Not only did I grow up eating peas and carrots, but I liked them, too. It will be nice growing our own crop this year, assuming the crafty squirrels let them grow.

Peas:

Last week I mentioned hedging my bets by starting a few seeds indoors.  Once I consulted the seed packet I decided to direct-sow.  I soaked half the seeds in water for 48 hours, then planted them directly outdoors. I saved the rest of the seed packet to replenish the inevitable casualties.

Looking left and right for squirrels, I surreptitiously pushed several seeds into the soil around the arbor. I planted the rest amongst the still-flowering annuals. With luck, they’ll all come up and produce lovely green vines along both sides of the sidewalk.

Carrots:

I have a lot of faith in the success of the carrots, since we planted starts instead of seeds.  I say ‘we’ because this year I had help from several of Jazzy’s day care children next door. The older kids planted two each;  I filled in later with the rest. Planting was fun, but the real hit: watering cans.  I never met a youngster that didn’t like water.

Watering

I think they’ll get a kick out of watching the carrots grow. I’ve added a carrot countdown in the sidebar to the right so we have a general idea of harvest day. Hopefully each young gardener grows at least one or two carrots to take home.

Stay tuned!

Little hands planting carrots

Flip, tap, squeeze and release