How to Grow Carrot Companion Crops

Leeks, onions or garlic are useful companions to carrots, since their strong smells keep away flies that attack carrots. For this example, we will use salad leek seeds. Grow carrots and leeks in a sunny or partly shaded place and use well-drained, light soil. Sow the carrot seeds in late spring to miss the first invasion of carrot flies. The seeds will germinate in three weeks, and they will be ready to harvest in 12 weeks.

Materials Needed:

• deep crate
• garbage bag
• kid-safe scissors
• gravel
• bucket
• sand
• potting soil
• ruler or stick

• baby carrot seeds
• salad leek seeds
• sticks
• polyethylene bag cover
• horticultural fleece
• fine netting
• specific fly-resistant carrot varieties, such as Flyaway, Maestro, Sytan or Resistafly seeds

1. Line a deep crate with a garbage bag.

Cut to fit, and make a few small holes through the crate and the bag with scissors. Spread out a layer of gravel in the bottom for drainage.

2. Mix a bucketful of potting soil with sand.

Next, fill up the crate. Moisten the soil before sowing the seed.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - Ready Set Grow! © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited

3. Create room for seeds.

Make three trenches that are ½ inch (1 cm) deep along the length of crate using a ruler or a stick.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - Ready Set Grow! © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited