Today I had some AmeriCorps students help plant some of my tomatoes. I think we planted about 25 of them. What a great bunch of young adults giving service. In case you didn’t know AmeriCorps is like the Peace Corps (only here in America) where people join and give their time and energy for one year to help communities and farms and learn many skills on their journeys. I explained how I plant tomatoes and gave them some handouts to take home explaining the process. I hope they take back this information to their communities and share their new tomato growing skills! My only regret is I didn’t get a picture of them before they left! A big thanks to all of you who helped today!
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giantveggiegardener 
Jannine,
Once again you are an inspiration for gardeners here. I made progress with potatoes and broccoli this year, but still hven’t been successful with carrots. Should they be planted in pure sand?
Gene
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No, pure sand is not required for carrots but rocky soil would be. I use lots of compost and composted horse manure with my soil (composted because carrots don’t like too much nitrogen) to really make a rich soil mix for them. Then I take out most of the small rocks if any are there. You could screen the soil to make it even finer if you wanted.
Most people have trouble with germination. One of the tricks is not let them dry out during the germination time-not even for a tiny bit. Some people put a board over them until they just start to germinate to ensure the top of the soil doesn’t dry out. I like to put a little sand over the seeds and then row cover over them as they don’t like to be buried too deep also. Then I water through the row cover-don’t even lift it off so as not to disturb the seeds. Then I went out and watered them in the am and pm-2x a day. Also don’t plant too early as they like the soil a little warmer and will just sit there and then rot if soil is too cold.
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