My leek sets arrived from Jung Seeds in late April and got parked in the garage for nearly a week while I waited for the tilling to get done and the rain to stop. On 28th of April they got planted into 3 rows (about 20 per row) in the center of our garden. Tiny little things it is amazing that they can not only survive in this weather but enjoy it. Unfortunately, my helpers got bored with the repetition of planting (not pulling out) leeks and so when that task was finished, we retired from planting for the day. So... the rains came again, the fierce wind and a nearby tornado. Some of my perennials just didn't fare well, but the leeks stood still. When our riding lawnmower was finally fixed we were able to cut the grass and dump the grass clippings around the plantings which will feed them and shelter them from the elements and hinder weed growth.
On May 1st, the next task was to get our first planting of radishes, carrots and spinach in. I have always been tempted to purchase seed tape for these tiny little seeds to make the rows more tidy and the plantings more accurate. My friend Cheryl, however, fed me a link to a "homemade seed tape" idea. I have since lost the link, but here is what we did.
Michael and I took a roll of toilet paper and laid it out on sheet trays. We (er, he) spritzed (read: soaked) the paper with fre
sh water. Next we carefully laid the seeds in 1/2" spacing, alternating between a radish and then a carrot, radish, carrot, etc. After the seeds were laid out, we carefully folded the tp onto itself a couple of times until we had strips of seeds. Next, we took those strips out to the garden where we had prepared our rows. To prepare the row, we dug a small trench 7 feet long and about 6" wide. We filled the trench with rich compost and then laid the seed strips on top of 
the compost. Michael assumed that they needed to be re-spritzed and I wasn't about to argue with the budding gardener when he making a sincere effort to be helpful. Windy as it was, the re-spritzing was a good idea because it helped the seed tape to stick to the compost while we finished laying the row. When we had finished the row, we gently covered the seed tape about 1" with more delicious compost. And, of course, Michael re-spritzed the newly covered rows. When we were done with the radishes and carrots, we did a row of spinach in the same way.Our plan is to 3 successive plantings of spinach, radishes and carrots. For now, the garden is going to look silly because these crops are being planted between rows of gree
n beans that cannot go into the soil until June. Because of the seeming randomness of the rows (with so many things not yet ready to be planted), it was important that Michael and I mark off every 12" in the garden. Taking a tape measure and straws, we sunk a straw every foot on the border of the garden. As long as the baby girl doesn't pull any more straws out, we shouldn't have too much trouble keeping our spacing even.
