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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 1/4/07, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:

> I've had knotty tasteless carrots, but mostly my problem has been nearly no
> carrots.  For example, I'd plant a 4' x 10' bed with carrots either precision
> seeded or else broadcast with the intentions of thinning them to a proper
> stand, and by the date of maturity the carrots were delicious ...... both of 
> them!
My mother grows carrots and even parsnips in abundance. It helps that
she gardens in a spot that has been gardened for the best part of a
hundred years so weeds are vanquished, but it helps even more that the
soil is sandy.

OTOH, I once had a Boston fern that had been reduced to, literally, a
couple of leaves. I gave it to her, and the next time I saw it it
looked like something out of a high-class greenhouse.

The only thing I can do better than she can is raise peppers. Mine are
sweeter and have thicker walls. If her knee surgery goes well on the
26th of this month, I may just not bother with my own tomatoes (and
I'll be happy to buy her the bedding plants).

Marie