Report - Plot C (Roots)

Here we find one of the biggest successes, the biggest white elephants & the biggest failures! There’s no getting away from it, growing carrots has been a real problem.

First the success – PARSNIPS (white gem). These are absolutely brill – good germination, masses of green growth, enormous tasty roots. Just need to remember next year that there is no point at all in successional sowing as they all store well in the ground until you want them.

The white elephants are the BEETROOT. They grow well, they are strong & healthy, but the snag is that however I cook them – roast, boil or pickle – I really don’t actually like the taste very much, which is a bit of a shame. Pretty leaves on the plants, though.

The failure is the CARROTS. There is no getting away from this – virtually every single carrot has been ‘got at’ by the carrot fly – & not just a bit, but tip to top, & all sides. Now I love carrots very much indeed, so this is very poor form. I already have ideas for next year for ME to actually eat some of them, rather than the dreaded fly – including barriers/netting round the rows, a resistant variety & much more careful sowing so that I don’t have to thin the rows out.

The SPRING ONIONS have been a bit on the patchy side – infuriatingly easy to grow to look like chives, but they don’t seem to go the extra mile to get to anything any bigger. The CELERY is also looking good, not big, but good.

Bit of bad organisation in the world of salad crops – it seems that whereas a bit of frost is supposed to give celery a bit of zing, anything cooler than ‘well, I’ll take a cardy out with me’ kills the rest of the salad tribe stone dead, & yet they are all supposed to end up on the same plate at the same time. Hmm.

The SALSIFY in this bed is looking good – I’ll be doing a taste test soon to see if this unusual root veg has won a place for next year!

So for next year? Carrots are the biggest challenge & fingers crossed for the same parsnip success

Here ends the root report!