This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Tuesday 27 November 2012

November Carrots

I was harvesting carrots this week on a rather chilly morning. 

This year, in Spring, I found I had to re-sow carrot seed a few times as it didn't germinate well.  With the re-sowings, this meant I wasn't sure how long the carrots had been growing. The indication of being ready (or not) was the top growth. I pulled a few carrots in early Sept but wanted them to grow bigger so I've been waiting. I sowed carrots in a wheelbarrow and  in a raised veg box. I've no huge carrots but am happy with what I've harvested. I've more carrots in the ground and hope they'll keep as I don't want to lift and store them.

Carrot varieties I grow this year: 
'James Scarlet Intermediate' and 
'Early Nantes 2'.

Above: One or two carrots had a bit of pest damage. I'm assuming this is from slugs as I blame slugs/snails for most things in the garden!
Above: Carrots washed.
Below: The range of size and shape.
Carrots grown in an old wheelbarrow seemed to do better last year; germination was more difficult this year and the carrots seemed to grow slowly. Photo above taken in September.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

11 comments:

  1. They'll be lovely and tasty. I noticed that my carrots were growing really slowly this year too, so slowly in fact that they weren't up to much at all.

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  2. Your carrots still look good. I had a lot of trouble with the slugs this year. They had already eaten the carrots before we could start.

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  3. Looks like slug damage. Did the bent carrot take on the shape of the wheelbarrow. We must go harvest some of ours.

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  4. A little bit of straw over the tops of the carrots will protect them from all but the severest frost. Must cover ours this week with a cold spell forecast for the weekend.

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  5. We didn't get any carrots this year. We had quite a rain that I think washed the seeds away and I didn't bother to replant. I rather missed the carrots, too. Yours do look healthy all cleaned up.

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  6. They look fab, carrot fly maggots ate all of mine this year, roll on 2013.

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  7. They look lovely!

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  8. Your carrots look great. I tried some and didn't succeed at all. The seeds never even sprouted! Greenfingers had a good idea to cover with a bit of straw to help protect the others from cold. Good luck with them!

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  9. Fab carrots - you have done well. I still have one container to tip out but I don't think they will be very big as they were sown very late. Still, every little helps.

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  10. I always enjoy pulling carrots and see what funny shaped of carrot I will get. Pretty carrot harvest you have there.

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  11. They look good enough to eat. When I grew carrots once, you needed a magnifying glass to see them. You've inspired me to try again though.

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