I prepared and planted the fist carrots today, in fact these were actually the first seeds to be planted on the allotment.
You can see from the photographs below how I prepared the plot, which is at one end of the raised bed area.
Firstly I dug in two bags of sharp sand, this breaks up the clay, not that it really needs any breaking up, but for carrots the softer the soil the better as they tend to get stumped and gnarled it that hit ground through which they can not penetrate.
I then added a bag of multipurpose compost, again to give the some some more lightness.
Following that I howed the soil and then planted the seeds in rows about 6″ apart. I started off with last years seeds, which were the variety Ideal, putting in two rows of these. I then put in a row of the Early Nantes 5 carrots. I will eventually have about 8 -10 rows of carrots, each 2.2 metres long. However I am staggering the planting of them, both within the early and later varieties. I hope that planting another couple of rows of the early variety in two or three weeks time will give me a more spaced out harvest.
-
- Carrot bed – Sharp Sand
-
- Carrot bed – Sharp Sand dug in
-
- Carrot bed – Compost
-
- Carrot bed – Finished Soil
-
- Channels for carrot seads
-
- Carrot seeds in channel
Related posts:
lolol where is a light beer when you need one