Another inspiration from following gardening blogs, we grew our first carrots last fall.  Weren’t they beautiful? They were yummy too!  Not to mention super easy to grow!  As easy as turnips or radishes and much tastier. Have you ever planted carrots?  You should they are very easy to grow! The only problem we had was over sowing them. They have very very tiny little seeds!

It was very difficult to plant them directly into the soil and get them spaced out nicely.  (At least it was for Farmer Rick and I.)  I hate having to thin and waste the seed and the poor little plant (actual the rabbits enjoyed the ones I thinned.)  So we knew we needed a new plan!  Farmer Rick ordered fancy and expensive pre-made carrot seed tapes while I researched. I think Farmer Rick will still be thinning his tapes! I blog searched and Pinterest searched making our own seed tapes.  Lots of great gardening ideas being shared on the net!  And I can see them all from the warmth and comfort of my favorite chair all winter long!  I call it Off Season gardening!  After finding seed tapes made from paper towels, toilet tissue, and newspaper strips, the most logical idea to me was using a whole page of newspaper.  Yes, a whole page of newspaper would be just the perfect row size!  I used flour and water to make paste to glue the seeds onto the news paper. If it works, there are several advantages to this system.  I could glue my seeds on (while it was snowing outside) at the comfort of my counter.  NO Bending required!   They are perfectly spaced!  And it took less than a minute to plant!  It will also be easier to stagger my plantings. (Just plant one page this week. Another one next week. And so on.). Ask Farmer Rick how long it took him to get his seed tapes lined out and planted!  Longer than it took me to plant carrots, radishes and beets! Now we are having a little friendly wager on whose carrots will grow best!  We planted them on the same day, right next to each other. I also made seed tapes for radishes and beets!  It was a quick and easy planting!   (Did you know beet juice can be used for de-icing?  Wow!).  I’ve been tossing the idea around of going into the beet business with JMc!  I sure hope they grow!  I’ll keep you posted! Do you have any cool gardening tricks or tips?  I’d love to hear about them!