Horseradish in the Garden

I’m so predictable. Every year in late summer or early fall, I tell myself I’m not having a garden next year. It’s not that it’s a terrible amount of work, though it is, but after a hot, dry summer like we had last year when I had to water every day since so much is in grow bags, and our water bill was outrageous, and then all the canning . . there are so many things I’d rather be doing – especially near the end of the garden season. Vince doesn’t understand that things HAVE to be done even though I’m tired or even though he wants us to go do something else. If you’re going to grow a garden . . you have to do what it takes to grow a garden.

Even about this time of year, I’m on the fence . . how much do I want to plant. Do I want to fill every grow bag I have? Do I want to use just the raised beds? Then I walk out there and see something popping up from a long winter’s nap and I’m wanting Vince to build more raised beds!

It’s hard to see but on this end, the horseradish is popping up.

You can see it a little better in the above photo. I started out with two plants. I knew they could be invasive so I planted them in one of the smaller raised beds. I’ve been conservative with the harvesting because I’d like to have more but they’re doing great and I may be able to harvest enough this year to make it through til the next year’s harvest.

I had harvested all the horseradish I felt like it was safe to harvest around Thanksgiving but made sure to leave enough in the ground for a bigger harvest this fall/winter. I mulched it pretty heavily since it’s in a raised bed and not as protected as it would be in the ground. This was the second winter it had been in the raised bed but last year’s winter was mild. This year we had several nights that were about -16 so I was a bit concerned about it.

I finished planting the peas. My favorite is Lillian’s Caseload. I didn’t innoculate them this year for several reasons: This is the second year I’ve planted peas in this bed; We added composted cow manure and we added wood ash from a neighbor’s fireplace so I’m hoping that was enough for them to do well. I love these peas and I wish I could grow enough to get us through the year but there’s no way with the amount of garden space I have and the number of things I want to grow.

I planted twice as much garlic this year as I did last year. I had one 4 x 8 bed last year. This year I have two 4 x 8 beds and one 4 x 4 bed.

Right now I have one empty 4 x 8 bed. The garlic will hopefully be ready by June 10 and I can pull it out, add compost and replant that same day. I’ll plant peppers, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers in buckets or grow bags. I’m hoping I’ll be able to control the squash bugs better with the plants in bags, but just as I’m typing that, I remembered that I did have some in bags and the bugs were horrible there too. If the squash bugs ruin everything this year, I’m giving up on squash, cucumbers and pumpkins.

There are several other kinds of peas I’d like to get planted and if I can get them in the ground by mid-June, I should be able to get a decent harvest.

One thing I may not plant is okra. We got so much last year and I freeze dried it and we still have probably more than we’ll use before next summer’s crop (2025) so I think I’ll skip the okra. I’ll probably plant 4 or 5 plants in buckets because I love munching on it while I’m out in the garden working.