My Planting Board

It was a cold, cloudy and rainy week so no real action in the garden.  Amazingly my onions survived and the peas I planted two weeks ago started to pop up three days ago.  It is hard to believe that seeds can germinate in weather like this.  I did harvest a little more lettuce but it is time to remove the old lettuce and plant some fresh seeds.  I will do that this week under my cold frame but will probably remove the cold frame as the weather is suppose to get up into the 70's by the end of the week.  Maybe the weather will turn this week for good.

Since it was so quiet in the garden this week, I thought I would tell you about one of my most favorite tools that I use all the time and have had for 32 years.  This tool is my planting board.

Planting Board

The planting board is such a simple tool but it has so many functions and is really easy to build.  I got the idea from Jim Crockett and his book Crockett's Victory Garden.  This is an amazing book. Some day I will have to share my thoughts on Jim Crockett and his books.  It provides inspiration for me every time I read it.  I love looking at the pictures and reading his ideas on how to grow really great vegetables.

I don't think I have ever seen a planting board for sale in a store or catalog.  My planting board is four feet long with triangle notches every six inches.  The larger notches are spaced a foot apart.  I just lay the planting board down on the ground and use it for setting the space between seedlings and setting the distance between rows.   The other side of the planting board is cut into a v shape. With this side of the board I am able to make groves in the soil for planting seed in.  The harder you press and slide the deeper the groves.  

The planting board can be made out of any 1 x 6 you might have.  My board has special meaning in that the wood I used was old cedar siding from a cottage our family owned in Door County. When my Dad was removing the old siding I grabbed a piece and created this planting board.  I had no idea that I would still be using it 32 years later.  What a great investment and memory saver!