I have, as usual, been thinking about the upcoming season with the gardening club. I’m not sure if I do nothing but think or if my mind just regularly drifts off to the club. Truthfully, it’s both; I’m so worried about making a “wrong” purchase I put a lot of thought into, plus I am super excited about the growing season.

We only have three raised beds, a herb bed, a strip of poor soil near a fence and one-and-half grow houses (one large and one small). Written like that it sounds like quite a lot. Let 15 children on it and it seems minuscule.

So, to maximise space and to make this year a Good Year for veggies (last year wasn’t for lots of reasons) I’ve decided we’ll grow all our carrots in containers. That way we will have full control over the soil conditions and carrot fly will hopefully be thwarted.

First though I shall have to source some large containers. Where from I haven’t yet discovered. I was promised some old wooden wine boxes but that came to nowt. Maybe I will actually dip into our meagre funds (I haven’t done so yet) and buy some large, plastic plant pots. Not as nice looking as the crates but with the advantage that they will actually be available.

Deciding which carrots to grow is a lot easier. Although we grew rainbow ones last year I was a bit disappointed. They weren’t so much Rainbow as Washed Out. So Purple Haze it is. I love these and feel sure the children will too.

Round carrots such as Parmex will also be grown. I think the children will delight in their golf ball shaped size. But, lest anyone thinks that I am going to corrupt young people into believing that carrots are anything but carrot shaped or orange, there will be a third batch of traditional carrots.

According to my latest gardening/food hero, Nigel Slater, carrots that have round ends found in supermarkets should be avoided. And I agree. Not much point, really, in growing something we can find in Tesco so the last lot of carrots shall be something like Autumn King or perhaps Chantenay.

He also recommends Violet – “scarlet flesh with violet skin” – which sound fab. Perhaps there shall be four pots of carrots. Perhaps we shall even do an experiment to see which produce the most. Perhaps (fingers crossed) this will be a good year for carrots.