How To Successfully Grow Carrots Every Year

     Many people have told me that they have a hard time growing carrots in the garden. This is very easy and  I have taught them and they have grown carrots now with great success.  Now I would like to teach you also.  My wife and I have grown carrots successfully for 30 years plus.  I never grow carrots in a single row.  I grow them in a wide row about as wide as a rake or a shovel head.  The length of the carrot row is 10 to 20 feet, or you can grow them on the south side of your house.  I first will dig up the soil with a garden shovel and break it up fine.  Then I add cow manure, Epson salt, pot ash and phosphorus to the soil, and again I turn over the soil and let it mix really good.  If you have clay soil, you can add sand to the soil at this time also.  I usually mark my carrot row with four wooden stakes, one on each corner of the row.
     My pick of a carrot seed is a proven sweet carrot with no core in the middle, and I like dwarf carrots over the long ones because they are much easier to dig up; but if your mother or grandmother has always grown the long carrots, they are fine too.  Now sprinkle the carrot seed on your prepared rows, but Do Not Bury The Seed.  Then add your favorite radish seed, white and/or red.  Compared to the carrot seed, sprinkle the radish seed sparingly, then use the back side of your rake and tamp the seeds into the soil.  Again, Do Not Bury the Seed.  I usually will put a spray nozzle on my water hose and sprinkle the water on the carrot seed on low to medium water pressure.  Then I cover the carrot area with grass clippings so you cannot see the soil anymore.  This will keep the birds from eating the seed and it also keeps the moisture in the soil. The young carrot plants will push their way up through the grass clippings with no problems.
     After the carrots begin to grow, water them every other day.  This makes sweet, juicy carrots.  After 30 to 40 days, check your radishes and pull them out when they are big enough to eat.  Growing and pulling out the radishes means you do not have to thin your carrot.  At least I have never thinned my carrots.  You can start eating your carrots when they become the size of your finger.  I never peel my carrots.  I pull them and wash them, then I eat them raw, or dice them and boil them in water.
     When my peas are ready, I eat them with my carrots.  You can add carrots to beef stews and soups like chicken soup.  To my mashed potatoes, I will add cooked carrots, peas, onions, peppers (These last two are usually diced and are added in a raw state), corn, celery and broccoli.  You can throw all these in at the same time, or in a combination.  You could also add cooked hamburger, or sausage.  Or you could add some leftover meat in your fridge, like roast beef chicken, turkey, or wild game meats.  Even hot dogs  that are cooked and cut up tastes great in mashed potatoes.  To top this off, you could add your favorite gravy (mine is country gravy) and/or grated cheese.  This sounds mouth watering doesn't it?
     When the leaves start falling off the trees, gather them up and put 3 feet of leaves on your carrots.  This will keep them from freezing.  And in the winter time, whenever you need some fresh carrots, you remove the snow and the leaves and dig the carrots out.  Be sure to replace the leaves so the rest of the carrots will keep fresh all winter.
     When you grow carrots in this way, there is plenty for you and also your good neighbors.  So again I ask you:  Are you a carrot lover?  You should be!

     Please read my articles on " How to grow lots of Peas ", and " Remedies for a better Garden ".