Winter Radishes!

As you all know, I have managed to have some success regarding radishes on the London Vegetable Garden balcony. I received a free packet of seeds with one of the various garden magazines I've been perusing to help me on my gardening quest – I forget which one – but was intrigued by the purple variety contained within.

I planted these several weeks back in one of my window boxes. One of the main things I've learnt through the London Vegetable Garden project is that many plants, radishes included, require a decent amount of space, even when space is tight. I was rather less liberal with my seed sowing this time around and have achieved improved results, which is evidenced on the photos contained in this post!

Holey Radishes Batman!

Yes indeed; I have holey radishes! A few months ago, I reported that the London Vegetable Garden's first attempt at growing radishes had ended in success, although with a lot of room for improvement.

Having sown some more radish seeds, I was careful to sow these much more thinly this time, as my previous efforts ended up strangling each other and failing to grow properly. Well, this time, the radishes seem to be growing a lot better, however many of the leaves have holes in them:


I'm not sure what it is that's causing these holes, since the London Vegetable Garden's relative height acts as a good deterrent for pests. Are my radishes being attacked by some unseen pest? Will these holes affect their capacity for growth? Will I get any more radishes this year? I'm hoping that I'll have answers to these questions, along with some pictures of crops, very shortly!

Radishes - Take Two!

One of the benefits open to London gardeners growing vegetables in pots, is the relatively quick turnaround some varieties afford. When I planted radishes back in April, they sprung up quickly, however my liberal seed sowing meant that many didn't have enough room to grow properly.

Last weekend, encouraged by their fast growing speed, I decided to experiment with radishes on the balcony once again. This time however, I decided to sow them in a highly regimented fashion, to see if this would affect the end results!


As you can see from the picture above, I now have thirteen radish seedlings spread spaciously across two pots. Now whilst a baker's dozen's worth of radishes won't keep me as self-sufficient as Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall down at good old River Cottage, my reasons for growing this second batch are purely experimental.

My initial attempts at growing radishes on the London Vegetable Garden balcony showed that, although a paltry crop, growing these low-maintenance salad vegetables is extremely possible, even with the confines of space and small pots. Now that I've established I planted too many seeds in too small a pot, I'm now attempting to see whether careful, spacious planning will lead to a better specimen of vegetable.

As you can see, they've grown quite quickly after only a week, but it'll take a good six to eight weeks before we can report back on any visible progress, so be sure to watch this space!

My First Crops From Pots!

I hope that Mr Bob Purnell will excuse me from drawing so heavily on his book title for this blog post, but my excitement this morning can't be contained – the London Vegetable Garden has yielded its first radishes!

In hindsight (a wonderful thing, but I'm hoping my mistakes will help you chaps out there), I planted my radish seeds too close together, so many of the plants and leaves have been fighting for a very small space. The resultant crop of radishes has therefore been quite varied, as you can see from the picture below, although amongst those, we do have some decent looking ones!

I've scrubbed up a couple of the radishes I'd be comfortable entering into a competition (well almost) and laid them next to the seed packet, as shown below:

As you can see, although I haven't managed to grow enough radishes to open a stall at a farmer's market (yet), this hopefully illustrates just what can be achieved from the confines of such a small urban vegetable gardening space. I'm really proud with these big radishes – and the fact that they look so similar to the picture on the packet!

Please take this as motivation – which is what this London vegetable gardening blog is all about. Why not try planting some radishes of your own? Simply use a decent sized pot and remember to SOW THINLY! Good luck – I'd love to see everyone's results. After all, if I can achieve this on a London balcony next to a busy, smoky London railway line, your balcony, windowsill or patio can too!

Radishes Almost There...

Saturday morning on the London Vegetable Garden has brought about great excitement and it's radish-shaped! That's right, whilst I'll readily admit that I planted my radish seeds too thickly to bear a large crop (the benefits of hindsight...), the radishes that have been growing are now looking ready to be harvested.

When growing vegetables, or any plants for that matter, it's always important to regularly check the surface of the soil and clear it of old leaves, dead flower heads etc, as this can decompose and have a detrimental effect upon the health of your vegetables and plants.

As you can see from the picture, the radishes are so leafy now, that it's very hard to see the top of the soil in the plant pot, so imagine my surprise (and delight!) when I checked them this morning to see this:
I'm going to leave them in for another week and then harvest the ones that are poking out of the surface, like these ones. I'm hoping, in addition to fresh radishes in a salad, that the smaller radishes that have struggled will now have some more room to grow – it'll be interesting to see what happens. Ensure you check back regularly to find out what happens when they're pulled out!

Underneath the Soil...

Exactly one month ago, I added radishes to the expanding list of produce being sown enthusiastically on the London Vegetable Garden balcony. 31 days later and the radish leaves have grown to truly impressive portions, so I thought I'd do a little digging to see just how far they have actually grown.

Many gardening blogs, books etc tend to show the reader only what's happening externally, but without testing a few plants, it's hard to see just how far along the organic odyssey we actually are. My rocket is evidently ready to be eaten now (Bank Holiday treat perhaps), but what's going on in pots that haven't shown any demonstrable change in recent weeks?

I gently pulled out one of the radishes from the side of the main radish pot, so as not to disturb any roots around the others. In retrospect, I have now learnt that radishes shouldn't be sown so close together - a concept that's hard to avoid when filled with the enthusiasm of sowing tiny seeds in a huge pot! However I have had helpful comments left on the blog and also on Twitter (@londonveggarden) telling me that the radishes on the London Vegetable Garden may just be planted a little too densely to bear a spectacular crop - we shall just have to wait and see what transpires!

Anyway, I digress. As I said, I've pulled up a radish plant and photographed it to show you how far it has grown after 4 weeks. As you can see from the close-up, a 'radish shape' is clearly visible even at this early stage. Some members of the London Vegetable Garden's Twitter contingent have already told me that once the edible part of the radish starts growing, it grows very quickly indeed, so watch this space!

On a slight tangent, I chanced to pop into Somerfield this evening on my way home from the gym and noticed that they were selling big grow bags for a few pounds. This comes as a welcome surprise, as it means a short walk to the supermarket rather than a long and cumbersome journey to the more expensive (albeit superb) garden centre a short bus ride away. No excuses for the tomatoes not to have a nice new home this weekdend!

Day 45 Balcony Update – Lettuce Begin!

45 days ago, the world was a much more innocent place. The bubonic bacon bandwagon known as swine flu or ‘H1N1’ had yet to rear its ugly head (sniff), MPs were still nonchalantly claiming expenses for troublesome toilet seats and Peter Andre and Katie Price were still manacled together in marital bliss (at least when Max Clifford was in sight). A lot has happened in 45 days, however the event that eclipses all of these snippets of news is the astounding progress of the London Vegetable Garden.

Over the past 6 weeks, I’ve been determined to grow my own organic vegetables from the confines of a dreary London balcony and the resulting crusade has gone further than I ever expected – from mentions in Times gardening blogs and enquiries from London newspaper journalists, this project has grown quicker than my runner beans!

But enough chat – if you want pretentious piffle, my Modern Musings blog is the place to go. Here, I’m checking in with you, my faithful readers, and reporting the current produce progress happening outside the windows of my London flat.


As you can see from the new photos, the most impressive result so far is the rocket. After only 6 weeks, this looks like something you could actually eat! I’m waiting for it to get a bit longer before harvesting it, but it’s doing extremely well in its hanging balcony box – and getting a lot of sun every day.

The radishes look equally impressive, although I pulled a plant out to examine progress the other night and the stalk is simply attached to a root system – I have no idea when the actual radishes start forming, so anyone who can enlighten me, please leave a comment!

The tomato plants are looking sturdier by the day. This weekend, I plan to gamble with leaving a few outside. If that goes successfully, I hope to transfer the tomato plants into a grow bag for their final growing positions – they seem big enough already but once again, any advice from any experienced gardeners is hugely appreciated!

On a final note (and at the cost of sounding like a vegan hippy), I’m really beginning to connect with my plants. The tomato plants are filling the flat with an extremely vivid smell that evokes childhood memories of greenhouses and the progress the whole garden has made over 6 weeks is a visible reminder of the care and effort I’ve been putting in. All gardeners say how satisfying it is to grow your own, and with progress like this, it’s not hard to see why.



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A Budding Bank Holiday...

Along with clogged-up motorways and visiting family members you’d really rather not, the Bank Holiday invariably shifts people’s attentions to the garden once again, even if only for a few hours of mowing or barbequing.

Whilst not a middle-aged dad who’s finally been roped into tidying up the back garden before the mother-in-law comes over, my girlfriend and I do intend to join the legions of harassed husbands at a Homebase later this morning. Keen to make the most of the Bank Holiday weather (which, strangely for England, is actually warm and sunny), I want to spend some time outdoors before I return to the daily commute and eight hours cooped up in front of a computer screen.

The main task I’d like to get sorted is the grow bag base for the runner beans. These vegetables have incredibly fast-growing and extensive root systems and the pots they are currently sat in don’t offer them enough space to grow. One of the London Vegetable Garden’s followers kindly emailed in with some tips, suggesting that a bottomless pot sat on top of a grow bag would reap dividends for the roots and subsequently, the runner bean crop.

Here on the London Vegetable Garden, we do enjoy our flowers too! The pansies that lasted through the winter have now succumbed to fatigue and have joined that big compost heap in the sky – worryingly, I think white fly is partly to blame. With this in mind, I’d also like to sterilise these pots and bed-in some new flowers.

I intend to sit down and record the day’s events later on this evening, but until then leave you with some recent pictures of how the various vegetables are progressing. The radishes are especially impressive!

New arrivals!

So, two weeks down the line and things on the balcony are well underway, highlighted by the impressive size of the newly re-potted runner beans! Now that there is once again a little bit of space back on the balcony windowsill, I’ve made a few new additions to the London Vegetable Garden.

Many of you have emailed in to say that herbs are an easy and space-efficient plant to grow on a balcony or on a sunny kitchen windowsill. I’ve taken this on board and am looking to start a varied herb garden over the next few weeks. The first of these, planted yesterday, is Coriander (Coriandrum Sativum). The packet instructions say that it is enough to grow this in pots on a windowsill, so this is a great way for city gardeners to maximise the variety of produce they can grow whilst economising space.

The second batch of new additions to the London Vegetable Garden this week is French Breakfast Radishes (Raphanus Sativus). The packet states that these are high-yielding crops, ideal for use as a ‘catch-crop’ between slower growing vegetables, so we’ll see if they arrive before the carrots! I’ve planted these in deep pots – as a shallow vegetable, hopefully they’ll have plenty of room to grow.

On a non-vegetable note, my other half is beginning to get concerned at the amount of compost-ridden pots taking over the balcony, so I’ve invested in some more flowers to ensure the balcony retains its aesthetic qualities and keeps her happy – White Foxgloves (Digitalis Purpurea). Progress will be reported here first!