Garden Carrot

This year we have a little patio garden.  This carrot is the only one that grew from the seeds we planted.  Unfortunately it was in a fairly shallow pot and you can tell how deep from the size of it.  Carrots only grow as long as they have room to do so.  One year we had a garden that had a lot of carrots but only so much height.  It wasn't because they were in a pot but instead the dirt we brought in and put over the existing soil (mostly clay) only went so deep.  When it hit the hard soil underneath they stopped getting bigger.

It's interesting how plants grow only where they find room.  I heard of one way to grow potatoes was putting them in hay.  It eliminates the natural pests you get since there is no soil and at harvest time you just jostle the hay around until it releases the potatoes. Trying something similar but I have very little the potato is trying to grow in.  Might have to go get more hay.

The rest of the garden though is doing pretty well.  Lots of watering, 2-3 gallons a day, but in the scheme of things not really a problem.  The larger pot is growing the much better squash plant of course.  The bigger volume lets it retain more water and less heat gets to the plant as a result.  I think I will need to shade the plants as summer gets along to keep them happy.