Monday 1 April 2013

Riddling for Carrots

The clocks changed last night for British Summer Time - should have been one hour less in bed but I'm pleased to say it didn't turn out that way! Well, I'm on holiday for a week, so we're taking it easy
:-)

That wasn't the case when we eventually got to the plot though. We were riddling the earth for the carrot trench; mixing in seed compost as we riddled. It's tiring doing it and it's a relief when you reach the end but it's pleasing. The seived earth is so lovely and free-flowing.
The carrot patch is filled and ready for our little seeds once the weather improves a bit. It's about 15cm deep so that we'll get nice straight carrots - well, that's the plan! We'll probably sow 3 rows and can eat the thinnings as salad carrots - we've got a super-sweet variety for this year.


Don't worry, there's no-one buried down there!


Here's a (very) short video showing how lovely the soil is - a bit of Zen gardening going on. With the Easter church bells in the background for good measure!

 

We also prepared a row for our parsnips. The carrots and parsnips are going in the onion quarter with some marigolds this year. We'll cover the carrots with enviromesh but are hoping the parsnips will be protected from the carrot fly by the marigolds and the onion smell..

We left after 6pm, so nice that we'll have longer evenings to get on the plot now. It was still reasonably sunny but still cold - about 6°. It was -4° last night :-(
 

4 comments:

  1. Parsnips aren't usually attacked by carrot fly so you should be OK -(although you may read that they affect parsnips we have never had it happen) The with them problem tends to be canker which causes orage-brown patches to appear. Fortunately the patches can be peeling away and the parsnip is fine to eat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do hope we get some parsnips this year. So disappointing that ours basically rotted away last year :-(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loved the video!!
    It was like watching Gardener's World in the olden days!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul at work said it was one of the most boring videos he'd ever seen! I told him he just mixes in different circles :-)

      Delete

If you visit, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Thank you for your interest.
Belinda