Sep 26th, 2012

Rambunctious Radish

Photos & text by Albert Brian Vick,  Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator

This headline was a toss-up, among “Radical Radish”, “Ripley’s Radish – Believe it or Not” and “When Radishes Run Wild”.  No, this radish isn’t a product of an Alaskan vegetable garden, nor was it grown for competition at the State Fair of Virginia. We simply let it continue growing all summer in the Lewis Ginter Community Kitchen Garden – since April 30. Uprooted today, that’s 148 days in the garden.
We planted a few radishes in our bed of parsnips, as markers for the parsnip rows. Parsnips germinate so slowly, markers of some type are necessary to prevent removal of parsnip seedlings when weeding. This particular radish was a demonstration and will not be donated to FeedMore.

Radical Radish in front of the Conservatory.

Way bigger than a thumb, but not quite as big as the Conservatory dome.
Radical Radish

Twenty-four inches total length, all but about three inches above ground.
Radical Radish Roots

Be assured this is a radish – a plant – not a deep sea animal.

Jonah Holland is Digital Content Manager at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where she has worked for 14 years overseeing social media, the blog, and the website. She is also a mom, yogi, open water swimmer, gardener, and seeker. She's been known to go for a walk in the Garden and come back with hundreds of plant photos, completely inspired to write her next blog post.

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