Mesclun

I just love being able to reach into the window box directly outside the back door and get some fresh salad greens and herbs. The mesclun pictured growing in the window box is Burpee's Fordhook Collection. It is a cutting mix of 'Red Salad Bowl', 'Black Seeded Simpson' and 'Lollo Rossa' lettuces, 'Early Treviso' radicchio, endive, arugula and mizuna, an Asian mustard. This cutting mix was planted in June and I've been harvesting, (cutting) small amounts for garnishes and fruit salad additions. I keep sowing the seeds throughout the season to have a continual harvest. There are some marigolds growing in there too. I directly sow those seeds, no need to cover with soil. They germinate in light. The petals are edible and the orange hue adds a great contrasting color to the leafy salad. The marigolds will be blooming soon. I'll follow-up with a picture.

Blossom End Rot

Remember when we had all that rain 2-3 weeks ago? Well the heirloom paste tomatoes, 'Sausage' received a case of blossom end rot. This is caused when there isn't enough calcium being taken up followed by irregular watering. The containers I have the tomatoes in are self-watering so there is water available when the plants need it. The monsoon we had is what created the irregular water pattern. This seems to affect the plum tomatoes and heirlooms more than the others. Mulching and kelp sprays can help to prevent this disorder.

Radishes

These are the final harvest of the late spring radishes. 'English Breakfast' is long with white bottoms and 'Sparkler' is the red, round one with white tips. Both mature in 25 days and are slightly "hot" in taste and very crunchy in texture. I love them at breakfast together with feta cheese and parsley next to scrambled eggs. Yum. Since my gardening space is limited to containers on the rooftop, I grew the radishes in the same container along with two tomato plants. There was enough room to sow the radish seeds between the tomatoes, (at opposite ends of the long container) and have a harvestable crop before the tomato plants grew too big. I don't grow rads in the summer, they like cool weather. I'll grow them again in late August in the same container. All I'll have to do is remove some bottom branches off the tomato plants, (they won't need them then anyway) and sow the radish seeds. That's interplanting at its finest.