How to grow and harvest my carrots?

Carrots are always grown in our garden for several reasons, which are, all my family and I love carrots and they are rich in Vitamin A, which promotes good eyesight. I like to plant carrots because you can enjoy them for almost twelve months of the year, with me being able to have baby "pullings" in early spring and then  you have the main crop roots that store well into the winter. Carrots comes in many different shapes, colors and sizes which I like this about carrots.

I have read that some types of carrots can be grown in containers, but I have not tried any of them in my garden. "Parmex" is a good one to grow in containers and it produces bite-size, sweet-tasting round carrots. I might try some of them in one of my containers next winter or spring. "Carson" is one that is good to grow because I like them for their taste and they store well. "Bangor" is another that has a good taste and they store real well in the winter. I like to try new things, so "Purple Haze" would be one for me. It produces purple-skinned roots and they make a lot of carrots.

To get my garden soil ready for my carrots seeds. I turn over the soil and get all of the weeds out, then I rake it level. I make drills with a hoe, water it well,and sow the seeds 1/4 inches deep, and then I cover the seeds with soil and water. Since carrots seeds are slow to germinate, I keep checking them and make sure that I keep my soil well-watered until I see my seedlings coming up. I am always watering my plants, especially during the dry spells in the summer, but I don't overdo the watering. By my watering, this promotes leafy growth and this is at the expense of roots. When I weed my plants, I do it by hand, not with my hoe. I also do the weeding at dusk, because weeding releases the scent of the leaves, which attracts carrot fly and carrot fly in not around at dusk. Another way to keep the carrot fly form laying their eggs at the base of plants, I put a barrier of insect mesh about 24 inches high around all of my carrot plants.

I have to pull my early sowing up for the soil by my hand. The carrots that I planted that are main crop varieties, when they are ready for harvest, I use a fork to get them out of the ground.

I always like to have early crops and main crop carrots, because that means that we will have carrots almost all of the year.