Seeds, Seeds, Beautiful Seeds
“The earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Hamatreya: Earth-Song” (1846)
On a recent dreary, soggy Saturday, I summoned my inner gardening guru and made the bold decision to direct sow some seeds in a few of the newly turned plots in the back veggie garden. These included leeks, sweet yellow onions, garlic chives, mesclun, carrots and cilantro. I like to think that this is a sign that I am right on track or maybe…. it is just impatience disguised as horticultural intuition. Only time, and hopefully some sprouts, will tell!
Additionally I decided to start a few seeds indoors which I have never done before. It just always seemed like too much trouble. You have to have the right light, keep them watered, create the proper soil recipe and on and on. This is also why I rarely bake. It’s much too precise and the recipe must be followed exactly. Directions on the back of seed packets give the precise distance needed between each seed when planted. Nope. My gardening vibe is just like my cooking vibe. Loosey, goosey, experimental and hopeful.
I will admit though that with the influence of my brilliant son-in-law, Scott, a true master gardener, I have begun to appreciate the results of a little planning sprinkled in with the chaos. And chaos, by the way, is a beautiful thing to embrace. It’s really quite freeing. The idea that “nature abhors a garden” reminds us that the need to organize, tame and impose boundaries on our little piece of nature, is wholly antithetical to the natural order of things. You experience this first hand when you go on vacation and leave your garden unsupervised. Nature laughs at us and has her way with all of our meticulously tailored spaces. The tension between this natural chaos and our imposed order in the garden builds when what we plant is all we will have to eat. I am ever mindful that while I take great joy in growing my own vegetables, herbs and flowers, having access to food beyond what I produce is a great privilege. So for me, I am free to walk into the pathways of my garden and toss a little whimsey into the tidiness of it all.