Nantes Carrots

Well third time lucky. I am trying to grow carrots (again!). This was last years attempt when I tried small round carrots...(click here) The soil around our parts is quite rocky and sandstoney and I have a feeling the previous attempts failed due to the basic reason this root vegetable couldn't grow downwards....! BUT! With plenty of room left in my raised verge vege garden bed I thought I would give them another go. The 'raised' part of the raised garden bed is 40cm - more than enough good soil depth I think for healthy carrots. So I still have some heirloom seeds left of the Nantes Carrot variety and have duely planted three rows. I just used my finger to dig a shallow trench, sprinkled in the seeds, then covered up with seed raising mix. They will need to be thinned out twice, - first when about 5 cm tall, and then again when about 15cm tall (those ones you can eat I think). This is assuming the birds don't get the seedlings. If I get about 20 carrots per row, - about 60 carrots all up - I think that will last our home about 2-3 weeks! (we eat a lot of carrots!). So really an experiment in my determination to get carrots growing here.

A bit of history about the Nantes carrots...The Nantes carrot takes its name from the city on the Atlantic coast of France where the surrounding countryside is ideal for its cultivation. (“It only attains its full quality in a mellow, deep soil…,” wrote Henri Vilmorin in the 1885 edition of his family’s seed catalog.)

Here is the pic of the carrots bed after planting...Will update in about 4 weeks the progress...

Carrots with beetroot in background