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Ready to grow
Restless S.C. gardeners can always satisfy the urge to grow veggies during winter by planting fast-growing radishes.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
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Time for a trim
Rein in exuberant ornamental shrubs, like this vitex, during winter months, before they begin their blooming and growing seasons in spring.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
As winter lumbers into February, vegetable gardeners start feeling that itch to get their hands dirty, sow some seeds and get the growing season going. Sadly, we must wait at least another month before many veggies can deliver a scratch of planting relief. Meanwhile, to the rescue comes the humble, dependable radish.
February is a prime time to plant radishes in South Carolina for many reasons. For starters, radishes relish cold temperatures. They readily sprout and mature in soil that has cooled to around 45 to 65 degrees, and they tend to taste less pungent—a big knock on this veggie—when grown in chillier temps.
And did I mention bugs? Although cutworms, aphids, flea beetles and leafminers can trouble radishes during balmier days in early spring, in February, these bad bugs tend to be less active.
So, veggie gardeners, start your radishes! Select a sunny planting site, and since this is a root crop, turn over at least the top 10 inches of soil while mixing in plenty of quality topsoil or commercial soil conditioner.
If you feel the need to feed your seeds, do it lightly—too much nitrogen will produce a prodigious amount of leaves, but at the expense of quality-size radish roots. Just a dusting of a common fertilizer such as 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 will usually suffice. Even better is a generous application of compost mixed into the growing ground.
Dry conditions can also produce hotter-tasting radishes, so if no rains (or snows) show up in late winter, be sure to water your seedlings at least once or twice a week.
Seedlings usually pop up in just a few days. They should be thinned so the radishes-to-be are about two inches apart.
You won’t have to wait long to harvest radishes—they normally mature in 25 to 30 days. To keep a fresh supply on hand, stagger new plantings about a week apart through February. For the best-tasting radishes, harvest early—older roots can develop that unsavory, sizzling twang. The leaves are also delectably edible, especially in salads or stir-fries.
As far as cultivars go, popular selections include Early Scarlet Globe, Cherry Belle, Easter Egg, Cherriette and Annabel. Milder-tasting daikon radishes, such as April Cross, can stretch to 8 inches or longer, but they take about two months to produce a crop. So, if you want something from the garden in your kitchen during dreary days of late winter, stick with regular, rapid-growing radishes.
Tip of the month
Now is a good time to trim up ornamentals such as crepe myrtle, vitex, spirea, roses (hybrid tea, Knock Out, grandiflora and floribunda), gardenia, butterfly bush, beautyberry, rose of Sharon and abelia that start blooming in late spring and early summer. To get them in shape—or keep them in bounds—prune before spring sprouting season starts. As a bonus, these beauties flower on new growth, so your early-bird clippings will encourage more blossoms.
In February's garden
- Pansies still perky? To continue their flower show into the spring, deadhead spent blooms and water plants with a diluted fertilizer solution every three weeks. Ditto for the closely related Johnny jump-ups.
- If rampant vines are eating your landscape, tame them before excessive foliage, pesky bugs and rising temperatures make this chore a misery. Whack back such nuisance crawlers and climbers as bittersweet, wild grape, kudzu, poison ivy (wear gloves), wisteria, Virginia creeper and Japanese honeysuckle.
- When selecting vegetables and ornamental annuals for this year’s garden, look for varieties that are disease and insect-resistant and also drought-tolerant.
L.A. JACKSON is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.