Organic in the Garden – Growing Carrots in Your Home Garden

Carrots are amongst the most popular vegetables to grow in the organic home vegetable garden. Carrots are perhaps so popular because of how easy they are to grow and the versatility they provide in the kitchen. Carrots can be used for Juicing, Boiling, Steaming, In Casseroles, Stews and Soups, Grated in Cakes, rissoles, on sandwiches, in salads or simply on their own as delicious carrot sticks.

Soil preparation is the most important factor when growing carrots. As deep-rooted vegetables they require soft loamy soil that does not have any rocks, lumps or foreign materials in as these may cause misshapen carrots or stunted growth.

Organically grown Carrots are beneficial to the soil as they can help to build a soil as they grow. Even with stunted growth the soil is being broken up as the roots of the carrot grow.

A rotary hoe is an ideal tool for preparing the soil for planting carrots. It will help break up the soil creating a quality medium suitable for the growth of carrots. If you do not have a rotary hoe you can still use traditional digging methods but dig in ample amounts of quality organic compost and manures.

After preparing the soil it should be raked over level and small rows scribed in the soil about 2cm (about an inch) deep. Each row should be at least 20cm apart – 30cm would be better to allow for weeding and harvesting. Sticks should be placed at each end of the rows to mark where each row is. Otherwise you will not know where the seeds are until they begin to shoot.