Spring Planting -- Phase 2, March Seeding

According to my plan, March is time to plant my lettuce, spincach, arugula, pea, and onion seeds.  As soon as I got home on Tuesday, I started planting.  I changed into my gardening gear, grabbed my tool (that is the spade), the seeds, and my iPod, and went straight to my garden.

To plant the lettuce, arugula, and spinach seeds, I needed to lightly sprinkle the seeds and cover them with approximately 1/4 inch of soil.   These seeds are relatively small, so they are rather difficult to dipserse individually.  I used my spade to create 4 trenches about 1/2 to 1/4 inch deep and 12 inches apart.  I opened the seed packets, put some seeds in my hand, and lightly sprinkled the seeds into the trench.  After I finished planting the seeds, I lightly covered them with soil.  I lightly patted the ground over the seeds.  For the onions, I did a similar planting.

For the sugar snap peas, I created a trench about 1 to 2 inches deep.  Compared to the lettuce, spinach, and arugula seeds, pea seeds are rather large and easy to plant individually.  I planted one seed every 1 - 2 inches or so and covered the seeds with 1 inch of soil.  Again I lightly patted the ground over the seeds.

So recall from the previous posting that for some reason, I though cucumber seeds could be planted and I bought a packet of seeds.  Once I got home, I didn't look at the gardening guide again so I planted them too.  This may be a mistake; the planting dates for cucumbers (slicing and pickling) starts April 15, so I may have jumped the gun a little here -- only time will tell if they do well!  Anyway, to plant cucumber seeds, I needed to dig a trench about 2 inches deep.  I planted 4 - 6 seeds every 3 inches; the size of cucumber seeds is between pea and lettuce-type seeds, so this isn't too difficult.  I covered the seeds with mounds of soil, burying them to about 2 inches.  No patting of the soil required. 

I realized I had lines of seeds and no way to know exactly where they are.  I needed something weatherproof and around the house to label each row.  We happen to have a lot of rocks and pieces of bricks around, so I grabbed a sharpie, labeled a rock with each seeds name, and placed a labeled rock at the head of each row, like below:

I watered the garden after planting and I was done for March planting!  The past few days have been rainy, so I've only been waiting for seedlings to come up.  I promise once it clears up I'll get pictures of the garden.

I've planted lots of babies and I can't wait to see them grow!