My overwintered carrots
We gardeners plot and scheme and plan how best to manipulate nature so we can grow our vegetables, and nature often throws us curve balls such as cold temperatures and drought. But sometimes, the surprises are pleasant ones.
Take my carrots: last year’s crop was fantastic, and I continued to harvest right up until Christmas. Then, as happens in winter here in RI, (duh) everything froze solid and I couldn’t get them out of the ground. “Oh well,” I thought to myself, “that’s it for the carrots. They had a good run, after all.” I figured I would just dig up their rotting little roots in the spring.
Fast forward to March, and I casually sidle up to the carrot bed. The ground has thawed. The tops are dead, of course, but something prompts me to pull a few – just to see. There were a few mushy – shouldered ones because I had not had the foresight to mulch, but most of them were just as I had left them in the fall – crunchy and delicious.
Next fall, I will definitely try to remember to mulch.
Digging RI 
what a great surprise!! I also have a surprise – i thought my garlic died (harvested late with a long period of heavy rains) last year but found some salvageable bulbs. Right now, there’s a row growing that I think had turned to mush last year and that I missed. I wonder what they’ll be like at harvest time??
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They’ll probably be fine, Wendy! 🙂 I’d just treat them as if you’d planted them in the fall and cross your fingers!
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