Sprouts and ginormous leaves

French Breakfast Radish

The warmth has helped much of the garden grow in a variety of ways.  The radish seeds have sprouted and will be ready to pick before you know it.  As I pick the radish I will begin to replant sections for a continual harvest.   The corn is growing taller each day.  My father recently pulled all of the suckers, also known as tillers, off of each corn stalk.  When corn grows you will notice a few shoots coming out of the base of the corn stalk.  Those are suckers/tillers.  There is much debate on the internet as to the need to remove the suckers.  I first heard about corn suckers when my father mentioned that the suckers needed to be removed.  I find it amusing that most of the stories I have read online start that very same way, "I remember my father saying..."  However, I have read that removing the suckers will not change the outcome of the harvest.  Either way, I am still looking forward to biting into that first ear of sweet corn.  Nom nom!!

Cucumber (left), sweet corn (back) and Zucchini (right)

The cucumber and zucchinni plants are also doing very well.  Both plants have lots of flowers and are beginning to produce fruit.  There have been numerous harvest of squash and sage.  The only plants I am worried about are the two eggplants.  Our kitty Mooch decided that he wanted to wrestle with the eggplants.  I came out one morning to find one eggplant laying down in the dirt horizontally.   Luckily the stalk of the plant did not snap and break but most of the leaves are brown and crumble when touched.  Between Mooch and the cold weather a few weeks ago I am afraid the plants will not make it.

Tomato plant from saved seed

On a positive note, it has been decided that the victory garden will keep one of the saved seed tomato plants.  Technically, the plant seed came from the compost pile.  My family likes to compost our food scraps.  In previous years the victory garden included over 10 tomato plants.  With that many tomatoes my family would find ourselves seeding and peeling bags full of tomatoes.  Most of the scraps would be thrown into the compost.  The next year when the ground is soft and the compost has been spread volunteer tomato plants start popping up every where.  I pull up most of the volunteer tomato plants but this year the garden is going to include one more tomato plant.  Lets just hope it will produce fruit.