After three failed attempts at carrots this year, today, Ron planted carrot seeds. I told him I couldn’t plant them this time because I was cursed. I want those Oxheart carrots too badly. Maybe my desperation is creating negative energy.
But I think, after much investigation, we have figured out what happened to the last two rounds of planting. The first round was washed away by rain. We have some carrots in random places popping up. Those are pretty much the only carrots we have so far this year though. It took some sleuthing, but we now know that either slugs or cut worms ate the next two rounds of carrots.
I kept telling Ron that something was slaughtering the carrot seedlings, but he was skeptical because we have never had a problem like this before. I finally got him to believe me, so we planted again thinking surely the slugs or cut worms would have moved on by the third planting. Yesterday, I was so excited to find that we did have some seedlings popping up from the third planting. To test what was happening, I used tiny rocks from the garden to make circles around four seedlings. If we still had them this morning, we were probably going to be okay without the fourth planting.
Sadly, this morning, only one of the four seedlings remained.
I know I have said this before, but this year just keeps being tough on the garden front. We need sunshine so badly. We can get regular organic carrots from other farmers, but one of the varieties of carrots we plant is a French heirloom Oxheart carrot. I cannot get these anywhere else around here, and I adore them. They are a variety of France that has been around since ever and are great for rocky soils like we have in Maine. They are short and chunky and perfect for chopping up into sticks for stir fries–hence my desperation in planting. And, as organic gardeners, we can’t use pesticides to help in this situation. .
So Ron planted the carrots today in a different part of the garden. Additionally, since we know it’s either slugs or cutworms eating our carrot seedlings, I covered the area in crushed eggshells. This should work in keeping them away from the carrots once they sprout. It’s kind of like using Diatomaceous Earth, only the shells won’t wash away so easily in the rain–and we’re having a lot of rain this year.
Ron and I were talking this weekend about which is worse–this much rain and cold and cloudiness or the drought from last two years. We both agreed the drought is worse. But we are definitely having to use our critical thinking skills and just be tenacious to get things to grow this year.
*photo credit: Pine Tree Garden Seeds
