Getting your Radishes Right

• Choose a sunny location and work the ground to loosen the soil, then add a few shovelfuls of compost.
• Make a trench using the handle of your rake or a stick or even your finger.
• Check if you have a long or round variety to determine seed depth: 
• Long (e.g. French Breakfast Radish) - sow 2 cm deep
• Round (e.g. Cherry Belle Radish) - sow on surface, 5 mm deep
• Sow at a distance of 5 cm, radishes need space to grow.
• sowing too close together harms root development, and is how gardeners end up harvesting only stems and flowers, with no vegetable in sight.
• Once radishes have reached mature size, they need to be harvested! If left in the garden for even a few more days, they become fibrous and too spicy.

Finally, if you opt for the watermelon radish or black radish varieties (both of which store well), you can so in early spring, but you'll get an even better result if you wait until mid or late July for a fall harvest. Stored in a cool place, these varieties will brighten up your salads throughout the winter, and can also be used for pickling.

Don't forget, everything on the radish plant is edible: leaves, flowers and the root! 

Happy gardening!