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Spring Activities:
Where do we plant everything?
It's almost planting time. You have your seeds and seedlings ready to go.
Who gets to plant what? and where? You'll want to mark off your garden plots.
Your garden doesn't need a fence, but it does need something to outline its
boundaries and let you feel you are entering a special place. Take out your
garden plan that you created during the winter time. Do you need to make any
changes? Keep your plan in mind as you begin to plant!
You can use stakes and string, but the string makes it difficult to walk into
your garden. You can replace the stakes with railroad ties, stepping stones,
straw, or rocks. These can also be used to make areas between rows or raised
beds. Leave enough space between rows or between the gardens of different
classes to give people room to walk on the garden without harming the plants or
walking on their roots. What pathways should you create to get into
the center of the garden?
To create rows, decide where the rows will be according to distances indicated
on seed packages and in gardening books, mark the ends with sticks, and tie
string between the sticks to achieve a straight row. How straight would the
rows be if you did not use a marker such as string? In raised beds, plants
can be slightly closer together than they would be in a row. Decide where the
rows will be and, once the soil has been turned in the garden, scoop soil from
the outside of the bed onto the bed itself. This raises the surface and creates
a walkway. Border the beds with railroad ties, stepping stones, rocks, or straw
bales.
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