Gardening: Day Three

My husband had some visiting to do this morning, but he was gracious enough to till the garden for me a second time before he left. (The first time didn't go deep enough.)

I can't tell you the thrill I felt to look outside and see my garden all ready for planting!

I really need to get a picture of this because some of you would probably laugh at how I plan and plant. You see, I'm a perfectionist. I stake off perfectly-spaced 1-foot rows with perfectly-spaced 2-foot walkways between. That way, I'm certain that my rows are straight. I don't know anyone else who does this, but it would drive me crazy to have crooked rows. :)

Of course, my kids had a great time walking through my rows, tripping over the strings that marked off the planting areas, and making a general wreck of my efforts. Finally, though, I was able to convince them to occupy themselves digging (and pretending to garden) in the other end of the garden long enough to get everything staked off. Then I was able to explain that we could walk anywhere but inside the rectangles the strings made.

Since the seeds I had to plant today were so tiny, I didn't ask for any help from little fingers. I had a hard enough time not clumping them all together into one group. But the onion sets are a different story. The kids will love helping with those!

I did get the kids' little watering cans out and let them help me put some water over the newly-planted rows, though. They had so much fun with that!

I goofed and accidentally planted an entire row of radishes and an entire row of carrots, instead of the half row of each that I was going to plant. I guess that's okay, though, because I ended up with only a half row each of beets and lettuce ... and my kids can't get enough carrots. The radishes come up fast and will give me the space back quickly enough.

I need to buy my onion sets while I'm out tomorrow so I can get them in the ground, too. So far, I have three full rows planted in my garden. The onions will make the fourth row. I'm really hoping they come up well! This is my first time to try growing seeds directly in the soil.

I'm of the same opinion as my dad, though. The first time I gardened (and was obsessing over whether I did everything right), he said something like, "Let's be real. Some things will grow regardless of how bad you mess up."

I'll do my very best to get some pictures tomorrow, providing the weather cooperates. It's supposed to rain (great for my garden, but not for pictures).