Penelope Periwinkle wrote in message . ..
tap, tap, tap

Is everyone out in their gardens or is thing thing broken?


Penelope

no kidding. deader than elvis. my radicchios are immense, and I did
not even fertilize them this year. Next year I am going for 500 heads.
too bad that they take as much space as a small cabbage head in the
garden, and also too bad that, after having overwintered under cover
(it takes easily 10F), pulling them from the garden in the spring
breaks your back (their taproot is easily 2 feet). Their taproot is
why this vegetable is a major soil improver in heavy soils, each plant
forming a vertical channel for water and worms.

Other than that they are the perfect vegetable, hardy, immune to pests
and diseases, disliked by squirrels, tolerates drought and average
soil, matures after first frost, at which point it has a complexity of
flavor that no lettuce can hope to match. The heads keep in the ground
for months, too.