ok, this is a shockingly dense carrot question...

[spikemomma]

But how do you tell when they are ready to pull up? Same with most root veg - how do you know?

I told you... wince, i'm a novice and half.

ummmm, well I pull one up - then put it back if it isn't very big I'm sure that's not the right way.

lol - I will be watching this one!

I grew potatoes last year and my gran told me they were ready when the tops started to die back - I assumed that the other root veg would be the same?

The tops of the carrots should start to show and you should be able to tell from there when they are ready. However, you will need to pick one to really be able to tell. You should do this in the evening (when carrot fly are least active)

Did the packet have a rough guide to when they will be ready?

I had one of our TEENY carrots violently pulled up and dangled in my face, with the words, 'is this one?', whilst in mid flow of how gardens grow...such a tender moment - choked by the hand of a small child... I just shoved it back in and pretended it hadn't happened and it survived, so it got me thinking... how DO you know?!!

Errmm, it wasn't a packet. It was a pretty yellow pot with seedlings in... slinks away lamely...

We've just planted our BBC free seeds though - i'll read the booklet and see when they are ready.

F***g cat from next door dug up a load of my carrot seedlings yesterday while utilising their trough as a litter tray (parmex carrots, apparently they can cope with troughs). I could have cried.

I have Snack Size carrotts, (also from pretty coloured pots in garden center where all my veg has come from!) I don't know when they will be ready but the tops of them are huge.

All my veg are massive what with thes hot then cold weather combo we have been having, i have enough Salad leaves to feed a family of Rabbitts for a year or 2.

I am incredably dense about gardening, my mums a whizz in the garden i am forever ringing her up with a "whats this/that, how do i do x,y,z?" questions.

I am jealous about the salad leaves; i've sown two loads and they've both been eaten. Gutted! My carrots are snack size ones too - which is nice, but i can't wait to see the 'proper' ones i've just sown. I too am dense about veg growing - first year at it, but i love it...well, not when those pesky snails eat them. Grrr.

Ants ate all of my carrots
Slugs ate all of my lettuce
But my peas are doing welll, Hurrah!.Good luck with your carrote

rocket is dead easy to grow - it's not too late to start it either. Mine didn't get eaten at all last year - can't remember why I haven't done it this year.

My cucumbers have gone and my potatos have little bugs eating the leaves. Courgettes looking hopeful.