Green gardening: growing carrots

The carrot, a domesticated relative of the weed Queen Anne's lace, not only is flavourful, crisp, and rich in vitamin A, but is easy to grow and stores well. You can have a homegrown supply of this healthful vegetable for much of the year, as these guidelines will demonstrate.

• With a 25- to 30-centimetre (10- to 12-inch) depth of porous, sandy soil, you can grow the long, slender varieties, such as 'Imperator' or 'Gold Pak'.
• In clay or rocky soils, plant stubbier types, such as 'Danvers 126'; 'Short 'n Sweet'; or 'Minicor'.

1. As soon as the ground can be worked, spade the soil to a depth of at least 20 centimetres (eight inches), raking it well to remove stones. If you have a heavy clay soil, which discourages carrot growth, be sure to work in quantities of humus or sand.
2. Mark a row with a garden line, and dig a shallow furrow. Carrot seeds germinate slowly, and the row may be well defined by weeds long before the carrot tops appear.
3. It is a good idea, therefore, to mix a few radish or leaf-lettuce seeds with the carrot seeds. The radishes and lettuce will sprout quickly and will mark the row. Because they will be ready long before the carrots are, they will not interfere with the growth of the carrots, and you will also be making more efficient use of your garden space.
4. Sow carrot seeds six millimetres deep in rows 15 to 20 centimetres (six to eight inches) apart. To prevent crusting, cover the seeds with a thin layer of fine compost or sieved soil, firm the soil well, and water.
5. Be sure to keep the soil fairly moist until the seedlings have emerged. Thin them first to stand three centimetres (one inch) apart; then, as the tops of the carrots grow thicker, thin again to five to eight centimetres (two to three inches) apart.
6. Plant carrots at about three-week intervals during the season, making your last planting 40 to 60 days before the first killing frost is expected in the fall.

• Once you have spaded and worked the soil and removed any rocks that might impede their downward growth, they require only regular watering and weeding.
• Mulching will help to retain moisture in the soil and to keep weeds from growing.
• Although moist soil is essential for germination, do not make the mistake of keeping the soil soaked as your crop matures. Too much moisture toward the end of the growing period can cause roots to crack.

Carrots mature fully within 50 to 85 days, but they may be juicier and tenderer if you pull them earlier.

• Check each crown, and if it seems sufficiently thick — about two centimetres (one inch) in diameter — pull the carrot.
• There is no need to harvest your crop all at once. Carrots can be left in the ground for a few weeks without growing tough.
• If late crops are well mulched, harvesting can continue through a blanket of snow.

The larvae of the carrot rust fly hatch in warm weather and tunnel into carrot roots; to avoid damage, plant early and late crops. The carrot weevil, a small brown beetle, may destroy a crop that it infests.

To control it, apply parasitic nematodes to the soil. If carrot roots are misshapen or forked, the cause may be either rocky ground or overcrowding. Spade deeper for your next crop, and thin seedlings earlier.