Friday, July 24, 2015

Growing Corn In My Home Garden

I remember hearing that you can't grow corn without chemicals.  I always thought that was ridiculous because everything I grow remains chemical free and I figured I could try it with corn and see what happens.

One year, I think it was before I started my  blog, I grew corn pretty well.  They grew, made an appropriate amount of kernels and nothing got into them.  I remember eating them at two different meals. 

So, I was sure I could grow corn from then on, chemical free.

And then we had this debacle a few years back.

So, I vowed to stop wasting my timing growing corn.

But, in garden #2, the fence is much higher, so I thought I could outsmart the critters.  I thought it was raccoons that ransacked the cornstalks last time, and this fence is higher and flimsier, so I didn't think raccoons could clamber over it. 

 I planted the corn away from the fences, in the middle, where I thought maybe they wouldn't bother going.

Things have been looking good in cornland.


I was surprised to see tassels already out and the corns looking sort of ready in their husks.


Yesterday, I noticed that the tassels had disappeared on a few ears of corn.  Odd because usually, you wait until the tassels turn brown and then the corn is ready.

This morning, I went out to check on things, as usual.  My garden has been super slow, or so it seems, so only with the recent 90 degree weather have things started to really take off.

I say this every year and worry and then it turns out August is ridiculously plentiful, so I really shouldn't be concerned. 

I guess I just hate the waiting for almost all of July!


Everything looked good, as usual.  My favorite times in the garden are early in the morning, before the sun starts baking, and just after supper, before the sun goes completely down.

And then I saw this.


And this!

And I was heartbroken!  Something came in and knocked down a cornstalk and then stripped off the husk and nibbled all over one ear of corn.





Wondering if the others are actually ready, I pulled off one ear, but this was all that came.


I only have a few ears left because I didn't plant many since this was an experiment to see if I could avoid animal interference.  Because I didn't plant many, they didn't pollinate all that well, thus the many blank spaces.  Corn has this weird thing about needing every tassel to be touched by pollen in order to make kernels all over the ears, and if you don't plant a lot, in rows that almost touch, then that won't happen.

So, my dreams of a nice dinner with some homegrown corn have been dashed for this year.

I'm not going to pull out the remaining stalks because I still want them to be there to support some climbing beans that I planted, but I'm seething with rage thanks to what I imagine must be a very content squirrel.

Linking here:

http://www.myturnforus.com/2015/07/freedom-fridays-with-all-my-bloggy_23.html
http://www.thesitsgirls.com
http://www.olivesnokra.com/ 



1 comment:

  1. I feel for you. I can't tell you home many times I had veggies growing perfectly in my garden then overnight some critter ate everything! Thanks for sharing at Funtastic Friday.

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