Grow Carrots In Your Garden This Fall With These Tips

Shot of a woman cutting vegetables on a cutting board

Carrots are the type of vegetable that thrives in the fall, plus they’re super versatile in the kitchen. You can make carrot cake, carrot soup, roasted carrots, and of course pot roast with carrots. This super veg is so easy to grow, all you need is a little bit of patience to get you through. Grab your garden gloves and shovel and let’s start digging! Keep reading to see how you can grow the best carrots.

How To Plant

Planting carrots is not a hard job. You want to focus on building a raised bed. Having loose, rock-free soil is the type of soil you will need for growing carrots. Adding mature compost does help if you have heavy soil. Star planting your seeds three weeks before the last frost. You will then want to plant every two to three weeks after. Most carrots take about 80 days to grow after planting. Your last planting should be two to three months before the first expected fall frost.  You will want to rake the soil so it is free of lumps and stones. Make sure to plant the seeds in a row and keep the soil moist for growing.

How To Grow And Harvest

When the tops are about two inches high you will want to thin them to one inch apart. Crowded carrots will end up producing crooked roots. You don’t want that! As the carrots start to grow, you will need to add mulch to keep moisture in and keep weeds out. You can start harvesting your carrots as soon as they are big enough to eat. To save carrots for later in the winter, you will want to twist off the tops and remove all the soil. You can simply rub the soil off without water. Store your carrots in the garden by mulching the bed with several layers of dry leaves or straw.

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Watch Out For Critters

Carrots attract all sorts of animals. Deer, gophers, rabbits, and woodchucks will take a visit to your garden once you start growing carrots. You will most likely see parsley worms, green caterpillars with black stripes, on your carrots. Don’t mind these little crawlers; you can just move them to another plant and watch them blossom into beautiful butterflies later.

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