Spring / Sowing the Seeds of Victory

Spring has hit Tennessee pretty hard and I've been unable to sit still long enough to write about it. Walking into my office in the morning I have to duck under the boughs of pear trees, so heavy with frilled white flowers they look like snowbanks. Outside my window a cherry tree fizzles with pink blossoms, impervious to rainstorms and wind. Even my orchid on the windowsill has started blooming in sympathy pains. It is spring and the air smells like dirt and it is a happy relief.

For the first summer in 2 years I will be staying put in one place, which means I can finally have a garden. And unlike my ramshackle Lawrenceville stoop-gardens full of plants in 5 gallon buckets, this year is for real. My landlords gave their blessing for me to put in a vegetable garden; happily they are gardeners themselves and even offered to lend me a rototiller. I found some lovely documents put out by the University of Tennessee Extension that contain a wealth of information specific to gardening in this weird Southern world. The past few days have been a blur of researching, note-taking, diagramming and day-dreaming. Matt saw a page of my cramped notes and cross-hatched plot diagrams and asked if I was building a bomb. I am armed and dangerous (with a trowel).

With a hopeful heart I ordered my seeds on Tuesday night. In choosing my cultivars, my goal was to focus on heirlooms, favoring plants originating in the area. Of course this was not possible in every case - I choose chilies from the southwest and adorable lemon squashes from who knows where, because they fit my needs better then the local cultivars. However, I was able to go with heirlooms all the way. I ended up ordering through two different companies: New Hope Seeds and Baker Creek Heirlooms. New Hope seeds was a particular windfall; it's a small family-run farm located an hour southeast of Nashville that specializes in local cultivars, many dating back to the mid 19th century. Thanks to New Hope I will be growing White Velvet Okra, Tip Top Muskmelons and Tennessee Sweet Potato Pumpkins. Add them to the Georgia Southern Creole Collards and the Red Cheese Peppers coming from Baker Creek, and I will have a proper Southern garden blooming in no time.