Following Dave Northsider, who has repurposed an old oil tank to make raised vegetable beds, I filled this old half water butt with soil from the compost bin, and sowed a row of carrot seeds. It is 22 inches across, so I plan six rows at three-weekly intervals. As the fresh compost is full of worms, the wooden strips are there to protect the first row from digging birds. The bin spends the winter covering the monster rhubarb plant to give us a few tender pink stems in early spring, so this seems a good way to use it over the summer.
As I sowed the seeds, carrot fly lined the lawn, bouncing up and down and chirruping gleefully. Dave assures me they cannot fly above 12 inches high. The tub is 18 inches, so the carrots should be safe.
But then I read in a gardening book that carrot fly barriers should be 30 inches high. No guessing who will get the blame if I have any problems.
Yes. You can always sue Dave North-Cider if something goes wrong with your carrots. Being an expert gardener myself, I would have put some sand into the compost mixture. Nonetheless, I wish you good luck with this experiment.
ReplyDeleteIs there no end to your expertise?
DeleteI admit that I cannot single-handedly service a Boeing 737.
DeleteThanks for the free blog advert Tasker. I can assure that old Mr and Mrs Carrot Fly can not fly higher than twelve inches. I have seen the plank ( not a Eric Sykes sketch) used to germinate carrots and parsnips seeds. It keeps them warm and dry. I would also avail of some net curtains to cover the tub to keep any nasties or nosey neighbours twitching them to see the growth of your carrots.😊
ReplyDeleteWe are the nosey neighbours.
DeleteLook forward to watching the carrots grow, I would definitely have a light barrier of netting above as well.
ReplyDeleteMmmm! A lot of commenters are advising netting.
DeleteI had a thing regarding carrots last month. Must be the year of the carrot.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy with that so long as we never have a hear of the broccoli! Thanks for visiting.
DeleteEnjoy your carrots in due course!
ReplyDeleteFirst course or second?
DeleteDefinitely needs a nice net curtain.
ReplyDeleteI guess you use them to stop Mr. Nosey seeing your vegetables.
DeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteGardening is always about keeping your plants from being eaten!
ReplyDeleteAn act of faith. Like a religion.
DeleteWe await with bated breath. I have no idea what that means, in real English, so I looked it up and found I have misspelled it these many, many years. Now that it's correct, I see what it means.
ReplyDeleteYou may start breathing again for now. It will be a while before we know.
DeleteThat northsider! Changing the world, one garden at a time. An Amish here was quite intrigued with his hot bed idea.
ReplyDeleteHi Debby. He'll be wanting his own gardening programme on television soon.
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