The Rabbit House» carrots Archives – The Rabbit House

Carrot Tops – Free Rabbit Food

Tamsin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:10:12 +0000

This lovely pile of carrot tops are from our local pick-your-own farm. My mum got them for free when she went to pick some tasty fruit. Our garden fruit supply is good for eat as you pick but not plentiful full enough to turn in to crumble and pie and all the other tasty things you can make with baskets full of fruit .

Many places discard parts of vegetables that rabbits like to eat. Things like carrot top, cauliflower leaves and sprout stalks. If you ask politely they are often kind enough to let you take a bag full, particularly if you are buying some of their produce too. Otherwise it’s just composted or worse thrown in to the general waste.

It made me think of all the other sources of free rabbit food. We’ve had free vegetable parts from both the local farm shop and market. Anyone got any other ideas?

Growing Things Update

Tamsin — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:53:42 +0000

Everything is growing away well, although it would be nice if it stayed a bit warmer at night so I could put out some of the more tender things filling up my window sills.

Did you sow some carrots? Mine are just getting their second set of leaves and looking more like carroty. These are from BBC Dig In:

They are currently residing in my lovely new greenhouse/cloche/cat and rabbit defence system:

Along with leeks, lettuce, chard, radish, beetroot, spring onions, celery, and a couple of tomatoes that out grew the window sill. It’s surprising what you can grow just in tubs and pots.

Whilst most of these things are for me to eat, there will be loads of trimmings for the bunnies too. They will love things like this basil (once it gets a bit bigger):

Inside, my window sills are full of things that don’t like frost like tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, squash, melon, pepino and cape gooseberry. These pretty little flowers are sweet peppers:

See that green bit it the centre of the flower? That’s the start of a pepper. In a few days the petals will drop away leaving a tiny green pepper behind.

Sorry no bunny pics this time. They are just off camera licking their lips.

Growing Carrots in Containers

Tamsin — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:54:51 +0000

A few weeks ago I sowed my first carrots of the year and they are just poking their noses up now. I don’t have a lot of ground space so my carrots are in containers. I tried this for the first time last year and it worked really well. Lots of carrots for us to eat and lots of carrot tops for the rabbits to eat (and maybe the odd carrot too).

Here’s how you do it (photos from last year):

Something to Grow In

I use plastic storage boxes for my carrots but any deepish container will work eg a big flower pot, box or bucket. My storage boxes were see-through so I’ve taped black plastic around from an old compost bag, that way the carrots aren’t in the light. If you are really short on space you can grow small carrots in window boxes. You can also use a plastic bottle with the top cut off. You won’t get giant carrots but you can keep harvesting the tops for a healthy treat for you bunny.

Check your container has holes, mine didn’t so I use a drill to add holes to the bottom. Otherwise they will fill with water when it rains and flood your carrots!

Fill your container with compost or soil, any general purpose compost will do. If you have some to hand then mix in a bit of sharp sand. Carrots like nice loose soil to grow in, not heavy clay, so it’s easy for them to get their roots through.

Seeds and Sowing

If you try buying carrot seeds you’ll find lots of varieties to pick from. Read the packet to see what features they have. If your growing in containers avoid ones that claim to be really long show carrots. I’m growing Early Nantes, Chantenay Red Core (from the BBC), and Parmex. The later are round carrots (like a gold ball) and are meant to be great for growing in shallow containers or clay/stoney ground. When you are buying seeds it’s worth having a look at children’s seeds, often they have the same varieties but at pocket money prices.

To sow the seeds draw a line in the soil about 1/2″ (1cm) deep, then sprinkle the seeds thinly. I aim for one seed every inch. Draw the lines about an inch apart too. If you don’t mind fiddly sowing an alternative is to poke holes with a pencil and drop a seed in each. Again aim for a grid with the seeds 1″ apart in each direction. Don’t worry too much about planting them the exact distance apart though. If you get them too close you can thin them out and give the spare plants to your rabbit.

It will take the seeds 2-3 weeks to germinate so wait patiently. You can speed it up a bit by putting a bit of plastic over to keep it warmer. Take it off once they germinate.

Thinning & Harvest

If you managed to get your seeds about 1″ apart they shouldn’t need too much thinning at first. Once they start pushing again each other start harvesting them as baby carrots, taking out every other carrot to leave the others room to grow.

If you want a really long harvest period then sow your carrots in batches 3-4 weeks apart, then you’ll have some ready all summer. They keep well in the ground too so you can leave them in containers and although they won’t grow more there will still be carrots to pull up in autumn/winter.

If you cut the tops whilst they grow you’ll get smaller carrots, so try taking a few leaves from each instead of the whole lot if you are using them as bunny snack food.

So, anyone going to give it a go?