I make sure the soil beneath is very loose and then dig a narrow trench the length of the row. I use a salt shaker with the holes reamed out some, add sand and the carrot seeds and sprinkle in the trench. I then cover with Pro-Mix and tamp lightly. I thin when 2 inches tall. When planting beets, I place one seed at a time about 2 inches apart in the row. 1 beet seed produces several plants. I like the greens as well as the beets.

well you are in zone 7, so I take it you are a lot warmer than me at the moment lol!! Just harden them off like you have been doing Jill, for a week and plant them. When is your frost date? Mine is the middle of June so I don't put out any baby seedlings, whether they are annual or perennial til then, just in case!

Brad, I used wal-mart potting soil last winter when I ran out of my other stuff (a blend of garden soil, vermiculite and peat). That wal-mart stuff really was awful stuff. I even added vermiculite and it didn't help much. Buy a small bag now and check it out, and watch how it hardens into a brick in the container. (Mine was soaking wet in the bag, so that didn't help) I didn't have many containers with no germination, but I think every single on of them was a "brick" container. And the plants that did sprout did not grow very quickly--I had monarda seedlings 6" tall in other containers, and those in the brick were 1" tall. There is another wintersower who says the wal-mart soil works just fine for her, but I didn't find it to be the case for me. Today I have been mixing all my random soils (including bricks of wal-mart stuff) with sand, peat, vermiculite, and horse manure. I've been mixing it in my wheelbarrow. I think I'm making a pretty good mix! Does it work out to be much cheaper than just buying miracle grow potting soil? Well, bulk peat and vermiculite is cheap, and the rest was free. As for getting your beds ready, adding compost or manure is a good way to do it, since your beds are already there, and hopefully the soil is pretty loose. Can you find a horse stable nearby? You can get free manure that way, and it doesn't need to be aged/composted, as it would if you applied it onto growing plants. Or you can buy the bags of manure at the garden center/hardware store. If you don't have a compost pile, now's the time to start! Grab those yard waste bags on the roadside and start dumping them into a pile. You can get advice on that in the soil and composting forum, or just ask here.

Hi Beth, I wanted to let you know that your seeds arrived. I also wanted to thank you for the tea and the bag rest. I love them! The little tea bag rest matches my bedroom theme. I have shades of sandy and dark browns with palm trees everywhere. Kinda like a beach cabanna type theme. I think I'll use that little bag rest on my night stand to hold my rings at night.Thanks again! Kelly