Autumn Plantings

Managed to get the carrot and onion seeds in this afternoon. I have never had much success with carrots, but hopefully this year will be different. In other years, the seedlings have been swamped by weeds. I have spend about a month preparing this bed - clearing off the mulch, watering and giving the remaining seed bank a chance to germinate, then raking the weed seedlings back in.



Prior to putting the seeds in, I soaked them for a day in damp compost and seaweed to give them a bit of a head start. I have planted Red Cored Chantenays in the bed closest, and Denvers at the back. The onions sprinkled thorough the mix are Gladalans with a small amount of Creamgolds from an out of date packet thrown just in case they were still ok.

It all feels a bit hard to judge how much seed to use. If all goes well, there should be about 5 square meters of Chantenays and 3 1/2 square meters of Denvers.

The beds are covered with shade cloth to keep them from drying out. I expect they will need watering twice a day for the next couple of weeks until they germinate. Will let you know how they go........