Sowing carrot seeds

I would normally say it's a bit early for sowing carrot seeds out in the open, but the weather recently has been beautiful - warm and sunny for several days in a row - and I think the soil is warm enough now, especially since I'll be giving my carrots some protection during their early lives.

As always I have had to make some tough decisions about what to grow this year. If I had more space I would grow more vegetables, but with limited space I have to be selective. This year I'm growing some onions and shallots, which I don't normally do, and one of my raised beds is 100% devoted to these, which means that opportunities elsewhere are restricted! I usually have one of the beds given over completely to carrots, and one to parsnips, but in the end I have decided to compromise and sow just one row of parsnips in the same bed as three rows of carrots.

The carrots I have sowed are "Harlequin F1" (a mix of orange, yellow and purple), "Chantenay Red Core 2" (Early / Maincrop) and "Autumn King 2" (Maincrop). The latter two are from review packs kindly provided by Gerry of Growseed.

For sowing the seeds I used my usual method of making a drill by pressing the handle of my rake (which conveniently has a detachable head) into the soil. This produces a nice even depression about an inch deep. I then moisten the sowing surface by watering gently along the drill without wetting the surrounding soil. The seeds are sown by hand into the drill, attempting to sow them thinly, but accepting that they will almost inevitably need thinning later on!

The next step is to cover the seeds with a layer of fine (commercial) compost about an inch deep, and tamp it down gently with the back of the rake to make sure the seeds are pressed firmly into the moist soil. I have covered the rows with my Longrow tunnel cloches, which can easily be removed to allow watering. Soon after the seeds germinate I will thin them out as necessary and then replace the cloches with fine-mesh netting to ward off the Carrot Root Fly.

Carrots under the cloches. Endives in the nearest bed. PSB in the furthest.

I have not sown the parsnips yet, because I know from experience that putting them in too early can produce poor germination rates. I'll leave it another couple of weeks.