08.07.07 CORN COLOR

The corn stalks stand tall in the dry days of August. The leaves turn beautiful colors as the plants dry in the hot breeze. My neighbor has let his cows into the corn field where the foraging is good.

07.20.07 AMAZING MAIZE

It's corn harvest time! Here is a photo of the load of corn I harvested from my two little fifty square foot beds. If you look closely at the kernels you will notice they are a bit small. I think I picked the ears a little early, but when you see the work the deer (or racoons?) have been doing in my tiny patch at night, you will understand why I wanted to bring them in from the garden right away! Despite its small size, the corn is sweet and delicious, a real treat with supper.

07.06.07 CORN BLOWING

Tassels have begun to appear on the corn plants in the garden. If I look closely I will find silk emerging from the base of the leaves at the corn stalk. Each pollen grain produced on the tassels will hopefully find its way to a single piece of silk. And after that sexual union has occurred, one corn kernel will be produced. I shake the corn tassels vigorously over the silking corn plants hoping to improve my ears of corn!

06.23.07 TOMATO TRELLIS

I have tried many different systems to hold my tomato plants off the ground. (One year I actually just left them to sprawl on the straw mulch. Resulted in a lot of rotten tomatoes!) I have carefully tied each plant to a six-foot tall stake with shreds of old t-shirts and concientiously removed all the suckers. I have made my own tomato cages out of fencing mesh. I have built elaborate trellis systems. But this is my current favorite. I copied it from a friend’s garden down the road. It uses fewer supports than staking each plant and the plants need very little tying up since they mostly flop over the middle support. (I tie the errant tomato branch up to keep things tidy and make picking easier.) This bed is five feet by ten feet and is home to eighteen tomato plants in three rows of six. I should get a lot of tomatoes to freeze from this one bed if the bugs and the weather cooperate! (How about that happy corn behind the tomato bed!)

05.30.07 HOE DOWN

The Mennonite's corn across the road is about two weeks ahead of mine. And so are their weeds! Yesterday morning a group of the young people were out chopping the weeds the old-fashioned way, by hand with a hoe. These gardeners still find a way to invest in community while accomplishing what some might find an onerous chore.

05.29.07 CORN COMING!

It didn't take long in this warmer weather for the corn seeds to sprout. Now lets hope the varmints stay away until I can get the fence erected.