This is the May-June carrots. They were planted as seed back in January. We had these for lunch in a tofu, noodles and Asian greens stir fry, and they were yum.
This is the June – July carrots. They were planted as seed back in February. They’re pretty well right for now.
This is the July – August carrots. I have a dozen tubes of them ready to be planted out today. They were planted as seed back in March, so it is actually two months now since sowing. Carrots are slow to start but they’ll take off now. I shall dig a little hole and plant the group as one in it, bottomless tube and all. Any excess fertilizing would just make them go all to leaf and no root, so they get no compost and I prefer spots where a heavy nitrogen feeder like a leafy green has come out.
This is the August – September carrots. They were planted as seed a month ago, last roots and perennials planting days. I shall move them to a sunnier part of the shadehouse today, so they get a bit more light so they don’t go leggy, but otherwise, they’re right for another month.
And this is the September – October carrots, planted today, companion planted with spring onions using my standard method. If I had to plant them out today, I don’t know where I’d put them – the garden is too full, the bigger plants will out-compete them, one day of harsh sun as they germinate will kill them. Planted like this in the shadehouse, I can keep them watered and weed free till July, by which time a lot of lettuces and cabbages will have been harvested to make room for them.
There’s very little actual work involved – I grabbed a bucket of creek sand on my way home last night and mixed it with some old compost to make the planting mix. The sowing takes minutes and the planting out only half an hour or so. Of course it’s not quite that simple – there’s always seeds that don’t germinate, mice that get them in the shadehouse, bandicoots that break into a garden bed, floods that drown them, frizzle days that scorch them, and times when I get so busy that planting days just speed past. But if I can keep the routine going, I can harvest a dozen or so carrots pretty well most weeks of the year.
I love your blog! Followed a link from somewhere else, glad I did. Your mandarin butter breakfast inspired me to make pancakes and eat them with lemon butter…not homemade by me, but bought at the local farmer’s markets, organic and all, so someone’s homemade. Yummy!
I ‘ll be back.
Ok so now I am a little confused. I thought it is advisable to raise carrots by directly sowing in the ground due to them not liking being transplanted? Or do your bottomless paper pots overcome this problem?
Hi Jason, I always used to direct sow carrots, for years after I had given up direct sowing anything else, because they don’t transplant well. But since the book came out, this is one of the things that have changed! I’ve discovered that if I raise them up to a stage where their own root mass holds the potting medium together, and I transplant them soil and all – that is, I don’t dig up the carrots but plant the whole kit and caboodle – they transplant nicely. Much easier with bottomless pots but I’ve done it with pots too, just by waiting until they are well developed. It’s a much easier way to get them through those early days when they are so vulnerable.
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Linda, I notice you are not using the cut off milk bottles for your seedlings now. What are the pots you use? Are they home made newspaper tubes? They don’t look as though they are – I’m interested as I do not consume that much milk and have trouble getting others to save them for me. Thank you for keeping me up to the mark with my planting. before I found your blog I very often missed the right planting days, so had many a gap in the things that should have been ready for planting out. I
I have just read your earlier blog of how you are making your pots from banana leaves. I haven’t got banas growing but am overrun with cannas so will have a go with them.
Hi Eileen, I have trouble getting enough milk bottles these days too, since my son grew up. I still use them, but I’m liking using rolled leaves lately. I have a picture and description of the method here. I use banana leaves, but also these leaves from s decorative plant I have growing, that I don’t know the name of. https://witcheskitchen.com.au/leafy-planting-in-late-winter/
Thanks for your reply Linda. I have just had a look at the way you make the pots so will certainly have a go!
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