If I had a favourite thing to grow, I would have to say…carrots. Why? I think it’s because I failed at growing them numerous times, and now, they’re something that I will always have in my garden (at the right time of year). They’re not the easiest vegetable to grow. They need the right soil, to grow them well they need a bit more maintenance than other vegetables and yet I seem to have worked out a way that feels good to me without a lot of fuss.
On re-reading that paragraph, none of those reasons are why I love to grow carrots. I love to grow carrots because I love harvesting carrots! It’s like going to the casino. Will this be a great carrot that was worth pulling out of the ground and I want to take a photo to show my friends? Or is it going to be dreadfully disappointing and will I regret my choices for ever more? I love the gamble. I love trying to find a ‘good one’ to harvest. I’ve even been know of finding great big carrots, then pushing them back into the ground for my 5 year old to pull out because I wanted him to feel the joy of that particular harvest too.
My former paragraph is why I am proud of the fact that I can grow carrots. They’re tricky, and I give them little more attention than anything else in my garden, and yet I do quite well growing carrots. Yay for me.
How do I grow them?
- I fully wet the soil where I am going to plant them. You don’t want to have to water these now for at least a week.
- I make a small line in the soil for the length of the bed.
- I sprinkle the carrot seeds into the line trying to space them out a little. (I’ve tried mixing the seeds with sand, but I find this worse as I’m not sure where I’ve got sand and where I’ve got seeds). Don’t stress too much about this. They’re $3.50 a seed packet. Just buy some more if you have to.
- I put a board over the top of the line of carrot seed and push it down firmly onto the soil.
- I don’t touch it for a week. After a week, I start checking to see when I see some germination. I like to leave the board on until a see quite a lot of seeds have germinated. I feel like I have sometimes removed the board too soon and the carrots struggle as a result.
- I thin my seedlings quite late and not very much at all. I really only do so if they are very thick. I put these into my scraps bag in the freezer and use them for stock.
- Harvest gradually over time in order to make more room for the carrots to continue to mature. I find that once I start harvesting, they just seem to do better and better.
- Keep trying until you master them. It’s worth the effort.
- Oh, and try some of the seed packets that have different varieties within the one packet. I did that for the first time this year and I have thoroughly enjoyed having the different colours on my dinner plate!
