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American Garden Museum

© Sheri Ann Richerson

Here it is already the end of November. It seems like just yesterday it was summer. Most of the plants in the garden are gone now, struck by Jack Frost himself. However a few live on.

Recently my garden was chosen for inclusion in the American Garden Museum. While this was quite an honor in itself, the real prize was what I found when the photographer for the Chronicle-Tribune came out to take photos for the story they are planning to run on this. While walking through the garden I thought was done for the year I noticed a nice green patch where black radish seeds were sown earlier this summer. I reached down and there were radishes ready to be picked.

Now here is the odd part, the seeds did not germinate as they should have. I had not been in the back yard garden for several weeks. Still thriving was cabbage, brussel sprouts, celery and the black radishes. The celery and radishes were the real surprise here.

I reached down and pulled three nice sized ones up. They measured two and a half inches across and were four and a half to five inches long. I took them inside where they were quickly cut up and tasted. The smaller ones had thick skin while the larger ones had skins more like a typical radish. The difference, besides color, was taste. These black radishes, generally ate with dip, were very hot.

This honor made me have to go outside where everything should have been gone. The real honor was finding those radishes. Here is my story as it is listed on the American Garden Museum website.

March 31, 2003 brought me to this property. When I purchased it there was mud, overgrown trees and thistle as well as a collection of broken glass and rusted, broken metal material such as fencing, nails, railroad stakes, etc. that had to be dealt with.

The plan was to have an herb, flower and vegetable garden that would be planted on time so that the production schedule would not be behind. Being a garden writer and needing to trial many new plant varieties this year added to the importance of accomplishing this task. The vegetable garden had to be big enough to produce food for me to freeze for winter use as well as produce additional food that could be donated to local food pantries for the Plant a Row for the Hungry Program.

The copyright of the article American Garden Museum in Tropical Plants is owned by Sheri Ann Richerson. Permission to republish American Garden Museum in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.