From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
   Pavel314 wrote:   
   > 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.   
      
   the few times i've had carrots here they've done ok, but   
   i also planned on the soil being poor down deep so bought   
   the short and sweet kind.  they did ok, but Mom is now   
   hooked on baby carrots so she just didn't like the ones i   
   grew.   
      
     as far as soil prep, the compost would need to be fairly   
   well graded to remove the bigger pieces otherwise you risk   
   splitting or other odd shapes.  mound it slightly to get a   
   little more elevation and after the carrots have been   
   growing make sure to keep the tops slightly covered to   
   avoid them going green.   
      
     my body really likes it when i dig as long as i don't do   
   something stupid and twist my leg or back.  so far this   
   season i've finally managed to clear a large weedy garden   
   by digging holes and burying what i scrape (using a flat   
   shovel).  if there is grass roots/stolons in there that   
   i'm worried about growing back up i cover it with newspaper   
   or cardboard before burying with about a foot or more of   
   dirt.  all of that buried organic material is prime worm   
   food and also having all those air gaps in there makes it   
   a great place to collect extra rain when it happens.  it   
   just so happened that yesterday we had a pretty severe   
   downpour and those buried holes probably soaked up   
   several hundred gallons of water that would have otherwise   
   run off that garden.   
      
     going to have to weed it again this week, but with a   
   quick scrape of a strap/stirrup hoe i can do the whole   
   thing in a few hours now.   
      
      
     songbird   
      
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