had been planting

• past perfect progressive

  past perfect progressive

  Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.

  of plant.
  plant

  noun

  any member of the kingdom Plantae, comprising multicellular organisms that typically produce their own food from inorganic matter by the process of photosynthesis and that have more or less rigid cell walls containing cellulose, including vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts: some classification schemes may include fungi, algae, bacteria, and certain single-celled eukaryotes that have plantlike qualities, as rigid cell walls or the use of photosynthesis.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

had been planting

And she had been planting seeds in her own music.

From New York Times ● Aug. 12, 2015

A mile or so away, field workers had been planting palm seedlings where he and his fellow villagers used to grow crops like rice, cassava, and vegetables.

From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2015

Top National Security Council officials had been planting the seeds for such an exchange with months of behind-the-scenes talks, using Arab monarchs, Iranian exiles and former U.S. diplomats to clandestinely ferry messages.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2013

Pinkerton had been planting "shop operatives" in factories to report to employers conditions among employes.

From Time Magazine Archive

After long easterly rains, the sun had at last come out bright and clear, and all the Barlow farmers had been planting.

From A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches by Sarah Orne Jewett

Related Words

• bury
• cover
• farm
• grow
• implant
• raise
• scatter
• sow
• transplant