Small size carrots

First of all, raised beds are by no means essential to successful vegetable growing. They are an ease to cultivation and useful for soils that tend to be poorly drained… but excellent resutls can be achieved without raised beds. In fact, they acn be counter-productive on well-drained soils, and in a dry summer.

Vegetables will turn out small if the levels of nutrition in the soil are low. These can be boosted by using either well-rotted farmyard manure or bag fertilizer. Farmyard manure tends to make some crops too leafy and it is not good for carrots, tending to make them fork and taste ‘earthy’.

Apply 100grams per square metre of a general fertilizer, such as 10-10-20 or 7-6-17 about two weeks before sowing next spring, either digging it in or raking it in. Apply farmyard manure or compost before courgettes or sweet corn. It tends to lead to probelms with slugs when used in the same spot each year with potatoes, so move the potato area each year and apply organic material before planting.