A-Maize-Ing Progress!

As I look out on what used to be our pumpkin patch and see rows and rows of sweet corn, I can’t decide if I’m feeling excited or horrified.  It’s perhaps some of both.  I’m excited because we tried something new and the corn is performing rather well so far.  However, not too long from now I’m going to have to figure out what to do with the produce from 72 rows of sweet corn!

It was pretty hot the last couple days, and the corn loved it.  The temperatures moderated a bit today, so it was a great day to get out and do some work in the gardens!

My husband “weeded” the corn this morning.  The rows are the perfect width such that our tiller fits right in between them.  It really didn’t take him all that long to clean up the entire field.

The pumpkins have their true leaves now and should really be taking off soon.  My husband usually likes to till between the rows of pumpkins once before they start to vine, but the weeds haven’t gotten too bad yet, so it will probably be a week or two before he gets to that.

The garden has had two casualties.  One brussels sprouts plant and one tomato plant.  I think a gopher may have had a hand in killing the brussels sprouts plant, and I’m not totally sure what happened with the tomato plant.  It actually happened right after I planted it.  One morning it was completely broken off, nearly at the base.  I left it hoping the root system was good enough that it would re-sprout from the stem.  That didn’t happen, and now I’m planning on getting a replacement.  Maybe tomorrow… today is Sunday and the nearby greenhouse is Amish.

My cucumbers are finally germinating.  I always have issues with my cucumbers germinating.  I’ve never had a year where I planted cucumber seeds and they just popped up and grew.  I’m about 95% sure the birds are eating my seeds.  After re-seeding my row I put some shiny silver ribbon on my cucumber trellis in hopes of scaring the birds away.  It was only after I did this that I saw a few little cucumber sprouts emerging.  A few years ago, after four years of trying to start my own seeds and never having anything actually make it into the garden, I swore off starting my own seeds.  However, next year I’m going to have to get myself some peat pots and at least get my cucumbers past the cotyledon stage before moving them to the garden.  I wanted to do it this year, but with an infant and a toddler that just didn’t happen.

The pepper plants are starting to flower!  Just the bell peppers so far, but I don’t think the jalapeños are terribly far behind.

After my husband did the tilling and a few other things (and after my NASCAR race was over… priorities.), I was able to spend some time this afternoon yanking out overgrown clods of grass weeding in some of the more neglected areas of the yard.  Like around the bases of the trees where my lilies are growing…

…and in the little garden around the septic tank.

You’ll never catch me saying that I like weeding, but the gardens look so nice afterwards that I can’t complain too much about it.  Besides, I do find it rather satisfying dumping weeds by the 5-gallon bucket over the gate to the cows!

But really folks, what I am I going to do with all that corn?