gardening mishaps

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How to Braid A Carrot

Note: I’ll have to put some thought into tagging this post.  I’m not sure anyone ever did a Google search using the term “braid carrot.”  Here goes:

Step one:

Purchase nursery six-packs of small, leafy carrot starters.  Make the following assumption: each cell contains one carrot plant.

Step two:

Plant accordingly.  Be sure to gather the neighbor’s day-care kids.  Turn tiny people into future gardeners.

Step three:

Wait 50 – 70 days.  Publicize your countdown in your blog sidebar.  This is an important step for those of us with “menopause brain.”

Step four:

Take the sage advice of a couple of bloggers who inquire “did you thin the plants?”  (Note: In my gardening defense, I know about thinning seeds.  I just ASSumed they were pre-thinned before I bought them.)

Step five:

Dig up a few ‘spare carrots’, in this case, the carrots planted on the other side of the curb garden as back ups in case the tiny gardener’s crop fails.  (One or two did and I was able to fill in accordingly) Realize, oh-oh…I didn’t thin the plants.  Thin one or two and watch them droop.  They didn’t like waking up early.

Step six:

Reset the countdown in the side-bar from 50 to 70 days and wait some more.

Step seven:

The most important step of all: Watch the tiny gardeners cute, wondrous faces as they dig up a carrot and realize what they’ve grown.  Picture me smiling from ear to ear.

carrot harvest 2

Tiny gardener harvesting carrots

carrot harvest 1

Carrot unearthed

And if you’ve read this far, here is the tutorial I promised.

How to braid a carrot:

  1. Refer to steps one through seven.
braided carrots

Braided Carrots