Gardening Advice & Tips for Irish Gardeners

Day 6 in the garden - March 27th. The frost that was forecast for this weekend never came to much so I have decided not to waste another second and I’ve been out sowing seeds in the vegetable raised beds.

It’s been 3 weeks since I started sowing vegetable seeds which began with the sowing of Tomato Alicante in 9cm pots indoors. I have since started my Courgette, Salads & Squash indoors. As we are now into the second half of March the temperatures are more conducive to growth so this should be a great time to sow root crops.

Because root crops don’t transplant well I needed to sow them directly into the ground where they will mature and be harvested, but if I really wanted to start them off indoors I could have grown them in fibre – decomposable pots.

I decided that I would sow 4 rows of carrots and 2 rows of beetroot in my raised beds. I want to keep all my root crops together and this amount would take up about half of one raised bed.

I sowed 4 rows of Carrot ‘Autumn King’ in shallow drills spaced 10cm apart. This year I sowed my seeds into narrow rows of potting compost positioned over of my prepared garden soil. The compost gives the most ideal conditions for seed germination.

Soil preparation is essential and I loosened the soil with a hand fork and removed all stones. I have, in the past, found it difficult to get conditions right for growing carrots, especially when working with clay soils. This time I wanted to make the soil as light as possible and I’m hoping the farm yard manure and the fact that I’m growing in raised beds will make the difference. It is also difficult to create a fine seed bed with clay soils so that is why I used potting compost along the drills.

After thinly sowing my carrots seeds into the shallow compost drills, I pressed the soil gently and watered them in. Carrots are slow to germinate and need regular weeding so I have labels positioned at the ends of the rows to make weeding & identification easier over the coming weeks.

Warm soil is essential for carrot germination and I wish I had placed cloches over my soil to trap the fleeting Spring sunshine. I’m sure the soil will warm quickly and just to be safe I placed a frost fleece over the rows to protect them in their first few months.

My check list for sowing carrots: is as follows 1.    Good soil prep, and a light, airy soil 2.    2 cloches (mini tunnels) – warm the soil prior to sowing 3.    Potting compost to create a seed bed 4.    String line & measure – to create neat and even rows 5.    Hand trowel & rake - to loosen the soil & level before sowing seeds 6.    Pack of carrot seeds – endless range to choose from 7.    Labels – in case of short term memory loss 8.    Watering can – to give the soil a good soak before sowing seeds 9.    Frost fleece and pegs (stones this time) – keeps the soil warm and prevents carrot fly 10.    A bit of luck – carrot fly, slugs and frost are all working against me and my carrots, so I’m hoping luck will be on my side this Summer