The radishes in the Urban Farm project came up really quickly. And, they needed to be thinned. The Riverman asked me what that meant. I told him that we needed to pull out some of the radishes so the remaining ones would have room to get round. His eyes widened in disbelief—or horror—or maybe some of each. He was uncomfortable committing planticide – even for the good of the remaining plants. But, he did it. He got through part of the row and then stopped.
I continued thinning later in the week – but, knowing how sad it made him to discard the little seedlings, I tucked the thinned plants in among the Brussels sprouts and beets and watered them in. The next morning, they looked great. "Hooray," I thought. "More radishes for salads and veggie juice."
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| Peppers with redistributed radishes |
Riverman finished thinning the row on Sunday, but didn’t water immediately because we were expecting another deluge that evening. Monday morning, they were looking pretty sad – flat, actually -- even after the heavy rain. They looked somewhat perkier yesterday, but I’m not sure they’re all going to make it.
When we looked at the beans last night, he asked if they needed to be thinned, too. I told him they did. Hmmmm. I wonder if he’s scoping out places to tuck in the thinned out beans.
3 comments:
It's always hard to thin! Those poor little seeds tried so hard, and sprouted for you, and now you have to kill them. But it really does have to be done. I try to find spots for the extras too, but you can't always. I hope your extras do well for you. With some veggies, of course, you can eat the greens in a salad. Peas, radishes, but not tomatoes.
Welcome back!! Just saw your comment and had to run over and say hello. You've been missed. Very sorry to hear about Monty but glad you found someone else to share your time with. Even better that he's interested in some gardening. Count me in as another one who has a hard time throwing out seedlings. I just know I'm going to regret keeping all those zucchini plants I couldn't bear to throw out.
What a good idea, Alison, to use the thinned ones in salads! I'll give that a try.
Marguerite... you are so kind. It feels good to be back. I hope you have a lot of friends and neighbors who like zucchini! It's tough to plan sometimes. You want enough and plan/plant to account for some crop failure... but if it all comes in.... look out!
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