And I Don't Even Like Radishes

I've been going to my massage therapist for orthopaedic massage and therapy for the past 4 months.  She's determined that she can make my plantar fascitis pain ease up without my having to get a cortisone injection from my doctor.  Make no mistake, I've not been spending $$ on a spa-type massage but she's been working on me from the lower back down with massage and stretching techniques because plantar fascitis is the result of multiple muscle issues that just rubbing on your foot and wearing those stupid orthotics is not going to heal.   Anyway, that's a whole 'nother issue I can discuss in another post.  She's certified in orthopaedic massage and has studied under Aaron Mattes (developer of Active Isolated Stretching)  and just got back from one of his seminars in Florida a few weeks ago. 

So that the hell does that have to do with radishes?  Well, I was at a session this past weekend and Anne, my therapist, was telling me about her garden. She and her family are country folk and grow everything. She knows all about gardening (she's a Master Gardener) and I was telling her about my little experimental herb garden and how I could not wait to get my hands in the dirt again this spring after being cooped up all winter.  She told me about lettuce and all kinds of other vegetables I could go ahead and plant now without any worry regarding the remaining cold days we still might have. 

She told me about this idea to use cinder blocks to grow certain vegetables and how the blocks would absorb any heat from the sun even on cold days and this is how she grows some of her lettuce when she starts her early garden.  Being all excited about the possibility of maybe having my own salad lettuce I decided to try it.  I spent 30 minutes choosing seed packets at Rural King and Bob helped me get a handful of blocks from Menard's.  Above is the start of the lettuce garden including some French Breakfast radishes because they are so pretty and looked like something Martha Stewart would grown in her garden.  They are cylindrical-shaped and very pretty!  If I don't like them maybe the rabbits will.  I have 4 more blocks and will fill those with more lettuce and radish seeds on the next day I can work outside.  I'll be planting my herb seeds in another month or so.

If you squint your eyes really good you can see a very skinny brown stick in the ground being supported by some bent garden stakes, shoestrings and painter's tape.  That is my 2013 Forestry Relocation program in the ground. ha ha!  I have another tree I rescued but it is growing weird and even though I don't like to kill trees, I don't think it would be a good specimen to plant.  The above tree was growing in my herb garden since last fall and I just hope I didn't damage the tap root too much when I dug it up and planted it in the backyard last weekend.  It does have some little nibs sprouting out of the trunk so we'll see if it lives and produces any leaves.  I'll do a post on all the trees I've saved later in the season after they get some leaves.