I told you the other day I had exciting carrot news to share with you, (weird thing to be saying I know), using a system of sowing which is totally new to me.

If you remember, in a previous post, I showed how I used kitchen roll which I had dampened and sprinkled the carrot seeds on. Well I checked the other day and to my amazement, this is what I saw when I lifted the cling film up (8 days after sowing):

BABY CARROTS!!

So then it was a hop, skip and a merry old jump to the next stage. For this I needed a lot of these:

Good old egg cartons and plenty of them as I have been a little over excited with the seed sprinkling. Anyway, not one to be easily deterred so I continued.

I’m not going to lie to you, it took me a while and I’m not finished but it looks good so far. I gave each tray a little watering and kept them in the kitchen overnight (it gets pretty chilly at night still). Then the next morning I put them outside in one of my little shelved greenhouse things but I kept the door open. In a few days they will be taken up to the allotment. All I need to do is lay them on the ground, which I added compost to last year, and that’s it – carrots sown!! I think this method would work with a lot of things and I’m seeing progress with the parsnip seeds I started in a tub too.

Pros of this method:

I can do the majority of the work at home

I know each seed has germinated before I put it in the ground

The cardboard suppresses weeds so less weeding

Carrots are perfectly spaced out so no thinning which in turn should keep the carrot fly away

Cons:

Need a lot of cartons!

Time – each carrot has to be transferred individually although I must confess when you get in the zone it is very relaxing

Well that is what I’ve come up with so far but I would be very interested to hear if any of you have tried this method and how it went. I will show you further progress when the time comes!