How to Grow Carrot Plants in a Sustainable Garden

We all know what a carrot plant looks like—a stocky root with greens on top—but in a sustainable or ecofriendly vegetable garden, maybe not. Healthy, vigorous carrots in full flower can be a sight to behold, and bear little resemblance to carrots when harvested or purchased for eating. Often reaching a few to several feet in height and width in fertile soil, carrots in flower burst with lovely umbels of complex, delicate, beautiful blooms that are perfectly engineered by nature and coevolution as landing pads and feeding stations for beneficial insects. Leave a patch or two of your carrots (if saving seeds, avoid harvesting the most vigorous and healthy carrots) to mature over summer, and enjoy their striking blooms by late winter or the following spring.

This picture shows carrots in bloom.

To view customized information for growing carrot, go to GardenZeus and enter your zip code, then go to carrot.