The Right to Write / Creative Projects: Sound Part II

Creative Projects: Sound Part II

When I was a rough little country girl, one of our family’s main food sources was a fresh garden. Instead of store-bought snacks, my mom would send us racing down the grassy hill from our house to a fresh row of peas, strawberry patch, and rhubarb bundles. One of our regular chores before dinner was to run down to the garden and gather some sweet corn for mom to boil or tomatoes to slice fresh for our plates. We feasted from it, and I have never forgotten its goodness and always desired to grow my own.

For years, I’ve been visiting community growing projects like the herb and flower garden in Ferndale, Washington. Many fragrant herbs and delightfully smelling flowers chase the air with their aromas in this garden. I became familiar with the oily scents of lemon balm, hyssop, Jerusalem sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, and many more. Slowly, I began to learn about their natural benefits for our bodies and realized if I were ever to grow my own garden, these wonderful herbs would have to be sown in it.

Another feature I admired about this fragrance garden was its raised brick beds intended to accommodate people with handicaps or visual impairments. The diverse plant varieties were encased in layered brick about four feet high which made it convenient to feel, smell, and care for the plants without bending low to the ground.

Recently, I visited a farm and ranch supply store to investigate their version of a raised garden bed. They had stacked two shades of 8*8*16 cement block, grey and sandstone brown, in a rectangular fashion with the width facing east and west for maximum sun exposure. The growing compound inside the structure consisted of an organic three-part composition: rice hull, peat moss, and cotton compost. This combination tends to produce veggies with a clean, sweet taste, and is missing a well-known garden adversary: weed seedlings.

I’m going to sow my garden using the same sized brick blocks and growing compound. By mixing the compound on a sheet of plastic and pouring it onto a piece of black landscaping tarp, I’ll eliminate most of the unwanted seedlings that might try to creep in. My growing plot is 12 feet wide by 16.5 feet long. It is conveniently located in my back yard. The ground is extremely flat and I’m just about ready to fit brick blocks around the sides.