I was thinking of using it on my raised beds and cutting holes to transplant peppers - I've already got my tomatoes just mulched with a little old hay around them, didn't know if I should put down the fabric I bought and cut holes to fit over them, was in too much of a hurry to plant to put it down first. But maybe I should just return the rolls?

Thanks

You would not get many plants making holes in the fabric.

To the OP: I garden in raised beds too. When I sow carrots, I just set aside an entire bed (15 to 20 square feet), work the soil deeply and very fine (don't add nitrogen. It makes hairy roots.) and then broadcast the seed thinly over the entire bed. Water daily for good germination. Once you have a good stand, thin so that the plants are about 2 to 3 inches apart. Growing that closely, I have minimal weeds to pull and get lots and lots of carrots. Carrots need water. Don't let the soil dry out.

I do have some older heavy-duty nursery fabric that hasn't shredded in the 2 years I've had it (don't know how long it was down in the tunnel when I got it from the nursery). I just used some of that to cover area where manure pile was, I had hoed ready to plant pumpkins but thought I needed help to unroll the fabric, now weeds are coming up again so I dragged it over and spread it out, will plant pumpkins and winter squash in the holes where the sprinkler heads were. Mostly lambsquarters and bindweed around here, some ragweed too. I just dragged a shovel through half of the raised beds to bury the weedlings - probably won't get to plant my peppers until the weekend (or even Monday, with Sunday being Father's Day) now b/c of rain.

To the OP - I wouldn't think that you could leave any covering on once the carrots germinated and you've got a couple of opinions on the fabric and alternative mulches but I will tell you that carrots take quite a while to germinate. I put burlap over the rows after seeding quite thickly, that helps keep things moist (and this late in season will help keep them cooler). But once they start coming up pretty thickly, remove the burlap and mulch/shade as recommended above. I don't thin right away b/c something (voles?) always seem to take care of that for me ;-)

For the most part, root vegetables and plastic mulch don't work. I have seen it done successfully with transplanting beets into plastic mulch, but that is a lot of work.

The Biodynamic French Intensive Method of Alan Chadwick

Weeds are not really the horrible culprits some people make them out to be. Just remove them as they begin to compete with your carrots, and they will help create fertility in the process. Be sure to put them immediately (while they are still green) on the compost pile, and you will soon have the best fertilizer you can get.