Carrots have the highest level of beta-carotene of any vegetable, with its wonderful antioxidant properties. Antioxidants help protect the body from cardiovascular disease and cancers. The root system draws in important minerals, along with vitamins and it provides a great source of fibre.

Per square metre of garden space, carrots are the most productive of all vegetables. Try to set aside a small plot of ground and you should have a very productive garden indeed. You can feed a family for many weeks with just one or two square metres.

Last summer I planted out a wide range of carrots, in both variety and size. It is a little hard to remember but we had those weeks of summer heatwaves. We had one bed that still had some small stones and seemed to be very claylike. We had made a big effort to remove all the small stones and planted out the baby sized Little Finger and round Paris Market carrots. We produced a reasonable crop but some were too close together so did not grow to full size. In other hilled up beds, the longer varieties made it through the times of the heatwaves to yield a fine autumn crop.

In the past year though, I would award the prize for the best "home garden" bed of carrots to my friend Joyce Wilkie of Allsun Farm out at Gundaroo. Over many years, with sheer hard work and making lots of compost, Joyce and her husband Michael have created deep garden beds. The gardens in the valley stand in stark contrast to the arid, dry hillsides of the farm. Her organically grown carrots had large green bushy tops and thick carrot roots, fresh and tender. Indeed, success with carrots lies within the soil.

The aim with growing carrots is to have a garden bed that has much depth and is light and crumbly in texture.  This is a challenge for Canberra gardeners but if you can achieve this and get the carrots to germinate, then the growing will follow on well. You can dig in old compost, even dig in some sand and raise up the bed to give you good height. Make sure not to add in fresh manures, otherwise the roots will fork.

Raised beds will also ensure that water does drain away and so does not lie around the roots to cause rotting. Plenty of sunshine, good moisture and a fortnightly boost of Liquid Seasol will help your carrots to grow quickly, which will give you the best flavour.

Plant directly into prepared drill lines. It  takes patience to sprinkle just the right amount of seeds along the row. Don't rush or else you will end up with little forests along the way. One traditional method of planting is to mix with radish, so that this quick growing vegetable will break the soil crust early to assist with carrot germination. Another practice of some gardeners is to mix some sand with your carrot seeds, in order to aid the planting process. Radishes can be harvested very quickly, so as well as breaking up the crust of the soil, space is freed up for the carrots that remain.

Carrots could take up to three weeks to germinate in early  spring, as germination depends so much on the temperature of the soil. If you have a clear plastic sheet or old window frame, you could set up a simple heat cover.

When sowing out carrots in November and December, germination will be quicker but then you will need to be attentive to keeping the soil moist. Applying a light mulch or covering with a strip of hessian will help prevent drying out during this critical period of germination.

Once the seedlings have grown to 5 centimetres, thin them out and complete a rigorous weeding program. If you have backyard chickens, they will very much like any little carrot plants that are thinned out before the roots are developed. When the remaining plants reach 10-12 centimetres in height, thin out again but this time you can take the thinnings straight to the kitchen.

Paris Market is a 19th century French heirloom carrot. In Italy it is referred to as Tonda di Parigi. This is very different in shape to the usual deep rooted carrots. They just produce little round balls of wholesome goodness. It is a baby sized carrot growing to just 3-4 centimetres in diameter but it stays very tender and yet crunchy. Paris Market is an ideal carrot for heavy soils and is very suitable for growing in containers.

Little Finger carrots are the other main dwarf sized ones in the marketplace. They are one of the quickest varieties to grow, maturing in around 10 weeks. It is a tapered carrot that grows just to 10-12 centimetres. It is very productive and remains very sweet, tender and crisp.

There is a much wider range of the larger sized carrots but when you plant any full size carrots, you not only need to provide a much deeper garden beds but also allow more time for the carrots to mature. They will generally take four months or more to mature. And with some varieties, if you are very successful in your growing, one carrot can be used to feed the whole family for one meal.

Nantes carrots, which come from the beautiful Atlantic city of France, are renowned for their sweet flavour, good orange colour and crunchy texture. They cope well in heavy soils, and are fast maturing, in order of 12 to 14 weeks. They are cylindrical and can grow to 16 centimetres. Nantes are delicious when used in salads, simply steamed or when made into juice.

Purple Dragon is a lovely looking carrot with dark purple skin though with a bright orange interior. It has a slightly spicy, sweet flavour and looks wonderful in salads. When steamed, the skin will turn orange.

Chateney Red Cored is an ideal larger carrot for shallow soils. It grows short but fat roots to around 12 centimetres. Amsterdam is a good variety for growing in container pots, growing quite quickly and producing tender, cylindrical carrots with great flavour. D'Anvers is another deep orange carrot which can handle hot conditions better than others. It will produce slender roots to 15 centimetres.

So take up the possibility of growing a continuous supply of healthy, home grown carrots for the whole family and even to share with your neighbours.

Carrot, walnut and ginger cake

300g carrots, peeled and grated
250g chopped walnuts
½ cup sultanas
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
3 large free range eggs
1 cup raw sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
½ cup light olive oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups self raising flour
½ tsp bicarb soda

Cream cheese frosting

1 cup icing sugar
120g cream cheese
50g butter
½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

Preheat oven to 180C. Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla essence and oil in a large bowl and whisk well. Sift the flour with the bicarb soda, cinnamon and the mixed spice in a separate bowl then add to the egg mixture and whisk well. Then gently mix in the grated carrots, walnuts, sultanas and grated ginger.

Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 1 ¼ hours. Test with a wooden skewer, to ensure it is well cooked. Remove and allow to cool on a wire rack, then remove from the tin and peel off the baking paper. Beat all of the ingredients for the frosting until creamy. Spread generously across the carrot cake.

This week in the garden

• Plant into prepared garden beds English spinach, salad mix, beetroot and snow peas. Plant out any remaining onion, shallot and leek seedlings.
• Plant into seed raising trays a selection of tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants. Keep them in a warm sunny location and ensure that the seed raising mix stays moist.
• Keep active with the weed control for your established garlic, onion and peas gardens. Mulch with a layer of pea straw or sugar cane mulch.
• Be on the lookout for interesting varieties of seed potatoes and keep them open in a semi shaded storage place, so that they will be well sprouted when planting is to begin in the next month.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.