Getting down on one knee and popping the question is nerve-racking enough.

But imagine burying the engagement ring in the garden, and patiently hoping your soulmate will find it come harvest time.

Deejay Squires's ring spent three months covered in soil, deep inside a bucket of carrots growing in the vegetable plots of her family's backyard homestead at Pinchgut Lake near Corner Brook.

She discovered the diamond while pulling carrots from the garden for dinner.

"I started to wriggle it out, and as I was pulling the carrot out John had said, 'I love you very much.' And as I pulled it out, had it in my hand, he was on one knee in front of me and asked me to marry him," Squires told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show.

"I was in complete shock when I saw the ring on the carrot."

Squires's now-fiancé had the plan all figured out from the beginning.

He had planted the ring in June among some carrot seeds, she said, and one carrot grew through the ring throughout the summer.

The ring features a raw, uncut diamond, an homage to the homesteading way of life. (Deejay Squires/Facebook)

Prior to harvest, Squires's betrothed did his best to keep her away from the garden while waiting for the carrots to fully grow.

"For a while he wondered if it was going to bust the ring, or did it grow in the ring, and we didn't know until I pulled it out," she said.

A carrot carat

When Squires shared her unusual marriage proposal on a backyard homesteading group on Facebook, she received an outpouring of support from her fellow gardeners.

The proposal was unexpected, she said, adding she was neither the type of person to dream about a big wedding day, nor was she in any rush to get hitched.

Deejay Squires and her now-fiancé and their family. (Deejay Squires/Facebook)

"He's been thinking about it for a while, though. He has had the ring for quite some time," Squires said.

"Of course, he wanted to do something unique and imaginative. There were a few other ideas he had.… He just wanted the perfect idea to come along, and I guess it was worth the wait."

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