Sow Seeds

Zipporah scoops her seed-raiser-mix from the bottom of the compost heap.

She scoops out enough to sow her seeds.

I wheel-barrow it to the garden for her.

Zipporah puts a layer of seed-raiser compost on top in the raised garden.

Using a spade is a bit difficult for little children. I help out.

She makes a furrow for the seeds to bed. Then she sows radish seed. You’ll see she is using saved radish seed. You should buy radish seed as it needs special fertilization and home-saved radish seed gives unpredictable results. I save it anyway.

These are carrot seeds. They can be saved from the last crop and season. My, what a cute little hand!

Zipporah sprinkles seeds on the seed-bed. She has already sown radishes in this same bed so they will grow together. Usually we mix both radish seed and carrot seed with sand and sprinkle this sandy-seed mix along the row. Today is an exception. Note: You don’t need sparkly nail-polish as on her nails.

We make our own seed labels. Use old milk bottles cut into strips with a pair of scissors. Write on the plastic with a garden marker. The letters will not fade in the sun.

Her label is ready.

Water the row. In a few days the radishes will germinate. This is exciting for Zipporah. After the radishes have been eaten the carrots which are much slower growing will grow up where the radishes have been harvested.

Above: Carrots growing slowly behind radish seedlings. This is a rough garden, but it yields just as much vegetable food as an expensive garden. We spend almost nothing on it but a little regular time and effort.