Tuesday 9 December 2014

I've Lost My Carrots



Are you the kind of person who thinks things through? Predicts the outcome of an action based on the known variables? Not me, more of a just do it and see what happens kind of gal. Which explains why I can't find my carrots.

With all the care I put into growing my root vegetables, I thought I would go the extra distance and cover everything with straw.

All I had to do was poke around in the straw and follow the green carrot top down to the root-until we had a week of frost-and the green bits shrivelled up and fell off.  Now I try to guess where they are based on the position of the last one pulled up and paw around in the bitterly cold, wet straw until I feel something solid. I'm pretty sure this isn't the standard technique. I might have to study up on  root cellars.

I might as well tell you about the broad beans while I'm at it. I planted them with visions of tender beans early next summer. No need to put a marker in, right? Then I got all fired up about soil building and enthusiastically layered seaweed and compost and leaves and straw on all the "empty" beds. Now those beans are ten inches below the surface! Nothing for it but to wait and see what happens.

16 comments:

  1. Oh I do hope it doesn't long before you find your carrots. The beans....yikes...I can't wait ti hear.

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    1. Getting carrots for supper has now become a negotiable activity between my spouse and I. Someone, horror, gasp, actually suggested buying some from the store!

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  2. I have lost many things, including my mind, at times, but I have never lost my carrots. I hope you find them soon.

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    1. Losing carrots isn't very glamorous, not like losing ones diamond necklace, if I had one, which I don't.

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  3. I lost my carrots but mine fell to the voles...I have frequently built beds over bulbs and they come up even though some are covered by 2 or more feet of soil...

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  4. Ha!! You gave me a good chuckle with this one Susan!!! Too funny and that photo up there is priceless! Here is to lost plants in the garden! Happy week friend! Nicole xo

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    1. I rather like it when flowers pop up unexpectedly. Random veggies will take some getting used to.

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  5. Hey, Susan - good to have you visiting my blog! I don't have an email feed set up - I'm not that technologically advanced! People do follow with Bloglovin' or Google Friend Connect, if that would help. I think a lot of my "followers" just click through from another blog roll each day actually. I'm on Cheapchick's blogroll if you are a regular visitor there x

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  6. You sound like me . . . us first time gardeners learn as we go, but isn't it so much fun :)

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  7. I didn't grow carrots this year, but when I did I was lazy and just left them in the ground with no cover. Even when the mouse made it out into the garden and at the tops, they resprouted to let me know where the roots remained. Even with frozen soil, the carrots remained fresh. After a year of rest, I may try a row again next year. - Margy

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    1. I think I may have overdone it on the straw. Getting some light might have been better for them.

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  8. You didn't lose them. You just donated them to the worms. :) Are you going to the Garden Bloggers Fling in Toronto? Please please please go!!

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    1. Tammy, I'm working on the fling. Just hope there is space left.

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  9. thank you for giving me a much needed laugh today. I love it. Your adventures sound like me. You plan so hard then get off on a tizzy doing something else and forget your first plan. I do hope your beans will grown through all the topsoil stuff and surprise you with a bountiful harvest. For the carrots, keep on digging girl!

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