Horseradish

Interesting veg this - its actually a member of the Brassica family. I have never grown this before but bought it in a pot from a nursery. I was advised to keep it in a pot as it can run riot and can be extremely invasive(there are mixed views on this around the web - some say it can be happily companion planted with potatoes, some say it will take over).
I have been advised that a new plant can grow from even a small bit of root so beware when picking!

Info and history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseradish

The advice I have been given on harvesting is that you dig up the whole plant when its dormant in late autumn/winter and then use the large main root for cooking and use the largest of the offshoots as roots for next year. The root will survive for a few weeks in a sealed containter in your fridge until you want to use it.

Horseradish is also reported to have diuretic and digestive uses and be a natural antibiotic. 

I look forward to trying out a couple of recipes later this year which I plan on sharing (assuming all goes well) - feel free to let me know if you have any good ones!

Nutritional infomation:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/spices-and-herbs/223/2

Purple bed

The purple bed is the most boring of the beds in my rotation, but also the one that I am probably guaranteed the best crop. It is my potato bed - the picture below shows the potatoes after their first earthing up. There will also be a second earthing up as the plants grow bigger.

I have seen small amounts of frost damage on a couple of the plants ( a blackening of some of the leaves), however this shouldn't impede them too much as its only minimal damage.

This is my first time planting potatoes in a raised bed, so I am interested to see what the yield will be like compared to the ones grown directly in the soil.

Though this year, my owns in the soil were very late going down - it was late April before they were planted whereas I would have preferred to get them down mid-March - the tradition being to have them planted by St. Patricks day. But we had a lot of other landscaping and moving of soil before the bed could be prepared.
I have a lot of rock picking to do in this bed - will potter along with it as the months go on - will probably not get it all complete this year - but hopefully by next year it will be in good condition.

I have also tried going 3 potato tubers in this pot - nearly ready for its first earthing up. I just want to see how they do and what yield we can get from potatoes even in a pot. Though the pot doesn't look very large here, its probably about 24inches wide at the top and about the same in height. Not sure if its big enough for 3 tubers, but again its only a little side experiment.