Carrots and Onions in Bed B

Carrots and onions make good companion plants. The onions need rich, moist soil for their shallow roots; carrots have deep roots which can catch nutrients which leach below onion roots. Onion leaves grow tall and can stand above thick shorter carrot tops which act as a living mulch to shade out weeds among the onions. The onion sets get planted around the beginning of March in 3’ rows about a foot apart so that I can easily drag a sharp hoe down the row to shave out weeds. Around the beginning of April I do a final weeding of the onions and finger poke coated carrot seeds every couple inches down the empty row between the onion rows. Coated carrot seeds are a little more expensive but eliminate the need to thin the carrots later.  I put some wooden slats over the carrot seed and check under the slats and mist the seeds until I see the carrots sprout. When the carrots sprout, I remove the slats and let the carrot tops spread between the onions. Any weeding I need to do, I do with a sharp old butcher knife, my favorite weeding tool.

As a row of scallions are harvested during the summer they can be replaced with more succession carrots, hopefully keeping a steady supply until late fall. Onions and carrots constitute bed B of my postage stamp garden.