Sugar, color, and a crop you can leave under mulch into December.

Sow

April 1 and July 15. Keep the seedbed wet for 10 days — carrot seed is slow. Beets are easier.

Spacing

Thin carrots to 2 in, beets to 3–4 in. Rows 12 in.

Days

70–80

Harvest

Anytime after they have shoulders. Fall crop after frost tastes best.

Store

Twist tops (don’t cut beets or they bleed). Pack in barely damp sand at 32–38°F. Or leave in the bed under a foot of leaves and pull as needed until the ground locks.

Seed

Biennials. Store perfect roots, replant in spring. Carrots cross with Queen Anne’s lace — that’s a problem here. Bag umbels.

Companions

Onion, rosemary, lettuce. Carrots next to Queen Anne’s lace will make useless hybrids if you save seed.

Pests

Deer love beet greens. A low fence. Rust flies are rare if you rotate.

Danvers and Bolero carrots handle clay better than Nantes.