Interplanting Carrots

Carrots are one of the small crops that I tend to interplant with other crops instead of giving them their own bed.  This year I am trying to stagger my plantings of carrots so I can spread their harvest out over a longer period.  The first planting I made was way back in March when I planted my spring peas.  I only planted a handful of seeds in the corners of that bed and the seeds took a very long time to germinate.  I thought that starting them under a hoophouse with the peas would help them be warm enough to germinate, but I think they got too dry under there in the beginning.  Carrots germinate best in continually moist places.

The second round of carrot planting took place early last month when I planted up my "extra" bed.  Here I planted three rows of carrots alternating with some lettuce and spinach on the last few feet of the bed.  Other sections of this bed also included turnips, beets, kale and celery.  These carrots came up a bit better and actually started coming up around the same time as the first planting.  I'm guessing that I did a better job of watering these carrots which helped them come up quickly.

The third round of planting took place in my brussel sprout bed.  These carrots I planted in two rows, one on either side of the brussel sprouts which were spaced down the middle of the bed.  I am hoping that this is my "main crop" of carrots which is why I planted so many.  I am also hoping that they act as a ground cover for the brussel sprouts until they get big enough to shade out the weeds themselves.
I may plant a fourth round of carrots when I transplant my pepper starts into the main garden.  They will probably go in a single row down the middle of two rows of peppers.

I like to interplant carrots because they don't take up much space in a bed and I can get a good sized crop from what would otherwise be wasted space.  They work well with other plants because they are a taproot which doesn't interfere with most other plants more fibrous root system.  They might even help bring up nutrients from deep in the soil which can help feed the plants that are growing nearby.  They also tend to be a fairly low growing crop with feathery leaves so they won't steal any light from other crops that they are interplanted with especially if those crops grow taller than one foot.  They do make a decent ground cover once they get established, but they take such a long time to start filling out, that I have to be diligent about pulling weeds in the beginning.