This is the sum total of my carrot harvest this year!
So that’s it – I give up trying to grow carrots.
I have tried every which way – but the anxiety involved is not worth the effort.
Thank you for all your warm wishes and wonderful comments,
I am now over whatever bug it was -
And normal service will resume here and there next week.
Hope you all have a great weekend …
In or out of the garden.
I have had many similar years with carrotts it is not always easy to get them to germinate often the weather changes when they are sown and they don’t germinate. If Mike sows them he invariably sows them too deep.
However we do seem to have done better the last few years. I get him to add sand to our rather clay soil and then sand in the tiny drill as he sows, if the rain gets too heavy and weather cold after sowing the sand helps.
We have not had a problem with carrot fly for some years now and I believe it is because of the box edgeing it makes carrot fly, fly higher and therefore miss the carrots also the smell is disguised from the smell of the box.
So I don’t believe you will let this beat you there’s always another year in the garden.
Sorry to see you’ve had problems with your carrots…
Ours were mixed and we have got a few good ones from the crop, for our first year I’m actually quite pleased with them, but we still have lots to learn.
I hear raising them or sheilding the area using wood boards helps because the carrot flies don’t generally fly any higher than 2foot?? Perhaps something to try out?
I didn’t grow vegetables to eat them, but to enjoy seeing the plants grown to full size and burst into flower. Then there are no disapointments, only pleasure at their growing. I think the people who grow veg for Tescos are geniuses! How do they do it?
We only do tiny twisted carrots here, hardly worth the bother. Let’s make a pact to blame North Wales. We do splendid leeks!
That is inches and not centimeters isn’t it?
I didn’t get any of my carrots even to germinate this year – nor the parsnips. I’m wondering if it was all the ants in the garden.
Try growing them in a big container like the one we found on the beach. The roots have loads of room and no carrot fly can fly that high. Plus, don’t give up, carrots are fab fresh from the ground, so sweet and they don’t take up too much space. See what the people near to you grow, neighbours are a valuable source of good varities to try. Sorry but your photo made me and the hubby laugh out loud – thank you so much I really needed a giggle xxx
I would never laugh…they are too cute, though and I can see how the experience has lost its charm….gail
I would never laugh…they are too cute, though and I can see how the experience has lost its charm….gail
Karen~
They sure are cute…did you make a special meal out of them? Hope they tasted good
Looks like my high kicking carrot of last spring would fit right in.
After all, they still are carrots.. Some of our chilies come out with very awkward shapes, real contortionist!
Have a nice weekend.
~ bangchik
I am giving up growing vegetables apart from tomatoes – fed up with all the effort and little return
Laugh? Not me.
I have to cosset my carrots in big tubes full of compost to get anything like a decent feed. Unlike my allotment neighbour who has row upon row of juicy fat carrots in the ground. I wish I knew how he does that!
Have a great weekend and I’m so glad you’re feeling better
LOL! I like the one on the right….
Mine are about that length too
But they are getting bigger!
And at least I have carrots this year – last year I had tiny carrot tops in my pots for a few weeks and then they fell over and there was nothing underneath – no pests, no diseases, and no carrots!
I would have given up then, but I still had some seeds left, so this year I put them in potato planters (those green canvas ones), also in a mix of topsoil and sand, and that seems to have worked.
If I get round to it I might post a picture of my carrots – carefully tended in a pot for months and going absolutely nowhere. How can this happen. Is it carrot karma from something in a past life! I am not going to grow them again – even if a packet comes free with a magazine
Oh dear. Normally, I would be feeling your carrot related pain, but for some reason this year we have actually scceeded in growing great stonking carrots (sorry!). Everything else on the other hand…
Well, I did laugh, only because you are so funny and that’s what my carrots always looked at so I gave up too! Wonder what the secret is? Different soil type, or some lacking nutrient or ?? I never did figure it out and got tired of lumpy, bitter, hairy mis-shapen ones that looked even sillier than yours.
Sorry I’m still laughing!!
Well, growing vegetables isn’t always easy. You should have seen my radishes…
Katarina
We piced our first carrot this week and it looked exactly like one of yours – short and hairy – which isn’t a good combo in men or carrots. I think too much nitrogen causes hairiness. I know rocky soil can make them misshapen, but we pulled the rocks out of our garden, I thought. And it tasted bitter – we probably didn’t water often enough. Sigh. Good thing there’s a grocery store nearby.
Thank you all so much for your great comments, and I am glad that I am not the only one who struggles to grow carrots – and yes Elizabeth – we will blame it totally on our stony damp welsh soil! Of course I may well never speak to Happy M ever again as she has succeeded in the carrot department.
I am so glad that this post made you smile – and of course …. laugh
Oh …. and I expect that I will try again next year
Not laughing, not laughing! Some of my carrots were that tiny last year, too. I do not know why, but most of them were long enough to “enjoy.”
Yes. Try again.
The secret is to grow them in Galvanised dustbins. Not that I ever have.
Uh oh, carrots are on my list for wanting to try in the garden… I keep seeing little short ones from other garden blogs, so I know you are not alone. Wish me luck — once I plant them!
I am with you… dang tired at failing at something that too many find easy
Who needs carrots anyway
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