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Q. Carrots that I seeded two weeks ago have not germinated. Is it too late to re-seed?
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A. You may not have to give up on that seeding yet. Carrots can take up to three weeks to germinate and perhaps a little more in conditions that are too cold or too hot.
If you decide to wait it out a bit longer, keep the seeded bed lightly watered and try to provide some shading from the hottest sun.
Carrots can be seeded, in most conditions, up to July 1, for roots to harvest in the fall, winter and early spring. I do an early spring sowing every year and another, smaller one at the end of June or the beginning of July for younger carrots as a second crop.
Q. Like most gardeners, I am expecting another hot summer — or at least periods of high heat. I would like to know how to grow lettuces successfully through summer conditions.
A. Seeding lettuces indoors, or buying transplants, eliminates much of the uncertainty around growing satisfactory lettuce through much of the year.
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Indoor sowing allows a gardener to have transplants ready as soon as soil and weather conditions are suitable for transplanting in the spring, and sturdy little transplants that will stand up to the heat of summer more easily than tender, emerging seedlings in the garden.
As the weather warms, I look for lightly shaded areas where consistently adequate soil moisture is easy to maintain for placing lettuce transplants. For example, I always use the shaded side of staking tomatoes and trellised peas.
Among the lettuces, butterheads are considered the most heat tolerant. Red-leaved lettuces tend to stand up well to heat as well. That’s probably why butterheads and miniature red romaine lettuces stood up to May’s high temperatures last year, when some other plantings in my garden succumbed to the heat.
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