Newtonville: Planting

With the ground prepared only one things remained to be done: Planting the woad seeds.

Here again I had little helpers and, by the end, I think we had worked out a nice system.  I did the plowing of a shallow trough (using the old hoe my grandfather gave to me) and my children followed and planted.  My only conundrum was trying to explain to them the specific distance of 12 inches that I wanted to have the seeds sown.  In the end, inspiration whispered a wonderful solution: Using an old stem from one of last year’s teasels, we cut it to roughly a foot’s length and row by row Michael and Claire switched roles.  First Michael carefully measured from seed to seed using the stem as Claire planted, then they switched and it was Claire’s turn to reposition the “measuring-stick”.