How to Grow Carrots and Sweetcorn

The following articles will be a guidance for you to easily grow carrots and sweetcorn at home. This could be a more cost-effective way for you to grow your own cooking ingredients for everyday meals. Inflation has made it harder than ever for us regarding cost of living and grocery is not an exception. Why not start trying to grow your fresh ingredients today to tackle this.

Furthermore, gardening good for you as it can help reduce the risk of diseases such as stroke and osteoporosis as well as improving your immune system. Lastly, is a very therapeutic way to rest your mind before starting and finishing a long working day. Let’s start picking up this good habit by trying to grow one of the easiest and fastest vegetables which are carrots and sweetcorn as shown in the below articles.

How to grow carrots?

Source: gardeningknowhow.com

The time is now to sow your carrots is the key time to sow your carrots. Ensure your soil is prepared, and then sow your carrot seed in drills. Following this, cover your seeds with a thin layer of good quality soil, watering regularly. You will see your seeds start to sprout in just two weeks. Be sure to keep your area free from weeds, and within 14 weeks of planting you will see results!

Earlier varieties of carrots are sown in spring and are ready to pick as little as 10 weeks later, however, as mentioned before, the main growing season is from March to June, however, if you have access to growing undercover then you can extend this further either end.

As with most seed sowing, it’s important to prepare your soil. Fork your soil through and break up all the lumps, remove any debris and stones, planting your carrots in an area full of light with soil that drains well and retains moisture, adding organic matter to give your carrots the best fighting chance!

Source: gardenersworld.com

You can sow your carrots directly into the ground in your garden, making a trench in the soil around 1cm deep. Place each seed between 5-10cm apart covering them lightly with soil, watering well. By planting in rotation, you can extend your cropping period by sowing seeds every two weeks throughout March-June, so you regularly turn out fresh carrots. There’s nothing worse than running out of your precious veg you’ve spent so long taking care of!

To care for your carrots, you’ll be pleased to know they are fairly low maintenance! Keep the soil around your carrots free from weeds, watering your plants occasionally, keeping the soil moist but not too wet. It’s important to keep on top of potential carrot root fly, so ensure your carrot seedlings don’t thin out.

When removing your carrots from the soil, be sure to do this when the conditions of the soil are nice and moist to do this at ease. The last thing you want is your carrots breaking off. Once you have pulled them free from the soil you can pat the ground again to secure the loose soil ready to re plant so more carrots!

How to grow sweetcorn?

Source: goodhousekeeping.com

Sweetcorn is simply delicious, we are gearing up for those gorgeous BBQ days, so let’s grow some beautiful sweetcorn…

Our top ten tips are:

  1. Choosing a sunny spot, sheltered from any strong winds
  2. Most soil is perfect for sweetcorn, just ensure it drained well and retains lots of important moisture
  3. Before sowing your seeds, introduce lots of nutrients and organic matter, ideally from a well-made compost, followed by a good helping of plant food!
  4. Grow your sweetcorn in blocks of squares, they pollinate so much better this way, look to sow around 45-50cm apart
  5. Early spring is the perfect time to sow, following the final frost you can grow straight into the ground
  6. If the weather is dry, give your soil a regular, good helping of water, particularly when you are establishing your plant, you want to give the sweetcorn a good start
  7. Give the male plants a good tap to help with pollination, you can do this when the tassels open
  8. Cover all roots with soil to protect the plant from strong winds and harsh weathers
  9. For extra TLC, provide a liquid feed every 2-3 weeks, but only if the sweetcorn plant has started to open and flower
  10. It’s time to harvest if the female flowers, which are called silks, have turned brown, pull back the leaves and give the corn kernels a press, if translucent liquid appears, it’s not ready!
Source: gardenersworld.com

For the perfect sweetcorn, always make sure your growing conditions are ideal. You don’t need to purchase the most expensive greenhouse, although having the resources to grow under cover when needed is ideal. For example, you can look into cold frames for added protection. Our other key garden equipment are garden cloches, composting equipment, raised flower beds to keep your vegetables safe from animals and other pests, rakes, trowel, spade, garden gloves, and a good old watering can.

All gardens could benefit from water controls. If you have a busy schedule and can’t keep on top of your watering schedule for your new plants, you can have an automatic watering system that will water on time every single day, meaning your new crops never miss a good sprinkling. This way your garden will thrive whilst you continue your day-to-day life, uninterrupted – perfect for a low maintenance garden!

You’re now officially good to go. Just make sure you have the right equipment to grow carrots first before venturing into the world of gardening. You can try reputable online retailers like Two Wests or research the best tools on the internet to ensure the best outcome for your efforts on gardening. And if you fail on your first time, do not worry as practice makes perfect and you will be able to harvest a desired garden of carrots and sweetcorn if you are resilience and learn from your mistakes.