Carrot planting and making my bed

I planted the first row of baby carrots today. These are the minicor variety from Cook's Garden which has this to say about them in their catalog:

This is our top choice for the small, tender, baby carrots. My grandmother always kept a bowl of baby carrots in ice water on her kitchen table for us kids to munch when we came in from the garden for lunch, and it was always empty by the time we left. The quick growing roots gain their color and flavor early, and their uniform 3 to 4 inch length also makes them great for canning. Very small core makes them super tender and juicy.

My planting was about 1/4" to 1/2" deep (these are very small seeds). The 20 Minute Gardener recommends planting them with some ashes from the fireplace to sweeten them up but I just scattered a bit of pelleted lime across the top and figured it would do the same thing to raise the pH.



I also did a good bit of digging to ready another smaller raised bed that is a part of my son's playground set. This is where I'll put one of the hop varieties (the rhizomes arrived today in the mail and are stored safely in the fridge with some moisture in a ziplock bag) to climb what was a rope ladder before the wooden rungs got rotted and broke off. I used the same mixture of soil elements as in the other bed. I still had lots of sphagnum peat from the first bed (I bought two bales because it was cheaper and I knew I'd use it eventually), some sharp builder's sand, and a bit of composted cow manure. I had to make a quick trip to Kmart (why Southern States closes at 3PM on Saturday in springtime is beyond me) for some more topsoil to mix in. A few minutes with the eggbeater tiller and it's ready to plant the hops after the last frost is passed (May 10-14 says my local ag extension agent).



I wasn't done yet. I dug out four holes in the mulched area of the playground and filled them back with the soil mix. One of these will be for the other hop variety which will climb the swingset. The others will be where I'll plant pumpkin, watermelon, and cantaloupe. Their vines will have plenty of room to spread out and run around the playground without being much in the way or getting on the lawn where I won't be able to mow.

After all this digging and mixing, my back hurts. Advil to the rescue.