We’ve done peas and potatoes (there are still more peas now ready for picking, by the way). Now, carrots.
Carrots
So here’s the first ones I’ve picked. They all seem to be growing at very different rates.
Planted: 17th April.
Re-planted: 8th May.
These picked: 23rd July (about 3 months growing to first ones).
The forking and huge size variation might suggest what I already knew – that I’d planted too many of them, too close together.
Like the peas, these weren’t as much of an easy ride as I’d hoped. After I planted them, they appeared to be doing quite well. However, there was a period of incredibly windy weather, and around the 7th-8th May, most of them were ripped out of the soil, roots and all.
(To show you how windy it was, that cheap, lightweight garden parasol and plastic table is weighted at the bottom with a cast-iron stand designed to hold Christmas trees upright.)
I replanted some of the carrot seedlings by poking a hole with a pencil and putting them back in, and chucked a few more seeds in for good measure on the 8th May. Given that it was still incredibly windy, I moved them to a more sheltered position and protected them with a kind of bio-dome device.
This miniature Eden Project was made by covering a hanging basket with a transparent plastic bag, and holding it in place with the sort of white cable ties you get if you buy a roll of sandwich bags.
Regardless, it’s about 2.5-3 months to grow some carrots if you’re a beginner. And I should get a lot more, soon.
Update: 24th August 2011
Update: 31st August 2011
There’s still quite a few left growing, even now. Surprisingly few have got eaten by pests, and removing the earlier ones (some too early) has meant the remaining ones have grown bigger.