(Enlarge) Three raised-bed garden boxes are already growing radishes, beans, squash, eggplant, spinach, lettuce, peppers and carrots. (Photo by Mike McLaughlin)

We have radishes! I've always wanted a vegetable garden, and this year I finally committed to it. We moved some boxwoods from the backyard to the front of the house and installed three raised-bed garden boxes.

We've also got beans, squash, eggplant, spinach, lettuce, peppers and carrots that are at various stages of growth. But the radishes grow fast and will be ready to eat by the time you read this.

The garden boxes are 4-foot square, white cedar kits, with simple mortise and tenon assembly, that I found online.

I'm using the "square-foot gardening" method, where you plant according to how many plants can fit in one square-foot section, as opposed to planting in rows. Square-foot gardening is ideal for small-space gardens, and makes for very full garden boxes. A couple of sections didn't come up -- the potatoes and some spinach -- but I'm looking forward to filling in those squares with something different.

Never done square-foot gardening before, but so far so good. We've got the compost bin cooking behind the shed and all that rain we had last month helped get the veggies started. An added plus is that while WSSC is tearing up the street in front of the house replacing the water pipes, when I do need to water, it's on WSSC's dime.

I'd like to know what other Old Town veggie gardeners are out there. Give me a call or drop me an e-mail, maybe with a photo or two, and I'll share your home grown experiences in this space.

A reminder to the alumni of the Pallotti High Class of 1969: Dust off those "Midnight Hour" dance moves because your 40th class reunion is coming up on Saturday, Aug. 1 at 5 p.m. It will be held at Red Hot and Blue on Main Street. Schoolmates from the 1968 and 1970 classes are also welcome. Contact Margie Goette Rabcikow at nrab@verizon.com or 301-725-3893 for info or to RSVP.

I'll be there to crash that party, and not only because my sister Maureen Howland is a Pallotti '69 alum, but Margie is a close family friend and I know a number of their classmates. I also want to quiz some of those former hippies to try and verify the rumor that Led Zeppelin played at the pre-Woodstock concert that was held at the Laurel Racecourse in the summer of '69. I was a little too young to go, but I remember hearing the sounds of the concert drifting through the night to the Fountain Green Apartments where we lived at the time. I heard The Who, Three Dog Night and other groups, but no Zeppelin.

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