Alberta Home Gardening » carrots

Block Planting Carrots, Onions, Lettuce, & Dill

Dave — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:27:56 +0000

I had a comment today on my post regarding square-foot gardens asking about some pictures of how my block planting had turned out this year. I had taken the square foot garden method and applied it to the traditional long-row garden style. I planted carrots, onions, lettuce, beats, dill, and a few marigolds to try to keep the bugs off the dill (which didn’t work – they flowered too late I think). But the block planting idea worked great. I think I’ll do the same thing next year. The lettuce should have been thinned out big time, but other than that, I’d do it all over again the same way. Here’s what it looked like:

This was in early summer. I should have been thinning my lettuce right about now.

This was about mid-August. You can see where the deer pulled out all of my beets just behind the onions.

So do I recommend this method? Yes. For any plant that doesn’t take up a lot of horizontal space, this method works great.

Baby Potatoes Have Arrived

Dave — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:58:52 +0000

I’ve been wrong before – and I’ll be wrong again. Just last week I wrote a post regarding baby potatoes. I had dug around gently in my straw looking for some potatoes, but only found a little pea-sized spud. I then declared at the end of my post that I would not be eating baby potatoes for at least a couple of weeks.

I was wrong.

I enjoyed my first meal of baby potatoes this afternoon. I even had a fresh carrot to go with them. I’m not sure if those potatoes grew that much in a week or if I just didn’t look hard enough the first time. But there they were. So if you’ve planted some potatoes this year, go ahead. Gently dig around in the dirt (or straw) and see if you can snag one or two. Because, by George, they sure are tasty.

How Do Your Carrots Grow?

Dave — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:15:16 +0000

Over the past two years I’ve grown six different varieties of carrots. I’ve grown purple carrots, giant carrots, miniature carrots, and even some “normal” carrots. So I thought I’d write a quick review the different varieties that I’ve grown and maybe you’ll want to try one or two in your garden next summer. So let’s jump right into it.

Parmex

In the first year I had my square foot garden, I tried this little fellow. The seed package had a picture of little golf ball like carrots, so I thought they would work great in my square foot garden, seeing as the soil in it is only six inches deep. I found the flavor to be a little lacking – not as sweet as your traditional carrot. They were also pretty awkward to peel, since they are so small. Overall I found them pretty useless. True, they were unique, but I don’t think I’ll grow them again.

Rating

For being too small to be useful, and lacking in flavor, I give the Parmex Carrot just 1 out of 5.

Scarlet Nantes

In 2006 my carrots grew very large. I’m not sure if it was the weather or the varieties I grew. Perhaps it was a combination of both. The Scarlet Nantes (pictured below on the right) was a pretty average carrot. It had good flavor and a cylindrical shape. Good for fresh eating (easy to make into carrot sticks).

Rating

For being an average carrot, I give the Scarlet Nantes 3 out of 5.

Red Danver

This carrot (pictured in the previous picture on the left) was also a pretty average carrot. Most of our carrot eating was done right out of the garden, but my wife did cook the occasional carrot. Conical in shape and with a little bit nicer core flavor than the Scarlet Nantes, the Red Danver was my preferred carrot in 2006.

Rating

For being a little bit better than average, I give the Red Danver 4 out of 5.

Purple Dragon & Purple Haze

This past summer I planted two purple varieties of carrots – Purple Dragon and Purple Haze. I neglected to get any good pictures of them, but these are some pictures I found on elsewhere on the internet. The Purple Haze (pictured on left) had a very thin, purple-ish, almost dark pink skin with a very bright orange/yellow center. It didn’t have great flavor, although it was a little better than the Purple Dragon. Although it was a novelty to have a purple carrot, once you’ve peeling them, the Purple Haze carrots had no purple left to them. They looked like average carrots and tasted worse.

The Purple Dragon carrots (pictured above) had a much darker skin that was much thicker as well. You could peel the carrots and it would still be purple. This was a very cool carrot to put in salads and the like. However, it was not good to cook with anything else, as it would turn the water (if boiled) and anything else with it (like potatoes) purple – or rather an ugly black color.

Rating

For being a novel idea, but not all that useful, I give both purple varieties 2 out of 5.

Sweetness III

Sweetness III is a very nice carrot. Very crisp, juicy and sweet. Again I have to resort to internet photos (and it isn’t a great picture), but I’ll be planting them again so perhaps I can update the photo next year. Good size, nice to peel – I can’t say enough good things about them.

Rating

For a crispy carrot with great flavor, I give Sweetness III 5 out of 5.