How to Grow Carrots

Notice all the grass? Carrots don't mind.

Carrots grow easily, when they grow.
They can be finicky though, so if you are having some trouble, it's not you. It's the carrots.

Whole field of carrots!

You know that part in Pirates of the Caribbean when Jack Sparrow cheats in a sword fight against Will? And when Will gets mad, Jack shrugs and says, "Pirate." As if Will should assume that if he has any interaction with a pirate, it's a buyer beware kind of situation?

Yeah. Carrots.

They grow from seed, because they are root crops. Transplanting root crops is supposed to be unsuccessful. Don't believe that either, but start the carrots from seeds anyway. Right where they are going to live forever. Because it might take that long.

Or it might take six weeks. Carrots.

I thought they were dead, so I planted squash in the beautifully prepared bed. I did all that work, right? 

The squash came up. I was about to weed them....carrots. 

Carrot Growing Directions:

• Put some loose organic matter where you are going to plant the carrot seeds. We have used mulch, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, whatever...
• Top the loose stuff with a half inch or inch of dark soil. This is a great help to the carrots, but mostly it is to help you find their bright green, needle-thin leaves when they sprout.

• Do all that before it rains. Sorry, I should have told you earlier.
• Water the fool out of them on the days it doesn't rain.
• Stop soaking them when you see the tiniest of green slivers, because that is all you will see for a long time.
• Water them when the soil looks dry.
• Sprinkle some organic fertilizer on them once a weeks, OR Osmocote 10-10-10 once in their life.

• Weed them if you need an excuse to get out of the house.
• If they aren't carrot sized by winter, leave them alone until Spring.
• Pull them. It's easier if you losen the soil from a few inches away with a shovel.
• EAT CARROTS! 

They deserve it. Carrots are the pirates of the vegetable garden.

One carrot seedling