Homestead mailing list

["Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 12:38 PM, <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:

>
> > >This last time I grew carrots they were 'hairy'.
>
> Carrots were a crop that did not come naturally for me, I've done every
> sort
> of experiment with carrots imaginable.


James, I so love to discover or to be occasionally reminded that you are not
a perfect homesteader. I mean that in a very nice way, in case it comes
across wrong.

>
> I use transplants for everything I can, the more transplanting the better.
> It eliminates the problems with irregular germination and a developed
> seedling
> is being planted in newly cultivated ground which gives it a deadly
> advantage
> over germinating weeds.


Good to mull over. What don't you transplant? Thinking this is a smaller
list for you.

>
> Now I plant them two ways:  In beds made of small ridges 4" or so apart.


Seeds are planted on the far side of the ridge (understood not on the trough
side where you water or add compost)?

>
> Plant carrots all the time.  OK, with the freezy-frosty on us the next
> couple
> of weeks, maybe not today exactly.  But just as soon as this worst breath
> of
> winter passes, plant some carrots.  Cover the planting with an inch of
> sawdust
> or peat or some such and if a ground heave threatens, cover it with a tarp
> of
> straw or some such.  Then in three weeks or so, plant some more, then more
> and more all the way to early November.


Again, this is something that never would have occurred to me. My biggest
gardening stumbling block is recalling or knowing when to plant what. With
some vegetables I am getting the hang of it, but there's so much to know and
remember, so much to learn.

>
> When you pull your first carrots, cut off the tops leaving about 1/2" of
> carrot and plant them back in the garden.  Within a very short time you
> will have
> another crop of carrots.


Had no idea. Thank you.

Lisa