‘Cosmic Purple’, ‘Atomic Red’, ‘Scarlet Nantes’, ‘Little Finger’ and ‘Yellowstone’ heirloom carrot seed packs have been whispering “Sow us! Sow us!’ since I received them a few weeks back. I ignored their call thinking about all the labour that would go into making evenly spaced rows to plant these delicate seeds in my grow-boxes and avoid thinning. Then almost like a revelation, a D.I.Y idea popped up in my head. And I sprang to action to implement it.
The Plan of Action
This year, you see, we are growing our organic vegetables, herbs and fruits in wooden boxes on our rooftop. One of my boxes is almost 8 feet long, 1.5 feet wide and almost 12 inches deep. This qualifies it as a perfectly sized grow-bed for my carrots but making straight rows at every two inches and spacing seeds to avoid thinning seemed like a good day’s work at least!
Try these together
On the other hand, I had the seeds for carrots that were not only different in colours but also had a variety of sizes. For example, ‘Yellow Stone’ grows as big as 10 inches. ‘Cosmic Purple’ and ‘Atomic Red’ both reach up to a good 8 inches long whilst the ‘Scarlet Nantes’ end up at 6 to 7 inches. I decided to divide my bed equally, leaving good room for planting the larger ones. For the baby carrot, the ‘Little Finger’, I selected a 6-inch-deep terracotta pot.
Perfect Companions
After putting together this beautifully vibrant colour pallet for my root vegetables, I decided to add some more splashes of color to the grow box by adding a combination of pole beans. ‘Kentucky wonder’ pole beans grows into a stunning vine with long strands of white flowers that turn into meaty pods. ‘Purple’ beans also grow into a tall vine with pink blooms and purple pods. Beans serve a crucial purpose here – they will not only be a visual treat but they will also add an abundance of nitrogen to the soil. And that is precisely what you need to make those root vegetables grow better!
So it is a good idea to think about what companions to give your carrots as you grow them. You can plant beans or peas along with the carrots for a nitrogen fix; onions and chives to repel bugs; and radishes and lettuce simply to use the space more effectively.
Diversity is great for your grow-bed, in short!
You can plant beans or peas along with the carrots for a nitrogen fix; onions and chives to repel bugs; and radishes and lettuce simply to use the space more effectively
Quick and perfect carrot beds
Carrots are usually planted in rows and later thinned so as to be spaced evenly. I don’t like to waste my seeds and so I try to plant seeds 2 inches away from each other. This, clearly, is time consuming. This time I used my seedling trays to help with the job.
I took a seed tray with 72 pockets and pressed it lightly on to the surface of my bed. When I lifted it, there were perfectly spaced holes for my carrots. 72 holes made in 5 seconds! I repeated this for the entire bed and had more than 360 holes ready to be planted – complete in less than a minute. All I had to do now was to put 2 seeds in each hole and label. In the next ten minutes I was done planting my entire bed. I repeated the process for my terracotta pot, which is almost as big as the seedling tray.
And I simply cannot recommend this method of creating a fine grow-bed. It cuts down on labour and, truth be told, looks pretty neat from a gardening perspective. So do try it – and good luck!
Zahra Ali is a sustainability educator, writer and environmentalist. She blogs at cropsinpots.pk. Send in questions about gardening to Zahra@cropsinpots.pk
