I agree on the saltshaker.
When I plant carrots, I spend extra time breaking the soil up extra deep with a tiller and go thru it removing rocks and small pebbles. Scatter the tiny seeds with your saltshaker and g e n t l y and l i g h t l y rake over the ground with a light rake. Use your palms and pat the loose soil down (don't compact it). I usually cover the bed with a light covering of straw to keep a hard rain from washing the seed away or piling them up in one spot. They're slow to come up, so don't give up on them. When they're about an inch high, I thin them out by pulling my garden rake thru them once. Makes them look like a mess but if you don't do this, they will grow much too thick and not do so well. They will recover quickly.
Let them grow most of the year unless you want to get some fingerlings out for salads once in a while. Keep the weeds pulled out as much as possible, especially the crabgrass if you have it. You have to be careful when weeding at first as you can pull the carrots up with the weeds.
I usually pull my carrots the last thing in my garden. If you have the room, they will stay crisp all winter in a refrigerator. Can or freeze what you don't want to keep fresh in the frig. They're best frozen like berries... after boiling them a few minutes to kill emzynes, slice them into rounds if you already haven't done so and spred them out to dry for an hour or so. That way, when you put them in ziplocks, they don't stick togather due to lack of excess water and you can just open the bag and pour out what you need.
