If it has worked for years you must be spacing things okay. But if your carrots never develop to a good size or shape you should try thinning....and do it early in their growth. If you leave them about 1 inch apart at the first thinning you can harvest every other one for baby carrots and leave the rest 2 inches apart for later harvest at full size. In nature the strong may survive, but they take alot longer to grow while competing with the ones who later die. You can "help" your veggies grow faster by getting rid of the competition early in the growing season. I like dirtbert's idea of a little experiment. Try different spacings and see what works best. Yes, you can pull out the extras, it is okay. Hopefully, you don't have trouble destroying the weeds. They are also living things, but they gotta go, too. FWIW: I shared a garden plot for awhile with someone who said I was "playing God" whenever I went in and thinned plants. But she let me do it, just didn't watch. Are you sure DH isn't already helping your garden with a bit of thinning when you aren't watching?

I often put 4 seedlings into a tray cell that size, one in each corner. As soon as they grow two pairs of true leaves (much smaller than those in the photo), I use an ice tea spoon to scoop out each corner's tomato plant and transplant into a 9 oz. plastic cup. I just use the spoon to cut through the roots. I never lose one, and the plants I grow are just as healthy as they would be if each was started in a separate cell.

below are some suggestions for early tomatoes in So Cal from Gary Ibsen Alaska Black Plum Black Prince Blondkopfchen Carmello Dad's Barber Paste Druzba Fireworks Flamme God Love Green Grape Green Zebra Jaune Coure de Pigeon Manitoba Marmande Moonglow Northern Lights Purple Russian Rose San Francisco Fog Sisters These are seed I have that are for for tomatoes that can handle cool growing conditions either at end of summer season into fall or as early plantings in So Calif Allicante 70 Days Ind C Red Golf Ball Full Bodied old time taste Anna Russian 70 days Ind CJuicy Pinkish Red Heart to 1 lbAzoychka 65 days Ind CHYellow 3" 7-8 oz Juicy sweet rich touch of acid Black Ethiopian 81 days Ind CH 5oz sweet rich and tangy Plum heavy production Black Krim 75+ days Ind CH 10-12 oz Rich Sweet reddish brown Black Pear 80 days Ind C Plentiful yield of 6-8 oz sweet well balanced flavor Black Plum 82 days Ind C Deep Mahogany elongated Plum rich sweet and tart Black Prince 70 days Ind C6-8 oz rich intense tpmatoey juicy fruits Russian Black 80 days Ind C 4 0z sweet balanced complex flavor Black Zebra 85 Ind CH Box Car Willie 80 Ind CH BuckbeeÂs New 50 Day Ind Camp Joy 80 CCHH IndCherry Carmello 75 Ind CCHH Red Salad Ceylon 70 Ind C Red mini-beef Crazy 55 Ind CH Cherry Dona 75 Ind CCHH Red French Salad Eva Purple Ball 68 Ind CH German Pink Purple 2" 6-8 oz Fireworks 60 Ind CCHH 2 ½ " 8-12 0z Hezou 80 Ind China 2" Illini Star 72 Ind Red 6-8 oz Jaune Flammee 70 Ind C2-3 oz orange globe Kelloggs Breakfast 78 Ind CH Orange Beef Lida Ukrainian 75 Ind C Lime Green Salad 52 Det CH 3 oz luscious tangy taste Malinowski 75 Ind C Polish Lots of red round 6-8 0z delicious fruit MariannaÂs Peace 80 CCHH Czechoslovakian Dense RichTomatoey flavor 16 0z Moskovich 60 S-Det CC 4-6 0z luscious rich taste Mule Team 80 Ind CCHH8-12 oz Mildly sweet  bears till frost Nyagous 76 Ind 6 oz C Russian Black Mahogany with sweet, complex fruit flavors Omars Lebanese 80 Ind CLarge Pink Beefsteak Paul Robeson 74 Ind CCH luscious, earthy, exotic with good balance Prudens Purple 75 Ind CHPurple Pink with excellent flavor like Brandywine Riesentraube 78 Ind C E Germany lots of pointed sweet grapes Rose 78 Ind CH Amish 3" meaty luscious taste Sisters 82 Ind CH Pot leaf 4" delicious pink beef Slava 65 Ind C Red 2"Delicious from Czech Republic St Pierre 84 Ind CH French Red thin skinned with a fine, sweet flavor prod up to frost Stupice 52 Ind C Czech sweet 2" deep red globes cold-tolerant Standard Early SunsetÂs Red Horizon 72 Ind CCHH Russian 4" delicious tomatoey in to November Super Snow White 75 Ind CVery sweet 2 oz Ivory ping pong size great for salads Thessaloniki 80 Ind CH Greek exceptional yields of 8oz wonderfully rich globes Tommy Toe 70 Ind Bright Red 1" cherry with excellent juicy flavor

I love how immediately helpful everyone is! The door leads to the laundry/utility room. Immediately on the other side is the furnace. Boo. A nicer door could be an eventuality, but we were over budget on the project already, existing was a brown faux wood finish PLASTIC door. This door was on sale at Menards so we got it as a quick fix because that plastic door was just killing everything. The dark walls kind of closed the space in considerably, something we were both happy with because the room gets tons of traffic so much of the space is unusable as far as adding furniture and room opens to ginormous family room with double french doors so tons of light coming in. A lot of the room just looked like odd open space and now its much more cozy. Thought a black door sucking light wouldn't be terrible. I liked the way the black chair backs contrasted with the wainscotting, that's where I got the idea that the door might look nice in that same finish but I think I've been outvoted! I do like the fresh white with the linked fresh artwork... Would be a very different effect! And thanks for the mock up - how cool is that? So easy for me to visualize, I need to learn how to do that so I can try out my crazy ideas :) Although it still looks appealing to me after seeing it. Thanks again for all the input!