Progress is steady and slow but radishes!

 It's another gorgeous day! Light breeze, sun with not too many clouds, kids screeching the next street over, dogs barking...

 I am slowly training myself to not only use the veggies I have but save all the scraps and peels to put back in the garden. I pulled three small radishes because I couldn't stand it anymore.

What is interesting is the larger plants aren't showing any signs of bulb and the small ones are. Likely explanation later on.

I threw the last of the fertilizer along the potato bed and dug it in. Tried to rake out some of the larger stems and branches from the compost pile and took a sample of dirt from the south bed for pH.

Cilantro is doing amazing, it isn't very strong though due to being in the shade. It's a tough balance to get lots of leaves but not bolt in heat. The key is high nitrogen and phosphorous for growth and strength. Neither of which I have in abundance. It will do though for now.

I wanted to pick one of the radishes because an enterprising small mollusk invaded it. These are by no means full grown but they still tasted good. A little bitter but that's due to picking too small.

Now as to the reason why the smaller ones were bulbing but not the bigger one. Nitrogen and phosphorous as well as sun and water. In other words, location, location, location. There may be more nitrogen where the larger plants are, thus creating more healthy leaves and less root which you would need P for (remember the letters? N P K Up: Down, All Around). Will have to see what happens with the other ones in the south bed that has more shade.

I would have to individually test every small area for nutrients and frankly am hesitant to trust the results simply because of the way they need to be done. Small capsule with powder that has to be dumped into a small tube. I swear I lose about a third of the powder when I open the capsule. I know I did this time. So it's possible the results are skewed to a bit too light.  Need to find the other type of test that may be easier to do correctly.

I used the radishes in a large salad I made that included greens, carrot, cucumber, celery, tomato a boiled egg and some ham. Yummy! As you can see I twisted off the tops of the radishes...where did I put them? In a baggie with the other scraps to put in the garden tomorrow!

I really need a compost bin now.