Big Harvest

Today, I was cleaning out my shared alley bed and came across a few carrots from last year. They were all still tiny, despite having been in the ground for almost a year. I'm going to have to investigate what kind of soil carrots like. The soil is loose and rich, so I get big tops and small carrots. Maybe the soil has too much nitrogen. Does anyone out there know how I can amend the soil to get bigger carrots?

Sowing Carrots

On someone's blog somewhere, I saw a terrific idea for sowing tiny seeds. I would like to give the person credit, so if someone out there has seen this idea on another blog, please let me know. On this blog, the person showed how to make her own seed strips. I decided to try this idea out myself.
[Update:  The idea comes from Annie's Granny's website.  You should totally check her out.  She's definitely a gardening goddess! I steal ideas only from the best gardeners ; )  ]

First I place dots on a napkin with a marker about an inch an a half apart.

Then I placed tiny dots of non-toxic, washable glue on each marker spot.

I used a screw to pick up small amounts of seed since I didn't have any toothpicks. I dipped the screw in a little glue to help the seeds stick to it.

Finally, I placed 2-3 seeds on each dot.

I'll let the seed mat dry and sometime next week, I'll place the mat in my garden and water thoroughly.  I'll keep you posted on how this works out.  It will be nice not to have to waste so much seed and not to have to thin out the carrots.