What Does a Carrot Look Like 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 with shade protection, and enjoy their striking blooms by late winter or the following spring.
Carrot in garden
Carrots in bloom in sustainable garden
Beware of growing carrot with Queen Anne’s Lace in a sustainable garden. Queen Anne’s Lace, considered by most in North America to be a weed, is the same species as the cultivated carrot and will readily cross-pollinate to produce variable or poor-quality carrot seeds in home gardens.
Queen Anne’s Lace
Did you know ….. Once a carrot plant is at least 8 to 10 inches tall, a small proportion of its leaves may be harvested without harming root development for use as a bitter but highly nutritious green for salads, slaws, soups, as sauteed, and in many other dishes.
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