A Bath of Carrots
A few days ago, I posted about taking opportunities when they arise. In it I wrote how I come about building my shed and my plans for what I could do with the newly found heras fencing. Opportunities that have presented themselves to me have not stopped there though, but for this one, I need to go back about a year ago while I was away in Torquay with work...
There I was, doing my work on a site in Torquay when I came across an overflowing skip filled with bits of lots of old bathroom bits. Initially, I didn't think much of it, but that night, the brain started working overtime and thoughts turned to the allotment. It's seems to be well known that one of the tricks of growing carrots is to protect them from Carrot fly. A pest that lays it's eggs in soil around the carrots. When the eggs hatch, the larvae then start feeding on the growing carrots creating tiny holes as they burrow away. It can lead to rot and a loss of crop. It's also known that carrot fly don't necessarily fly high above the ground, perhaps only a couple of feet. To protect the crop, growers have grown carrots in raised beds or covered them in fine mesh to keep the flies away. So I thought, why not have a raised bed and cover with fleece. A recipe for success for sure. Not wanting to be one for spending any more money than essential, I had the light bulb moment.
Have you ever seen the reaction of someone when they are asked if you can climb into their skip, pull out an old bath and then load it into your van? Have you also ever seen the look on their face when you tell them that you want it to help grow carrots? You can imagine how that one went...
Think of it. A raised bed, with a bit of drainage. Deep enough to grow carrots. Adjustable feet and legs. It's got bath tub written all over it! So home it came with me and straight up the allotment it went.
Then it was just a question of getting it in position and putting it to use. I decided to fill it with a mix of the previous years spent potato compost mixed with some well rotted manure.
The bath, filled with compost was then left to settle for the rest of the winter, but as the new year got underway and sowing time was approaching, I started to think about warming the compost up. I had some old sheets of perspex kicking about that fitted nicely over the top of the bath. They both kept the winter rains out the bath, and also on the days when the sun came out, acted like a miniature greenhouse. Before sowing actually took place, I scraped back the top few inches of compost and ran it through a sieve, just to help with initial germination and early stages of growth. Soon, the carrots had germinated and it was time to get them covered. From a previous job on the plot, I had some left over water piping and was able to use it to make a small hooped net tunnel over the top of the bath.
So, did it work? It certainly did! The carrots grew really well and have produce some absolute stonkers! Germination was excellent, growth was very good indeed and the best bit, no sign of carrot root fly!
And here's the proof! I'll definitely be sticking with this idea, and might even go looking for another bath one day soon!
Until next time, cheers! 😁
