Thinning Out

I'm not one for thinning out seedlings... my theory is that if something germinates, let it grow; in the case of carrots I try to sow thinly to start with. This year they are sharing a bed with parsnips and leeks and as they are all growing very well, the leaves are starting to get tangled, the poor leeks are a bit overcrowded and there is evidence of pests starting to move in and make themselves comfortable!

So I figured a bit of thinning out would be a good idea. After some furtling to check the size of each carrot, I pulled up this lot

Some of them were larger than I expected which was a nice surprise and hopefully the air flow should be a bit better for everything left in the ground. For similar reasons I pulled out a cabbage.

Even though I planted them out at wider spacings than last year, the brassicas are looking a bit crowded so I thought an early picked cabbage (even if a bit smaller than it could be) would pave the way for a better sprout harvest later in the year.