Thursday, May 29, 2008

Carrots

Of all the things I've planted this spring, the carrots are one of the veggies I'm most looking forward to tasting fresh from the ground. I don't ever remember having eaten fresh carrots from my grandparent's garden - I'm not even sure if they grew them at all. Reading about the taste and sugar content of a freshly pulled carrot vs. an old grocery store carrot makes me pretty confident that the taste will blow me away. One thing's for sure, if it's anything like the difference between homegrown tomatoes vs. store-bought tomatoes, there WILL BE no comparison.

I've been worried, though - or maybe it's just impatient. While the seeds sprouted beautifully back in March, and the greenery looks ferny and healthy to date, I have yet to see a rounded top peeking through the ground. I've nosed around near the base of each plant and it just doesn't look like there is a large root forming. It's been a good two months now, and I'm wondering if this is normal for carrots to take so long. Maybe I missed getting some of the bigger chunks of bark out of my soil and that's impeding the root growth.

My biggest worry is that I will have some killer foliage but no tasty orange crunchers to show for my efforts. Any guidance? Am I just being impatient?


Here are some pictures:




No comments: