Last Sunday was warm and sunny and so we went to the garden with my mother-in-law. She has been putting more work into her garden. She has already started planting a week before. She planted potatoes, onions and strawberries. This time, she planted carrots and beets. We only planted potatoes, onions and carrots. I was supposed to plant the first batch of seedlings but they died so I have to wait maybe one or two more weeks before the next batch is ready for transplanting.
We have already plotted out our potato, carrot and onion beds. Pete helped to dig out deep trenches for the potatoes while I worked on a row of carrots next to him. After planting the carrot seeds, I carefully placed the potatoes into the trenches and filled them up with soil. At the same time, Pete planted the onions. The beds are side by side and they are quite close together, so we kept on stepping on the newly planted beds by accident. It was then that I knew I had to put some markers on the ground so we know where the beds are and what were planted.
After all the planting, I looked around the garden and found that the strawberries I planted last year have survived. I thought I lost them since they looked so dead at the end of last summer. Luckily I didn't pull them out to throw them out. When I checked them out, the leaves looked healthy and green. My mother-in-law had lots of wild strawberries in her plot. The previous owner grew lots of them and the garden was overtaken by the hardy plants. She dug up some and gave them to me so I could plant them in my garden. I planted them next to the existing plants.
Again, the strawberry bed looks inconspicuous so I made a mental note to remember to either buy or make markers for the plants. We both, again, accidentally kept on stepping on the strawberry bed. I better remember the markers or there'll be no plants left after we stomp all over them!
Yesterday was a holiday and it was another great day to be at the garden. In the morning, I made sure I have the markers ready. Instead of buying them, I made my own using bamboo sticks and washi tape that I use in scrap booking. I also used a label machine since I don't have water-proof markers.
When Pete and I got to the garden, we used garden string and bamboo sticks to mark out the individual vegetable beds. Then I stuck the markers into the ground. The garden looks better now and it made it easier to find our way around the beds.
When I was about to mark out the strawberry bed, I found two healthy looking rhubarb leaves peeking out from the ground. Again, I thought I lost them! I planted them last year but they didn't look like they were growing well and shriveled up. But they proved me wrong. Wonderful! I planted another rhubarb plant at another location but it has been buried under the compost heap. Hopefully we would find another pleasant surprise after we've cleared the compost off it.
'morot' is Swedish for carrots...no points for guessing what 'potatis' mean
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