Reed seeds can be sown on dirt tiles that are at most 8 dirts steep and have at least one corner between 1 and 4 dirts below water.
Error messages:
* The ground is not flat enough for crops to grow. You need to flatten it first - The tile is steeper than 8 dirts
* This type of crop can only grow in water of suitable depth - No corner is between 1 and 4 dirts below water. Another way to measure the depth is to dig the maximum depth with a shovel, and then drop 3 dirt in each corner.