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I can take no credit for this little trick in today’s post, but I still just had to share it with you. 🙂 A couple of weeks ago, when we were planting most of our garden, I saw Chris doing this and I grabbed my phone and snapped some pictures because I just thought it was so smart! So you’ll have to excuse the pictures if they don’t look so great, but I think this tips is worth dealing with a little bit of real life in the background. 🙂
I’ve seen different tricks over the years for what people like to do to keep their rows straight in their garden, but I think this is probably the best I’ve come across. Some people like to drive a stick into the ground on either end of their row, tie a string on one end and stretch it tightly to the other stick and then use a hoe to trace a line in the soil just beneath the string, where they were create a little furrow for the seeds. This definitely does create straight rows, but it’s also super time-consuming! We have quite a big area of our garden this year that we’ve planted in rows, so here’s how Chris was creating a really straight little furrow for me to drop the seeds into.
First, we went to the woodpile and found a bunch of sticks so we could mark off where we wanted each row to be. We don’t really mess with garden markers too often these days, so the sticks basically tell us where each row is so we know where to water before the plants start to come up.
Next he grabbed a long 2 x 4 and set it down on an angle so the pointy edge created a line in the soil next to each stick.
And that’s it! Setting the 2 x 4 down instantly created the perfect furrow for our seeds and each row was absolutely, completely straight! I’m not usually a stickler for perfection like he is, but I’m definitely excited to see how great the garden looks with all those super straight rows of plants.
Just setting the 2×4 down lightly creates about 1/2″ of depth, which is perfect for a lot of seeds. If you need a bit more depth, just press harder! If you’ve worked your soil really nicely so it’s extra light and fluffy, it’s really easy to create any depth of furrow for any type of seed! If you don’t have a 2 x 4, of course any long piece of wood will do!
So that’s my little gardening tip for the day! I know a lot of us have already done a lot of our planting, but definitely try this one out if you’re planning on planting a few more rounds of seeds this year like we are!
Do you have a tried and true method for getting your garden rows straight?
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.