Growing From Seeds

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Last spring I shook my finger and chastised the early planting crowd, but we had no late frosts. I got over it and reveled in the early, extended and glorious spring. This year I stuck my neck out and have already scattered seeds of lettuce and greens, and this week bought seed packs of sugar snaps and Swiss chard.

Granted, these are cool-season vegetables that can take some frost, but planting this early is definitely a bit of a gamble. It’s not like I’m putting a big dent in the wallet if I do lose them, and most years I forget and plant too late.

I have yet to build my raised-bed garden, so I threw my seeds on patches of bare ground. Though I put down as much zoysia sod as I could budget when I finished the new house last fall, and scattered annual rye on the rest of the bare soil, there are still raw open areas that beg for a little greenery. It’ll be quite the hodgepodge until I am able to get it more organized.

I have big dreams for my raised beds. My house foundation is gray concrete block of the sort called split-faced block, which has a rough-hewn, stone-like appearance. There were some left over, and though I could have sent them back for a refund, I ordered more, to make a decorative vegetable garden — a rather simple version of a potager. While my potager will be much less elaborate than one might see in Europe, the basic idea is the same. It will have formal, geometrical elements, and while that may seem to be at odds with the wild ridges and valleys of the property, I believe it will form a pleasing contrast. I find myself attracted to the juxtaposition of strong geometrical forms against nature’s wild sprawl. Hay bales strewn over rolling pasture come to mind.

The blocks will form four squares filled with good soil, set upon a larger square of crushed gravel. Each square will be three blocks high, with the bottom one partially buried for stability. It is my wish to be able to sit on the blocks while I plant, weed or pick vegetables. The upper row of blocks will need a comfortable surface, and I haven’t yet worked that out. It may be treated wood, but it also may be a place to experiment with some sort of tile or pebble mosaic. Maybe all I need is a stadium cushion, though that sounds too much like it could become a short-lived dog toy.

Each square will be just wide enough for me to reach comfortably to its middle. My vision is a garden with a few choice vegetables and some favorite herbs that I can walk through, yet keep my sandals clean. Maybe, just maybe, this is a vegetable garden that I can keep weeded and picked.

Carol Reese is ornamental horticulture specialist for the Western District of the University of Tennessee Extension Service.

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