Spring Carrots

I harvested my first Spring Carrots today. I sowed them quite early in the year in my Victorian cloche. I filled up the cloche with compost and sowed the seed under glass. They germinated quite quickly and have been happily growing undisturbed ever since.

I have sowed some Carrots in the open ground since then that have not faired so well. The first time I sowed them the small seedlings were duly mown down by our resident slugs. The second time I sowed them they actually got to the ‘first real leaf’ stage before they were, yep – you guessed it, eaten up again.

So it’s my third attempt with the main crop Carrots and fingers crossed. If this batch don’t make it then these little beauties could be the only Carrots that will be on my plate this year.

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20 Comments on “Spring Carrots”

  2. What kind of carrots did you do? I love the Thumb carrots, so cute and easy to pop in the mouth.

  3. Hi,

    I planted carrot seeds for the first time this year and have been wondering when I can harvest them. I planted the first lot on the 1st of April and the second lot on the 21st. Both lots have thrived all the way through but I don’t know what to look for to know if they are ready. The names wouldn’t help as I am in Austria, but they are baby carrots and little round carrots if that is any help at all?? The weather here has been glorious since the end of April so we’re much further on than the UK… does that mean mine will be ready too?

    TIA. Andrea.

  4. That’s a new one on me: I’ve never had slugs or snails eat my carrots. Everything else, yes… but never carrots.

    Cripes. That’s got me seriously paranoid.

  5. I have (I hope) been lucky with my carrots too. I’m not too far away from you (in sunny Oxfordshire) and the carrot seeds I planted directly into our raised bed in mid April and started off under fleece now have lots of lush leafy greenery.

    I’ve been wondering exactly the same as Andrea. Is there any way to tell if they are ready without just digging one up?

  6. Congratulations! These look lovely and yummy!

  7. My earliest carrots got munched too. So I watered nematodes into the soil, laid down a beer trap, and covered the whole crop in fleece. This was actually to protect it from carrot fly, but because I had carefully sealed off every single entrance to the carrot bed, the slugs couldn’t get in either. It did look like a jellyfish had landed, but when I got home from three weeks away from home, there were carrots! And no slugs. Very pleasing.

    Hope that helps in your quest for carrots…

  8. My carrots have (so far) avoided the ravages of slugs, but seem to be coming on really slowly – the beetroot in the adjacent rows however seem to be doing just fine

  9. To Sophie and Andrea, the first time carrot growers,

    When the carrot starts to form under the ground you will be able to see its orange top peeking up out of the soil. As the carrot matures, the top part that you can see gets fatter. I start by pulling the fattest ones first, once the bits I can see look big enough to eat, leaving the thinner looking ones in the ground longer so that they have time to get bigger.

    Gillian,

    Love the blog, I check in on you every morning.

  10. Beautiful carrots. I am in Tasmania Australia and we are in Winter now and I have carrots. They seem to be doing fine. So far I have managed to keep the frost off them with plastic covers over the raised beds but the severest frosts are yet to come. Supposedly tonight. First time everything here. Love your blog, Thanks.

  11. Sarah,

    Thanks for the info. Will go and have a recce and see how they’re doing!!

    Thanks again.

  12. I was talking to one of the blokes on the allotment yesterday. He’s given up on carrots. Other people grow them in huge tubs (Think large round bins and washing up bowls!) but he’s fed up with the carrot fly just snaffling the lot before he gets a chance!
    He also thinks the carrot fly can probably get in these tubs too – despite it being rumoured to only get 6″ off the ground!
    These giant tubs of carrots are really densely packed too – so I’m not sure how fat the carrots can get.

    Our own rows of carrots look very sad, they survived the slug attacks by virtue of there being so much chickweed growing around them it was like a barrier! Not many seeds germinated I suspect rather than the slug attacked them – they were too busy on my beans!

  13. Hi

    I grow my carrots in large tubs I sow them quite thick then when I thin them you get tiny little carrots which are really cute to eat

    Leave the rest in the tub and thin some more when they get bigger and you get slightly bigger ones the kids love these tiny carrots

    The last ones in there will be the biggest

    I have never had a problem with carrot root fly and it seems to be the easiest way to grow them and you get nice straight carrots as well. You may not get the biggest carrots in the world this way but at least you get some

    I have tried it this year for parsnips and so far I have loads that have germinated so fingers crossed

  14. Carrots. Sigh. Slugs ate mine too.

    I carefully planted onions and garlic all around to deter the carrot fly, but it’s all rather academic as the big slimy buggers munched them all before the carrot fly could find them.

    I’m very jealous.

  15. I think I have been very lucky as even though had a slow start as carrots didnt germinate as expected as I didnt have a cloche over them, I have not had problems as yet with carrot fly or slugs! I planted marigolds alongside them to confuse the carrot fly when I thinned the carrots so that the yummy fragrance of the carrots was disguised. Am very lucky to have some toads that seem to keep the slugs away. Am sure by gardening organically it encourages the toads to stay and help me!!
    My carrots not quite as beautiful as the ones in the photo yet though!

  16. Wow. Our carrots are looking very spindly. I think I didn’t thin them out soon enough. There is a lovely blog award for you over at mine. I get some great tips from your blog. Its inspiring.

  17. I agree with garden mum, stumbled on your blog whilst looking for advice on seed saving…Growing carrots in large pots works well I find. Ihave a small vegetable plot at the end of my garden. Love all the advice and the community. thank you.

  18. Just thought I’d be the first to congratulate you on reaching 1000 subscribers! I am sure there will be many thousands more, seduced by your backyard idyll and scrumptious photography!

  19. Thanks for all the advice. When I had an allotment I could never grow Carrots either. There seemed to be too many Carrot fly on the prowl. It’s like they had sussed out that people would be growing Carrots there and they were just hanging around waiting to pounce.

  20. HI
    We have had simmilar problems with our carrotts on the allotment. I sowed the five times the first year, only to get excited to see the first leaves then it all disapeared. Sowed twice the second year similar results. This year we have laid bird netting over them around a low wooden frame and we have carrotts. We are suspecting they were rabbitt h before now tha this has worked. I always blamed the slugs before. In fact they get the blame for anything that goes wrong. poor beasties