"Pavel314" wrote in message
...
My wife got some seeds for a Japanese carrot which is supposed to grow two
feet long "in the proper soil". So I spent the morning making the soil
proper in one of the garden rows. The area is about three feet across and
six feet long.

I dug it out to a depth of two feet, hitting red clay about a foot down. The
red clay will go in some low spots in the back pasture. I then put some
perlite and sand in the bottom of the pit and dug it into the base clay a
bit. Next came about a foot of compost, followed by another sprinkling of
perlite and sand. Finally, the topsoil which was removed was replaced and
raked smooth. A bit of compost on top of that gave her a good bed for the
seeds. Seems like a proper carrot bed to me.

Very strenuous work for an old man but good exercise. I'll report back in a
few months on the length of the carrots. I hope they appreciate all my
efforts.

Paul

How is your wife going to get a 2 foot carrot in to a pot? I am imagining a
bratwurst shaped carrot.

Many years ago, when we lived on a clay sub base, in order to get a decent
crop of parsnips we would hammer in a metal stake and then whirl it around
making a hole like an hour glass, this we would fill with compost and then
plant the seed on top. I am not sure if this really worked but we always
got parsnip shaped parsnips, broad at the top and tapering down to the
bottom. The only "problem" was we had to do this every year whereas digging
over a suitable bed would have saved a little effort.

Mike