Now is the time of year you should be planning your carrot bed, carrots don’t like lots of manure before you sow your seeds so if you have planned in advance you will have prepared your soil late last year. Otherwise a small amount of general fertilizer will do the trick when you dig the patch over.

The soil should be turned well and any weeds or stones should be removed until the soil has a fine well-tilled texture. Carrots like sandy soil, free from obstructions so their roots don’t split or become stunted. The seeds should be sown around mid to late March on a dry day when the soil is easily parted into shallow drills around 1 inch deep. The drill should then be covered and lightly watered. The seedlings can be thinned once germinated leaving around 2 inches between the plants.

One of the biggest problems that your seedlings and carrots face is the dreaded carrot root fly, this nasty little pest lays its eggs in the soil near your carrots and the larvae destroy the carrots by burrowing into their root system leaving multiple tunnels. It is extremely difficult to stop this pest, but using fleece over your carrots (leaving no gaps for the little blighters to get in) and companion planting (onions or garlic between the rows of carrots) may go some way to help.

The carrots can be pulled from July, as soon as they are an eatable size, young carrots are sweet and tender so don’t wait until they get too big.