Then you filled the trench with water and let the water wick up to the seeds which had been tamped down to insure good soil contact. Is that the rest of your seed planting routine? Al

My Dad taught me to use a rake handle - longer furrow than a toilet plunger handle!

not really a trench Al, just the depression from the handle...hardly more than a quarter inch deep.....No, I covered the small seeds with the loose dirt from what was loosened with the rod (or just sprinkling seed starting mixture over the covered depression). But, having a real smooth surface to drop the seeds onto made it a lot easier to space them along the foot long depression. "When these seeds sprout, I'll do the same in another row in that 2'X4' bed....
Flora: I'm working with some small beds much shorter than the rake handle!...Also doing square foot gardening like areas and small raised beds....I got a city lot and not much room for regular garening...thus...vertical gardening and small scale raised beds amongst some tomato and pepper plants and rock garden.....keeps me out of trouble...I don't plan on selling out of the back of my pickup truck....just growing enough for the two of us

mmm, I always water the drill (I also use the handle from my hoe) very slowly so the water seeps in but does not wet outside the drill. When the seeds are sown, it is easy to flip the dry soil from the side edges over the top using a draw hoe. The dry soil acts like a dust mulch and seems to maintain moisture during the germination process.