Grow your own food, week 5 - carrots

Dominic Murphy

11 April 2011

Carrots can be surprisingly tricky to cultivate, needing deep, well-drained soil. But if you've ever tasted carrots fresh from the ground, you'll know they're worth it.

For starters, try to work out what soil you've got. I know this sounds dreary but stay with me.

Soils tend to be described as sandy, silty or clay. Clay is what's known as a heavy soil while sand is a light soil. Most garden soils come somewhere in between the two.

If your soil is clay, dig in some sharp sand where you want to plant your carrots. This will improve its drainage.

If it's a light soil, you're on to a winner.

How do you know you've got clay? Well, does it puddle easily in heavy rain? And what happens if you wet a handful of soil and rub it together? The easier it is to roll into a sausage, the more clay you have in there.

Another problem can be the carrot fly, which is attracted to the plant by smell (told you this root was trouble).

One way to deter carrot fly is to confuse it and plant your crop next to strong-smelling neighbours such as garlic or spring onions.

Another organic deterrent is to surround the carrots with a vertical barrier, such as a fine mesh or horticultural fleece attached to posts. Both are cheap enough and available in garden centres.

The carrot fly is a low flying insect, so a barrier about 60 cm high should keep it at bay.

To sow, make a shallow drill with the end of a trowel about 1cm deep. Sow seeds thinly, aiming for at least 2 cm apart for young, summer-harvested carrots, 4 cm apart if you want to leave them to get bigger.

You can thin out carrots to their correct spacing when they're about 2 cm high. But try to do this in the evening when the carrot fly is less active and less likely to smell that delicious crushed foliage. 

Reliable varieties to sow now are Amsterdam Forcing and Early Nantes. For a shallow soil, or even a container, try a round-rooted variety such as Parmex.

All these are widely available and, I promise, definitely worth the trouble.

Dominic Murphy, Publishing & New Media Team

Dominic Murphy's book 'The Playground Potting Shed' includes an easy guide to growing food throughout the year. To order a signed copy at the special price of £6.99 please visit our Shop.