Rosy Red Fry, Scapes and Horseradish: Weather the Storm.

The deluge began on Friday and finally ended Saturday night. I don't have a rain gage but empty five gallon buckets had three to four inches of rain water in them. We needed some rain but not quite so much so fast and furious.

The Rosy Red minnows (a red colored variation of flatheads) hatched on Tuesday in the frog bog pond next to the veggie garden. I was looking for tadpoles when I noticed the small fry for the first time. There's seemingly thousands of them.

It was next to impossible to get a photograph.

It amazes me since we put in Rosy Red fry (most were hardly a half inch) in October a month after the pond was deepened. They grew all winter under the snow and ice and are now breeding.

Another new beginning also happened last week, the sunflowers from the Great Sunflower Project sprouted. They are Lemon Queen Sunflowers. The seeds sprouted in just about ten days. There is more information of the Great Sunflower Project on the June 5th post.

The garlic scapes also appeared this week. The garlic-asparagus tasting flowers can be used on just about on or in anything from stir fry to soup. This seed head needs to be removed to help the garlic bulb swell. Like the leeks in April, scapes are little known treasures in June. Click, scape, for more information.

I never thought of this before but I never had horseradish planted around here because I always had a dependable fresh supply. Last year, I got three plants from a neighbor who was moving and put them in the ground. They looked pretty beat-up and it was mid summer. But wow, they grew and grew.

Horseradish is really hardy, is sort of a nice looking plant and the smallest missed root will start to grow all over again. So, hopefully, now I have it contained in a section of the garden where it can do what it wants and I might just go ahead and open a new section. Not too many people this perennial root crop.

Horseradish has always been a favorite but I never realized all the health benefits. This is a plant to consider to plant in the garden or yard. Click, horseradish, for more information.

For some good, down to earth blog reading, be sure to Click here, On My Way to the Top, and see Kathleen Richardson's blog. She is also a fellow Helium writer. At Helium, she also writes a Zone on the Southern Tier area of New York State.