Interesting technique for the carrots, thanks, might try it as an experiment. Did you just go back over and sprinkle a few seeds per dibbed sand-hole?

Yea. As I recall he mixed a little exhausted compost into the sand too. I think the issue he had to get around was heavy clay which has lots of nutrients but doesn't let the taproot down so you end up with inconvenient stunted or multi-forked abominations.

Interestingly enough, you can still find wild carrots usually growing on the coastline near the beach.

Its all trial and error in different locations to discover what does well and how. I suppose the issue is affording the luxury of time to find out.

Our garden is tiny so we focus on otherwise expensive stuff: fruit and herbs and otherwise just enjoy the flowers. Fruit is mainly Apple's plums and pears all on superdwarf rootstock...for jams and pie fillings.

The soil here is free-draining and the common crops are potatoes broccoli turnips sweet-beet kale peas broad beans and indeed carrots: a lot of which ends up unfortunately as animal feed... but its not worth us growing it when it's all around you and you can usually glean a few sacks easily after the harvest anyway for free...sheep kale is lovely stuff btw: heads picked before the flowers open rivals any of that expensive supermarket purple sprouting broccolli.

The present seasonal delight though is Elderflower lemonade...