Suncreek Garden Chronicles…Carrots can be a bit of a challenge!
Carrots are a root vegetable usually orange in color though purple, red, yellow and white varieties do exist. The most commonly eaten part of the carrot is the tap-root, however the green tops are also edible.
Suncreek Garden Chronicles...Carrots
Carrots are enjoyed raw as well as cooked. They are included in soups, stews and baby food. Together with onions and celery, carrots are one of the primary vegetables used in mirepoix to make various broths.
Suncreek Garden Chonicles...Carrots
Carrots grow best in full sun but will tolerate some shade. According to experienced gardeners carrots grow best in loose soil. Hard compact rocky soil will result in deformed carrots. Guess what? Our raised beds are definitely not deep enough…Gardener note*Raise the carrot beds another 2′.
Suncreek Garden Chronicles...Carrots
Also carrots are reported to be useful companion plants for gardeners. There is experimental evidence, which I obviously have no first hand knowledge of, that growing carrots intercropped with tomatoes will increase the production of the tomatoes. This is something to consider giving a try, especially since my favorite fruit/veg is the wonderfully delicious tomato.
Suncreek Garden Chronicles…will continue to experiment with growing carrots…by the way the carrot may not have been much to look at but it was tasty.
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I love your photos… and am certainly envious of your garden and raised beds… I have no doubt that carrot was ever so sweet. It’s interesting that they can help the tomatoes.. love that they work together!
I have read a couple of articles about companion plants…some taller plants can provide shade to other plants, some are natural detterants to pests and others seem to help work the soil…more to come on this topic.
With spring still a distance away, the thought of raised beds and growing veggies sounds pretty good. I’ve never tried, other than tomatoes once, and that was a miserable failure.
This is our 5th or 6th year of gardening and we are still living in the learning curve.
I’ve never had much success growing carrots . . . even in raised beds with loose soil.
there must be an ancient carrot growing secret, I just have to do a little more research.
I’ve never thought of eating the tops of carrots…Daphne our donkey always gets them.
And Daphne can have my share of carrot tops as well…but just let one of those TV chefs start using them and they would be the next biggest thing.
Yum Yum Yum!
Your post .. and photos .. remind me of “cleaning” carrots off on my shirt and eating them right out of the ground. Yes we did.
Those are some big honkin’ carrots!
MJ
the tops are really big…but there isn’t much after that…they have been growing for 120 days, we will leave them for at least another 30.
That carrot picture cracked me up – it looks like it has legs! Our carrots didn’t turn out when we tried a couple years ago. We got tons of zucchini, though
I’m glad your carrot tasted good – that’s what matters!
It definitely was a two legged carrot…I don’t want to think too much about what caused that to happen. It was doubly delcious!
Carrots fork when they are grown in recently manured soil. I made the mistake of adding lots of rich manure to a bed then sowed carrots, disaster!
So I tried again in a bed that hadn’t been manured for a while, but carrot fly got to those.
I wish you luck with your next try, and hope also, my next try is more fruitful too.
Susanne, thank you for the information. It is true..this is a new garden, we added chicken manure last spring. What’s good for some of the veg isn’t always good for others. Trial and error and an opportunity to grow along with the veggies.
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Nice job there… the soil looks very healthy too.
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