When we had recently moved to Christchurch and I was wanting to get more into gardening, I would ask anyone and everyone garden questions if I discovered they had an interest (who am I kidding, I still do that!).
One evening I was at an event and got talking to some ladies about carrots. Carrots were something I had never tried, I was actually a little ‘scared’ to as I always would hear about how hard they were to grow. One thing I did learn from the conversation was that you should never ever have your carrots growing overwinter as when they come into spring they become all hairy and you don’t want that - so I mentally tucked that bit of advice away and started growing carrots, ensuring they were planted to I never had them in the ground over winter.
It wasn’t until last year that I decided to question that advice and try it out - I grew carrots over winter, harvested them in spring - and sure enough, when I pulled the first one out it was hairy like I was warned… so I washed and scrubbed it to remove the roots, bit into it… and guess what… it tasted like a carrot!
I guess these well-meaning ladies didn’t like the look of the carrots with extra roots, I had always assumed it was something to do with the taste!
So now I have carrots growing all year round (in fact I better plant another row!) - the only thing I look for now is bolting when it gets to spring!
And the moral of the story - Keep talking to other gardeners, but also just keep experimenting! It’s the most fun way to learn!
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