When to plant
carrots in the UK
Sow thinly to avoid thinning — the smell of crushed leaves is a dinner bell for carrot fly. Cover with fleece to be safe.
Work out your own dates
Starts from the recommended sow date for your area. Sowed on a different day, or planted out late? Adjust below and the harvest moves with it.
Using the UK-average last frost · 15 April · add your postcode to tune it
Growing journey
14 weeks from sowing to harvest
Get carrots seeds
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What carrots need
Sun. Light, stone-free soil. No fresh manure or you'll get forked roots.
Spacing
8cm between plants · 20cm between rows
Space evenly in rows. Thin seedlings early to avoid crowding.
Varieties worth growing
Nantes
commonSweet, blunt-tipped and obligingly straightforward — the carrot that reminds you how little a home-grown one tastes like the shop. Pull one on a fine afternoon, wipe it on your sleeve, and eat it there and then.
Honey-roasted carrots
Halve lengthways, toss with olive oil, honey, and thyme sprigs. Roast until the edges caramelise and the kitchen smells like autumn. Finish with a crumble of feta.
Carrot and coriander soup
Sweat an onion, add chunked carrots, ground coriander and stock, simmer until soft, then blitz smooth and swirl in a little yoghurt. Gentle, warming, and never once a disappointment.
Purple Haze
rareDeep purple skin over a bright orange core, like a carrot drawn at sunset. It's sweeter than you'd think, and roasting only deepens the colour — a reminder that carrots wore every shade but orange for centuries, before the Dutch settled the matter.
Roasted purple carrots with tahini
Roast whole until tender and slightly charred. Drizzle with tahini thinned with lemon juice, scatter with pomegranate seeds and toasted pine nuts. The purple deepens in the oven.
Autumn King
commonBig, chunky maincrops made for keeping. Lift them in autumn, pack them into boxes of sand, and you'll be pulling your own carrots out well into the winter. There's a deep contentment in a well-stored root.
Carrot cake
Grate the big roots into a spiced batter with walnuts and sultanas, bake until a skewer comes out clean, and finish with cream cheese icing. Reason enough, on its own, to grow a few extra.
Resistafly
uncommonBred to stand up to carrot fly, the one real headache of carrot growing — and it does just that. Good, sweet Nantes-type roots you can grow without fleece or fuss, which makes it a gentle place to start if the fly has caught you out before.
Carrot and ginger stir-fry
Julienne the carrots, stir-fry in sesame oil with grated ginger, a splash of soy sauce, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Done in three minutes. Crunchy, bright, and the carrots taste like carrots.
Jaune du Doubs
★ legendaryA golden-yellow French heritage carrot from the Doubs, near the Swiss border — the kind of carrot people grew long before the orange ones arrived. The flavour is sweeter and rounder than you expect, almost honeyed. To grow it is to grow a small piece of history.
Heritage carrot salad
Grate the golden roots and dress with a little orange blossom water, a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of honey and a scatter of toasted pistachios. Gold against green, and as pretty as it is good.
Good companions
Keep apart from
- Dill
When to sow carrots
Based on UK average frost date. Enter your postcode for exact dates, or find your city.
Where to buy carrots seeds
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What you'll need for carrots
The stuff beginners wish they'd bought sooner.
Stops carrot fly, which flies low and finds carrots by smell. Cover from sowing day and leave it on all season.
Carrot fly is low-flying — a 60cm vertical barrier around the bed is an alternative to covering. Cheap to make from fleece and canes.
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Get your exact dates
Enter your postcode for personalised planting dates for carrots.