I'm not very enthusiastic about eating radishes, but I'm very enthusiastic about planting radishes. Why would I be so happy and excited about growing a vegetable that I'm just so-so about eating? Well, it's pretty simple; radishes are magic. I'm joking of course...except I'm kind of not joking. Radishes are a gardener's joy. They are the true first signs of spring, and I just don't know any vegetable that's as optimistic and hopeful as a radish. For those of you who aren't vegetable gardeners, or who only grow tomatoes, peppers, and zucchinis, there are a lot of vegetables which are cool-weather vegetables. This means that you need to plant them in the fall or early spring. They thrive in cool weather and will bolt (set seed) and become tough or bitter when warm weather sets in. Cool weather vegetables include lettuce, kale, cabbages, carrots, spinach, peas, and...radishes. So what makes radishes so special? Like other cool weather vegetables you plant them early. They germinate quickly. Depending on the weather you can see little radish leaves pop up in less than a week. That's very gratifying for a gardener who's longing for spring. Of course, other vegetables germinate quickly, too. What makes radishes more wonderful than the others is that they have the shortest number of days to harvest. While lettuce takes anywhere from 40-100 days depending on the variety, spinach takes 40 to 55 days, carrots take 50 to 85 days, and peas take 55 to 90 days, most radish varieties take 22-28 days to be ready to harvest. That's hard to beat! That's why radishes are just so very satisfying to grow. It's not instant gratification, but for a gardener who typically has to wait several weeks, or some months before they can taste (or even see) the fruits of their labor, radishes are pure joy and lots of fun. They're the harbinger of spring, and the first harvest for gardeners who plant them. Looking at the first radish of the year is like looking at hope made tangible (and edible) as the other cool-weather plants in the garden slowly mature. Even if you plant early varieties of other vegetables, you'll still be harvesting radishes at least a couple of weeks, if not a full month, ahead of everything else. When I look at a freshly pulled radish I can't help but smile in delight. I'm seeing a vision of the whole garden spooling out week by week, month by month, in that small round root. It all begins with radishes.
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