I grow a few different radish varieties. Watermelon radishes, French Breakfast, and Daikon (Mouli) but my favourites are the Easter Egg radishes. In all honesty I’m not sure that this a result of any great superiority in flavour (although they do taste great). I just think they look good, and photograph nicely.
Easter Egg radishes are a nice little round radish that come in a variety of red and purplish (and occasionally) white colours. They are nicely peppery and look and taste great cut into quarters and served on a plate with a sprinkle of a really nice eating salt.
The other reason I love these radishes is that they are lovely and easy to grow. They can be sown year round in Melbourne and develop quickly, although exactly how long they take does depend on the season. They take longer to develop in cool weather. I tend to sow radishes whenever I have space in the beds, in between slow developing crops or as an interval crop between seasons.
I don’t find radishes need any particular care or conditions, other than the usual bit of fertiliser and water. I do find that the actual radishes (rather than the foliage) occasionally get nibbled both by mice and by slugs and snails so a bit of protection or nearby traps can help.
A nice simple relatively trouble free crop. What more could you ask?
Do you have a crop or variety that you grow purely because you like how it looks?
Saturday Spotlight is a series of posts highlighting particular varieties of edible plants. If you have a favourite, or even a less than successful variety of a plant and would like to include it in the series then please leave a comment with a link below. I have created a page (above, just below the header) with an Index of all the Spotlights to date. I will add links to any new posts below and in next weeks post as well as ensuring they appear in the Index.
New posts from this week:
“Millionaire” Eggplant – Our Happy Acres
Savoy Cabbage – Garden Glut
Purple Sicily Cauliflower – Home Sweet Kitchen
We used to grow rainbow chard for its looks although we did use young leaves in salad.
We grow glove artichokes and cardoons for their flowers – the bees can’t get enough of them!
I have to ask why Easter Egg radishes as they are not egg shaped or made of chocolate? Don’t tell me that it’s Easter already!
Crimson Flowered Favas are one veggie that I grow primarily for it’s beautiful flowers. It’s a good bean, but it is a late producer so I grow an earlier producer for my main crop favas and grow the Crimsons primarily as an ornamental.
I’m going to have to start slipping more radishes into the garden. Even if I don’t get around to harvesting them when they are ready, which is usually the case, their flowers attract beneficial insects and the bees love them.
Radishes are great for a quick harvest while slower-growing crops get established. Your Easter Egg radishes sound good – a nice bit of variety in colour. Every year I grow sunflowers, meaning to harvest some seeds but the birds always get there first, so they would probably count as a crop I grow purely for looks!
I’m not sure I really grow anything just for its looks, though some of the zucchinis taste about the same to me and I grow ones that are attractive (like striped ones). My spotlight this week is an eggplant, something that is just now coming on strong here.
Wow they are so pretty! I have never grown radishes before as it is something we don’t really eat. I love the look of purple cauliflower, so pretty in the winter garden, with it’s pops of colour. Plus it is incredibly pest resistant!
http://homesweetkitchengarden.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/all-about-cauliflower.html
Pretty radishes and a cute name for the variety. I really must grow radishes in winter. I kn ow they can be grown in winter, it’;s just for some reason I see them as a summer vegetable.
I think I’ll pop out right now and put a row in. Thanks for reminding me that radishes are a year round thing.
I’m with Louise, I don’t think about growing them in winter, either. Matter of fact, I often forget to grow them at all. I’ve got those lovely watermelon radish seeds you sent me and a couple of weeks off in late August so I’ll plant those and all the other things I haven’t got around to, yet. I can’t wait for some time off AND time for the gardening.
I’d forgotten I sent you some of them – I really hope you enjoy them.
I grow Rainbow Chard and Easter Egg Radish for color, I love all edible colors, shapes, and textures, that’s what kept me gardening all these years.
I love the look of these radishes and I will definitely try them next year. Hopefully this will be a radish I can stick with.
I love colour in my vegetable garden and on my table. That is why I made this saturday spotlight on rainbow carrots:
http://liveintheyard.blogspot.ca/2013/08/saturday-spot-light-rainbow-carrots.html
Thanks for linking your great post. I really recommend the radishes – pretty and easy to grow.