Features
Dorm gardening continues
By Alice M. Duncan
Enough interest in the Wrisberg
Hall indoor vegetable garden has
sprouted'so that a Miss Radish
Queen will be picked during the
upcoming Radish Week harvest
festivities. “We think that it will
be a monumental event,
something we can look back on,”
Tom Farrell stated. “The whole
campus can be proud of it,” said
Dan McCoy.
During this conversation with
the farmers two of the candidates
for Radish Queen walked down
the hallway. When asked about
an interview one moaned, “Oh,
nooo, nooooo,” and abruptly ran
from sight. The other also declin
ed to be interviewed. “It always
has that effect on them, don’t
worry about it,” McCoy
reassured me.
Five candidates are currently
vying for the coveted award.
“They are some of the girls who
aren’t afraid to come in here
anymore,” Farrell said. Each has
been given a radish cup and is
responsible for nuturing the edible
root. “Each has a radish and
we’re going to judge it not only
on the environment for their
radish, but on their personality,
and on their ability to differen
tiate crops,” Farrell stated.
The farmers refused to divulge
tha names of the can
didates. “They’d have the same
problem as us, they’d have to
wear all these disguises,” stated
Roger Lloyd in a protective
manner.
The problem is fame.
“Women, ever since our radishes,
they just won’t leave me alone!”
McCoy complained. Asked what
the women were after the
unanimous response was
“Radishes!”
Farrell and Lloyd state that
they have been chased down the
hallway since the publicity arose
over the garden, and they have
been forced to dress incognito
whenever they leave their rooms.
“It’s a problem, dressing up in
different costumes,” said Farrell,
“You can only fix your hair,
wear different clothes several dif
ferent times. It’s scarey.
Sometimes we just have to sit
here and lock the doors and talk
about the radishes.”
“We are still most proud of
our radishes,” Farrell said. The
farmers should be proud of their
radishes, they are now eight in
ches; and, according to Farrell,
“Roger has a nine inch one.”
Lloyd explained their growing
secret. “The radishes in the
planter they think they’re beets,
we tell ’em that. They’re going to
get like the size of softballs.”
Farrell elaborated, “See, we
haven’t told these guys that we’re
going to eat them. They’re just
growing right along.”
These plants flourishing in the
four foot by one foot by one inch
fluorescent light fixture sharply
contrast with the seedlings grow
ing in plaid styrofoam cups on
the windows ledge. McCoy claims
that the cupped varied are not
cooperating because they know
they are going to be eaten. Some
of them take “the big dive” when
the window is opened and jremain
wherever they land. “There’s no
room for suicidal radishes in our
farm,” Lloyd said.
Lettuce, chives and watercress
look healthy and taste fine.
Spinach and a tomato plant have
been added to the plantation. The
spinach plants are a hybrid varie
ty, and the seeds were carefully
selected.“lt was a scientific ex
periment up at the engineering
lab,” stated Farrell. “They were
tested as three perfect seeds,
under an electron microscope,”
Lloyd said. The plants, although
suspended in credibility, are sup
ported with paper clips and ap
pear to be thriving.
Unfortunately part of the
sharecropper’s field had to be
plowed under.“ They just plowed
them under when I was in class
one day,” Lloyd stated petulant
ly. The plants were ailing and
Lloyd attempted to revive them
with a dose of aspirin. “I just put
it on my half-dead ones,” he
said. Farrell rented a 20
horsepower rototiller from Sears
to it the lants out of their
misery.“ You should have heard
the noise,” said McCoy.
The radish growers were kind
enough to allow photographs
although the situation was tense,
‘‘We have to get a new disguise,
you know,” Lloyd stressed. We
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have no privacy anymore. People
are always wrapping on the doors
wanting to see them. And peering
in the windows. We keep the
blinds down and things. That’s a
problem.”
‘‘But somebody’s got to do it.”