For me, this year will be the year of beets and carrots. We do a lot of roasting of vegetables, so I want to grow what we eat. These mixed with sweet potatoes and sausage is the best! I might try sweet potatoes again. I have never had great luck being in the north. Maybe in a big black tree container would work?

We have sandy soil, so I am hoping carrots and beets will do better. It will be my first full summer gardening at my new place. I have four raised beds I built this fall. They are hugel/lasagna beds with alpaca manure mixed in.

Fingers crossed!

I don't know much about beets and carrots, I have grown them a bit but not in great quantity because in our climate I have to grow them over winter. Right now I'm harvesting rutabagas, which I enjoy because the kind I'm growing have greens that taste sweet and can be used in place of chard or kale, so I use both greens and roots.

Sounds like your root veggies will like the sandy soil. I have heard though that carrots do like some moisture so supplemental watering may be in order due to the well-draining soil.

Sandy soil may make it easier, especially for carrots, although I grow good carrots in this GA red clay. heavily amended.

You might want to try parsnips too. Mild sweet flavor enhanced by a light frost. Seeds need to be fresh and they are slow to germinate but so worth it.

Ah, beet and carrot lovers!

Reid,
Last year I never had a chance to plant my beets and carrots. Too much rain, too many potatoes.
This year I want to try a raised bed for the carrots so I can mix good soil.Do you have a frame around your's?

Hi Cindy!
I did tell my husband my idea of building a raised bed and he thought of using cedar over pine. Sounds good to me. Now, since he's on board it suddenly got wider in my mind, lol!

Has anyone canned garden carrots?

Sally, carrots are such an easy keeper, I can't imagine canning them. Much better fresh! Just my opinion. We are lucky, I still have carrots in the ground under row cover. They should survive the winter since our ground rarely ever freezes.

Arlene,
My ground freezes rock hard so even with mulch I would eventually have to dig and find room in the fridge. That's why I thought maybe canning them. I would LOVE to have a root cellar or a basement, but that will never happen :o(

Sally - how funny! Raised beds are easy to build so he should feel very victorious - especially if you reward him with carrots!

Cindy,
ROTFL! He's good at doing the hardscaping for me. It took me years to get him to eat carrots! He denies it of course.

@billyporter there is a storage carrot called "Bolero". My friend says it will keep in the fridge until March.

Reid,
I've seen Bolero in the seed catalogs. Trouble is both my crispers seem to be full. And not with cold cuts. The main one has cabbage, red and green, green pepper, radish, celery, and carrots. Other side has things that don't fit in the door or aren't used very often. Plus it's a great hiding place. Men never think to look in the crisper :o)

I love Bolero! So much that I bought a jar of the pelleted seeds from Johnny's last year, or maybe the year before. Anyway, I have extra if you want to try them, even if you don't have room in the fridge after you harvest!

I would love to do some raised beds with cedar. I'm thinking if we add more, that's what we'll use too.

Sure, I would love some seeds. The Boleros do really well in raised beds. They were 2" across at the top. It was the squaee foot method with 8" deep beds.

@Anderwood Send me a c-mail with your address.

Thanks Arlene,
I have a new package of carrots this year that I want to try first, but I appreciate the offer.
I love seeing raised beds on TV. Plus it would give me a chance to mix some good dirt to go in them.
In the old days I used to turn leaves and weeds under yearly. Now we only disturb the ground where we plant.

I like to grow Turnips but probably don't have room this year.

One year, a long time ago, I did can carrots.
They were dilled carrots.
You are not supposed to grow dill with carrots,
but in a jar the two are okay together.
Maybe google? will have a recipe?

Rita, I used to grow turnips and did look at seed this year but we end up with so much to eat all at once in the spring I decided to see how I would do at fall planting. So, maybe next year I'll order seed.

Caroline,
I wish DH liked dill. I might try some for my self next year if we even like canned carrots. I don't know how they are going to taste.

I do know I don't want to can potatoes.

billyporter said: ... Trouble is both my crispers seem to be full.
... Plus it's a great hiding place. Men never think to look in the crisper :o)

Of course not! The crisper drawer is always full of decaying vegetables and green slime.

RickCorey said:

Of course not! The crisper drawer is always full of decaying vegetables and green slime.