Carrots

Carrots among the Garlic

The carrots were planted on a windy day.  Good news, they’ve seeded and are growing nicely.  Bad news, they aren’t all in the places that they were planted.  This happens and I don’t get too worried about it.  The picture above shows a carrot growing among the garlic plants.  It will be interesting growing two in-the-ground plants right next to eachother.  So far — so good.

Tomatoes

Tomato Plant, May 27, 2009

The tomato plants are looking good.  For the first time, I planted the plants in the order in which they’ll bloom (early season, mid-season, and late season).  Not suprisingly, the plants are growing at the same rate.  Above is an early season tomato plant which is growing considerably faster than the other tomato plants.  It’s hard to tell from the angle, but the plant is about a foot tall (the other plants are still in the 8 to 10 inch range).

Peppers

Peppers, May 27, 2009

The peppers are strong, but they haven’t been growing high.  Peppers thrive in heat (which is the reason no many people grow hot peppers in the Midwest — the hotter the pepper, the more heat and sun you need).  We’ve been averaging upper 60s for the past few weeks and the pepper plants need 80s.  I’m hoping the weather picks up a bit and they’ll start to take off.

Herbs

Parsley and Cilantro, May 27, 2009

Cilantro and parsley are tough herbs to start.  I’ve had many failed attempts at getting both to sprout and I’m happy to say there were no problems this year.  Above you’ll see a few solidly growing cilantro and italian parsley plants.  If you’ve never grown the two, it’s actually a little hard to tell them apart.  Usually the smell test works — cilantro has a strong distinct smell.  Please disregard my lack of weeding.  Honestly, I’ve made mistakes and pulled herbs instead of weeds so I like to give it just a little time to establish themselves to figure out whether it is a weed or not.

Peas

Peas, May 27, 2009

The spinach is also going strong.  I have three different stages of spinach growing right now.  The picture above is from the first batch.  I can start cutting each of these plants for some baby spinach, but I think I’m going to let it grow just one more week.  There is another set of plants about 2 weeks behind and then a third set which just popped out of the ground.

A good start and plenty more pictures to take and a couple of more seeds to get in the ground in the next week.

Related articles:

1. Peas, Spinach, Radishes and More…Growing
2. On the Farm, June 19, 2009
3. Friday Growing

In the ground on Friday went Carrots.  This is the first vegetable I’ve planted that actually goes in the ground (radishes do, but only an inch or two).  The hope is that the carrots will grow about a 4 to 6 inch root at the very least (yes, you actually eat the root of the plant).  So you have to be very careful that you can grow down deep.  See how easy it is to dig about 12 inches into the ground.  If it gets really hard really quickly, the carrot is going to hit the same wall and stop growing.  You really want to work your soil to allow the carrot to grow nice and easy.

If your dirt is ok, then you’re not likely to encounter any other troubles.  Space them appropriately and watch them grow.  What I’m planting this year, St Valery, matures in about 2 months.  I like to plant a few carrots every 2 weeks to make sure I have carrots all season.  They’ll make it all the way until the fall frost (you can overwinter carrots, but I’m not thinking winter yet).

As I’ve mentioned before, I look for heirlooms and in particular with this carrot, really old ones.  Check out two different descriptions for this carrot.  Both from 1885 and but from two different continents.

Baker Creek: The Vilmorins of France mentioned this variety in 1885 and said it had been grown a “long time” then. A large handsome variety with bright red-orange roots; smooth, 10″-12″ long & 2″-3″ in diameter. Sweet & tender. Rare. Our favorite!

Cherry Gal: ST VALERY CARROT was marketed as early as 1885 by the James Vick & Son Company of Rochester New York. Very desirable for private gardens  and very productive. Roots are 8-10″ long, fine-grained, sweet and excellent for storage. 50-80 days. 50 seeds.

If you’ve never heard of Vilmorins, check out their website or click on the image above to see some of their classic catalogs.

Related articles:

1. In the Ground: Swiss Chard
2. A Growing Farm, May 27, 2009
3. Happy Friday on the Farm