Sakurajima Radish - a resilient green for Florida gardens

If you are into organic greens, check out this awesome radish that has tasty edible greens. It is called sakurajima radish. It is grown in Japan for the greens and the root, and it is heat tolerant. In Florida it is very difficult to grow greens in the Summer time. After much experimenting sakurajima radish is one green that I grow throughout the Summer. I did try eating the root, but to my taste it was too tough and too dense. It might be good cooked, or fermented like they do in Japan, but at this point I only care for the greens, which are delicious, and did I mention they grow in the heat?

Here's what the root of the plant looks like (hiding beneath the abundant seed pods):

Once you've grown a few plants, they will provide the seeds for you in excess. In fact, sakurajima will re-seed freely if you let it. After a couple of years I have sakurajima sprouting up on the lawn and in garden beds, sometimes very far from where it originally grew.

And finally, here are the greens. Young greens taste good raw in salads, bigger ones are good stir-fried, boiled, or cooked in any way you like cooked greens. They can be seeded throughout the year, but please select a shaded spot for them to hide from the scorching Summer rays.

What can we plant in April in Florida

In April we are getting close to be done with the cool weather season crop and are getting ready for the warm weather harvest; so all in all, April is a very fruitful month. My garden is in full bloom and glory, although in need of daily watering: the weather has been unusually hot and dry.

My favorite grape tomatoes are about my height now and are covered with blooms and tomatoes:

Cucumbers (Sumter) love climbing and producing some nice cukes, but need daily watering:

Squash survived the borer attack with the help of aluminum foil and is ready to start showing some nice fruit as well.

And of course, some sun flowers for the faithful chickens:

But back to the original question: what can we plant in April? It would be seriously stretching it to start even warm weather vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers, from seed now. It will be simply too hot for them to survive and produce in the dog heat of June and July. You could still seed some beans now (I like Kentucky Wonder), as well as cow peas, okra, and plant sweet potato slips.

If I was just starting a brand new garden now, knowing what I know now, I would concentrate on building the soil. If you are in that situation, just get yourself a few containers of tomatoes and peppers from the box store and keep them in some dappled shade - for the feeling of accomplishment of your gardening efforts. But to prepare for the fall season planting, start getting as much plant material as you can get and build your compost piles. I like a two-box method: you pile plant material in the first box until it gets about waist high, then water it about twice a week and turn when you can, and in about a month or so transfer the whole pile into the second box.

The original pile will be greatly diminished by breaking down, so the contents of the second box will be much smaller than the original. Keep filling the first box. Once again, when it gets to be waist high, empty the second box into the garden, and transfer the contents of the first box to the second one. And so on, ad infinitum. This is hard work, but very rewarding in the quality of your garden soil.