Planting Carrots

Spent the afternoon prepping a bed in the polyhouse for carrots. This particular house was very, very wet this winter. I have been waiting until it was dry enough to work the soil. We had planted this bed with spinach (var. Space) last October. The spinach seed germinated well but as winter progressed and soil moisture levels increased the spinach plants succumbed  to the damp.

To prep the bed I first removed the weeds, spread compost, lifted the soil using a broadfork and then worked the compost in with an electric tilther. Four shallow furrows were made using a Earthway seeder. Minicor carrot seeds were then carefully sprinkled into the furrows and covered with a light topping of vermiculite. We use vermiculite as a top dressing as the soils in this particular polyhouse are still fairly heavy and may unduly impede the young carrot seedlings. The vermiculite also effectively keeps the seeds moist as they germinate.