Carrots Love Tomatoes" by Louise Riotte, states that planting a few radishes in your zucchini mounds and allowing them to go to seed, aids the growth of your zucchini.  Something the book doesn't mention, is that it also gives you an insane amount of radish seed!  Last year I allowed the seed pods to dry out a bit before pulling up the whole plant and bringing it inside to dry completely.  Now I have tons of radish seeds, and have already put some to use.  It is also kind of fun to watch the seeding process of radishes, so that is an added bonus!

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so I will have to get back out there and see what else I can get done.  And, as always, I will definitely be taking more pictures!