Carrots - leave old carrots in the ground, or dig out?

by Toni
(Massachusetts)

Last fall we didn't pull all of the carrots from the garden before everything froze solid for months. Now here in New England we are just getting ready to prepare our garden for Memorial weekend planting. I don't want to promote any growth of disease in the new garden - do we dig those or do we till them in?

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Sep 30, 2009
 Carrots - leave in ground or dig out?
by: ~ Megan ~

Getting on a bit now, so not sure what you did with your carrots? If your ground did freeze solid right down, then those carrots left in the ground would be mush and would soon rot once the soil warmed up.
This is no different to how many people garden – by burying their veggie scraps in little holes, covering with soil and letting nature in time do the decaying and blending in.
So it's fine to leave your carrots in the ground. It's a good idea to not follow the exact rows that your mushed carrots are in as you plant the new season's crops.
Many people leave their carrots in the ground over winter, cover with a thick layer of mulch to prevent freezing, then dig out in spring for amazingly sweet carrots. This even works in snow areas, but the trick is to hope the snow arrives to blanket the ground before severe freezing arrives, and that your carrots have matured and the tops are just about dead and finally that you get the mulch on everything for the carrots to over-winter under. If they freeze, well then, you get carrot mush!
Nov 06, 2014
 how do I make my own mulch. NEW
by: marlen

I want to cover my carrots in the garden, and they say to put heavy mulch over them before it freezes. we get like -20 to -30 below zero here in North Dakota. How or can I make my own mulch?
Nov 07, 2014
 Mulch for overwintering carrots NEW
by: ~ Megan

Have a read of this page for some good organic ideas:Mulch

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