How Do You Pronounce "Root"?

I live in Georgia, but I'm from Minnesota. My friend Beth, from New York, laughs every time I say "root." She says, "that's the one word that New Yorkers say correctly!"

The 9-10 year old kids in our gardening class laugh, too. "How am I supposed to say it?" I asked. They said, "OO makes the 'ooh' sound." I interpreted this to mean that "root" rhymes with "boot." I always pronounced "root" like it rhymes with "foot." One of the girls gave me the assignment to learn how to pronounce "root" correctly before the next class!

Now with that lesson in pronounciation, let me tell you that the root vegetables are planted! Three of the kids from our homeschool co-op, one of the moms, and I planted onions, carrots, and potatoes. You can plant 16 onions in a square foot, 16 carrots in a square foot, and 4 potatoes in a square foot.

What was surprising for us novice gardeners is that you grow potatoes from potatoes! The eyes of the potato sprouts. Each sprout can be a plant. So, we cut the potatoes so that each section had a sprout on it. We planted the sections with the sprouts facing up about 2" below the soil.

We have 9 square feet in the strawberry planter, containing 3 square feet of onions, 3 square feet of carrots, and 3 square feet of potatoes. Can't wait to see how the garden grows!

Here's a picture of the strawberry planter as of yesterday:

My boy put in the sticks. One of the girls tied twine to the sticks to designate each foot in the length of the planter. The strawberries are trying to grow in the front, outside the square foot.