We're all rooting for ‘St Valery'

Sow this delicious carrot in pots and the soil, says Ruth

- Ruth Hayes

'St Valery' is a popular heirloom carrot known for its robust and tasty roots

I HAVE never grown carrots before so I'm very excited about this week's free seeds.

Carrot 'St Valery' is a reliable heritage variety renowned for its tasty, robust, burnished orange roots.

Also known as James Scarlet Intermediate', it is a French heirloom variety that can be sown from March to July and will harvest in late summer.

Its frost-hardy roots also make it ideal for winter storage.

Carrots do best in a sunny sheltered spot in fertile soil that has been well forked over and raked and cleared of debris that can cause the roots to fork if they hit them while growing.

For this reason, many people find it easier to grow carrots in containers of compost or in stone-free raised beds.

Sown now, your 'St Valery' crop will be ready for harvest between July and September, but you can extend the season by sowing a fresh batch, either in soil or containers, every couple of weeks.

Making a drill for sowing seeds