Our best carrots ever

June 13, 2011 by

Harvesting CarrotsLook at these beauties!

I am just so chuffed.  They are perfect in every way, not a blemish on them.  I am used to digging carrots up that are riddled with holes!  These were so good we didn’t even have to peel them.  We just gave them a quick wash, and munched away on them.  And they tasted superb! Crunchy and sweet just like little salad carrots should be.  These were the carrots planted in a large container.  I have to say that they didn’t germinate very well (but then I was using very old seed that I found in our seed boxes), but those that did germinate have grown well.  And no sign of carrot fly so far.  In my excitement, I did wave them around the garden a little, but I’m hoping that, because it was so damp and blustery, the carrot fly won’t be able to locate us!  I think carrots really taste their best when they are small like this (these look big in the photo but the largest had a diameter of about 2cm).


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Greenhouse Jumble

April 3, 2011 by

I just love greenhouses and polytunnels.  I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but I think they are magical.  We’ve been lucky in that each house we’ve moved into has had a greenhouse left behind and we’ve made good use of each one.  A couple of years ago, we bought a greenhouse and we absolutely love it!  When I went to pick some salad the other day, it struck me how much was ‘going on’ in there…so took a piccy.  Later in the season it’ll look very different.

So what’s what?

1. Some radishes that I sowed in Early February for an early spring treat!

2. Strawberry runners that Emma found had rooted in our fruit cage…dug up and popped in pots

3. An old washing tub, now used for compost – convenient and warms the soil

4. Some Begonias and Dahlias for the sitting area in front of the greenhouse (the ‘admire your hard work’ spot)

5. Carrots planted in a container

6. Some bamboo canes from last year’s runner beans

7. Spare raspberry canes (malling admiral I think) that we’re growing in pots

8. The netting system I used last year for growing cucumbers – worked a treat!

9. Buckets of water (from water butts) warming for general greenhouse use

10. Right in the corner…some gnome thing that one of the kids got as a present

11. My perpetual salad system…8 trays (4 on top and 4 below).  I’ll plant one tray per week rolling

12. Some chilli, aubergine and capsicum plants

13. A thermometer that’s partly broken (measures lowest but not highest temperature)

14. Outside the greenhouse -Water butts that come from the greenhouse

15. Tommies – We’re growing a few different varieties this year. Harbinger, latah, sungold and sungella

I wonder if other people’s greenhouses are such a jumble as ours at the moment?


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Planting Carrots in Containers

April 1, 2011 by

This year, I thought I would try growing our carrots in containers.  We’ve grown them in the ground before and they’ve been ok, but we have had a few problems with carrot fly.  I recently read that the carrot fly is a low flier, flying no more than 18 inches above the ground, so I’m hoping they won’t even find the carrots in the container.  I filled a sturdy box with a mixture of soil and sand, and then planted the carrot seed thinly.  Hopefully, this will mean that I won’t need to thin the seedlings too much as the scent released when thinning can be detected by carrot fly over a mile away.  Yes, I’m determined to have perfect carrots this year!  I’m even giving them a head start by keeping them in the greenhouse for a while until we need the space.Planting carrots in a container


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