Anybunny Can Grow Carrots!

Easy to grow and so versatile, carrots are a garden must-have, a snacking and salad staple, and a superstar when it comes to storage. The fact that most varieties can be eaten fresh or cooked, as well as stored for later use by canning or freezing, makes carrots a no-brainer when it comes to picking which veggies to grow.

Carrots prefer a light soil with good drainage, but they will grow almost anywhere. However, long-rooted carrots don't do well in heavy or clay soils because they become tough or misshaped as they attempt to grow through the soil's thickness.

Direct sow carrot seeds as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring. Do not plant carrots in freshly manured soil because fresh manure encourages forked roots. Carrot seeds take about 2-3 weeks to germinate. Soaking the seeds overnight before planting will speed up germination. Sow seeds thinly and cover with about ½ inch of soil. Thin carrot plants twice; the first time separating them by 1 inch and the second time by 3 inches. The thinnings can be eaten as baby carrots.

Carrots can be planted throughout the spring and again in late summer for fall or winter harvest. If heavily mulched to protect them from the cold and inclement weather, carrots can be harvested throughout the winter. 

Benjamin Watson, who wrote "Heirloom Vegetables," suggests that carrot seeds be sown with radish seed. He writes, “I generally mix carrot seed with radish seed and sow together to mark the planted area and facilitate weeding and thinning. The radishes will be up and out of the bed long before they begin to compete with the carrots.” 

Did you know? Carrots grow wild throughout the Mediterranean and as far east as the Orient. The region around Afghanistan may have been where the first carrots, which were purple, red or white, originated.