Have you seen a carrot seed?

It's planting day!  Although it was cold and cloudy, we went to the garden to plant more stuff there.  So far, our sizable garden has not been fully utilized.  We've only used up maybe 15% of the space.

Yesterday, we bought a couple of packets of seeds - carrots, peas and lettuce.  Also, the cucumber seedlings are growing taller.  It is time to replant them.  Pete's mum came by with her large tools.  We've been getting by with my small ones.  But to work on a bigger area, we would certainly need those tools.  The long handles also mean that Pete could help out as well since he wouldn't have to squat or bend.

I've read that to grow carrots, the soil must be loose and free from stones.  If there are stones in the way of the growing carrots, they would sort of split into two or they would not grow.  So, the first thing I did was to get Pete to loosen up the soil.  Of course, I did my part as well and raked it to remove as many stones as I could find.  Then, it was more hard work to dig up the soil to make a raised bed before I started sowing the tiny carrot seeds.

Have you seen a carrot seed?  It is a tiny little thing.  It looks like a spice, sort of like fennel seeds.  I tried to scatter them as far apart as I could.  I know some of the seeds were blown away by the strong winds, but I think I got most of them where I wanted.

The whole thing was a back breaking work out.  I was wearing my jacket at first.  But because of the intense workout I was getting, I took it off.  Luckily I was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt underneath to keep me sort of warm.

Next, we prepared another bed, wider this time, for the cucumbers.  Pete's mum sowed them for us in a pot and now we had 9 seedlings.  We planted them as far apart as we could.  His mum taught me how to plant them.  I had to bury the stem to let just the leaves above the ground.

The work was hard so we stopped to take a break.  I made cheese sandwich with the bread I baked the day before.  It was a simple sandwich with 2 kinds of cheeses and sliced, fresh tomatoes, washed down with juice, kept cold and fresh in the cold spring weather.  Simple but yummy.

The next two beds were a bit faster to build as we sort of fell into a routine.  Along the way, I dug up countless worms - tiny ones, fat ones, short ones, long ones.  I tried to get used to them, telling myself that they are important for the soil and our plants.

The seeds of the peas and beans, which are given to me by his mum, were easy to sow.  I just hope they will be safe from the birds.  Almost to the end of our work, it started to drizzle but we still continued and even watered the new additions to the garden.  I love the tiny raindrops as they fell on my face.  It was cold and windy, but it wasn't too cold to make me feel uncomfortable. 

Oh, yeah.  Every time I step into the garden, I will eagerly check the plants that we have.  The squash plants seem to be growing well.  The leaves are big and green.

The petunias are also showing growth.  They look bigger and the flowers look so big and fresh.


















And finally there's activity at the potato patch.  Pete's mum pointed to us a small tuft of leaves - potato leaves!  And the unidentified plant that was growing by the potato patch is chives.  And I discovered more today.  I'll leave them for now and maybe cut off some to cook with when they are a bit bigger.


The lettuce are not going to be planted in the garden yet.  I'll sow them indoors first and when they're a bit bigger, I will transplant them.  The garden is still bare for now.  Hopefully soon, more leaves will show.