What you say makes a lot of sense! Thanks!
I’ve never raised any carrots, but I can easily see that I would want to eat the little embryo root. I guess I can experiment with tasting a few tops, (don’t have any planted yet, but I have PLANS!!) but I’ve done a lot of sprouting as well over the years, and the radish greens ARE very good as younglings.
I just bought the new edition of the Square Foot Gardening and have read the Intro and first three chapters. I’ve learned so much from just that much!
A tip on your carrots: they need a lot of moisture, as they are very shallow to start out & dry out quickly. The seed also is so shallow, they wash out easily.
I finally figured out that barely scratching the seed into the soil surface, then giving them a light covering of straw or dry (not green!) grass clippings keeps the seeds damp & cool; it also prevents washing out of the seeds when watering or if it rains.
I prefer coarse straw, as it it doesn’t pack down, and lets more light through. My grandfather used wide boards(!!) but I never had any luck with that, unless you call having a slug & snail hatchery ‘luck’.
Give them a light spray once or twice a day, depending on weather; after about 10 days, you can peek at a small area to check to see if they’ve germinated, but keep them covered until they get their first true leaves. Once they have a couple of real feathery leaves, pull back the mulch so they get more light.