Planting Techniques

Random Sowing: With leafy vegetables like lettuce, you can simply sprinkle the seeds over the soil and then sprinkle enough soil over the seeds to cover them up. Water carefully, though, with a sprayer or small watering can because too much moisture will flood them out of the bed.

Furrow Planting: Usually, growers will use a hoe to create a straight furrow in the soil, plant a couple of seeds every couple of inches along the furrow and then use the hoe to re-cover the furrow with soil. Plants are easier to weed and to thin out when they're in a straight line, assuming you leave a couple feet between the rows to walk.

Seed Strips: You can buy the tiny seeds of certain vegetables like radishes and carrots on paper seed strips. Then you stretch the tape out, lay it in the furrow and cover it up. That's a lot faster than dealing with the tiny seeds. The paper will decompose as the seeds sprout.

Transplants, Starts, Seedlings: These are vegetables started from seed indoors, separated into small containers and then brought outside for planting in the garden. They're most commonly used in colder climates with shorter growing seasons, and they're planted by removing them from their containers, setting them in a small hole and covering their rootballs with soil.