What the heck is wrong with my carrots?

What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A Carrot. That's still the funniest vegetable joke I know. Unless you know different. There's a comments box and everything. Come on 'ave a go if you think you're funny enough. Here's the thing. My sunny, sheltered, south facing plot has warm, rich, loamy, well drained soil. I live in the south east and we have no discernible rabbit problem. (foxes ate all the rabbits) For carrot growing you just add carrot seeds. That's it. I have everything that 90% of other plot holders across the country and the rest of the carrot eating world spend a lot of time trying to create. I can hear the other 90% of plot holder cursing me now. Oh you poor soul, with your rich loamy soil and sheltered south facing aspect. Talent is what you lack you oaf! The only way I know that my carrots are carrots is because I have litle white markers at the end of each row that says "Carrot". I put them there myself.

This year's crops of carrots have been worm infested and rotten. For every ten carrots I pick, six are inedible, two are under sized and only two are presentable. I'll be hoping for some proper frosts to kick the soil into shape and kill of some of the bugs that are doing all the damage. Clearly carrots are not fire and forget and I'll need to make more time for them next season.

Scenes from a village alloment

Worth the wait.

So what was supposed to be the most exciting part of this veggie year turned out to be a bit of an after thought. Such is life, and I am reminded that life goes on every day despite everything.


So in rather short order here is the planting of the mighty Asparagus. I can't wait for the first crop. It will be in May 2011. I'm not kidding. This is a marathon not a sprint and the inclusion of the Asparagus on the bottom plot finally caps off the total transformation of the bottom plot to perennial plants. With some judicious mulching I'll hardly have to weed the bottom plot at all.

(Yeah right!)


I'm burying weapons of mass destruction in 4 ten feet long silos!



Once the trenches have been dug I part filled them with well rotted horse poop.





Then I dropped some soil back on top and hoed up the sides of the bottom of the trench.





Plant your Asparagus over the mound



and spread out the roots.


Cover with finely sieved soil. Now....................WAIT TWO YEARS!


The crops will start growing straight away.



Aawww look.

Don't bee fooled see that stone next to it.....



Tiny!



I need a manicure!


By the end of summer these tiny little shoots will grow into ferns about four feet high and about three feet across. I have to let them grow and die back this year and again next year and only at that stage can I start to crop them.

I've got 20 plants (10 early and 10 late cropping) so If you know me well and live local I'll almost definitely be dropping off Asparagus when I visit! But not any time soon.

What's orange and sounds like a parrrot?

A carrot!

Best gag in the world. Best food in the world when grown correctly. Have you ever tried carrot juice from freshly picked carrots? It's excellent for hangover recovery.

We've done OK with them this year. Take a look.