Corn paradise lost & found

The day that Roxie and I gave up on growing sweet corn was like a scene out of “Gone With the Wind.”

Only where Scarlett O’Hara swore  she’d “never go hungry again,” we resigned ourselves to the fact that we’d never grow sweet corn again – even though we were hungry for it.

It just wasn’t worth the trouble, we decided. What with the squirrels and the birds robbing us of our harvest and my failed attempts to keep them at bay, we gave up on corn and started buying our roasting ears from the farmer’s market like everyone else.

Besides, our current garden simply wasn’t big enough to grow a nice stand of corn that would provide a sufficient harvest for us and the varmints.

But whaddya know, fate intervened. We’re going to give it another try this year.

Critters, beware:  Mike casts long shadow over  new cornfield

In an earlier post, Roxie wrote about how an elementary school near us was starting a community garden this year in partnership with the nearby Methodist church. We went to the organizational meeting one night in April, in part to provide information and, also, to try selling a book or two.

Shameless promoters, yes we are.

Anyway, I kept track of the garden’s progress, making it part of my regular dog walking route. Things were looking good, except there was no activity on one end of the plot.

Was it possible that not everyone in the neighborhood relished the chance to grow veggies alongside their neighbors on school property?

So after getting it in my head that we might give corn one more  try —  only somewhere else — I called one of the organizers. Turned out there was some unclaimed space.

Therefore, Sunday and Monday found me out in the mud planting seven rows of silver queen hybrid sweet corn in the new, 20’ x 20’ satellite plot of Mike and Roxie’s vegetable paradise.

Nothing else. Just corn.

The soil temp and the calendar are just about right for planting sweet corn. We’re going with a normal sweetness variety, rather than one of the candy-corn hybrids.  As recommended, I soaked the seeds in water before planting. Another term for this is “priming the seed,” as I learned somewhere on the internet.

Roxie has been soaking corn seeds many a year, but I never knew why she did it, exactly. Now I do because this corn field is all my responsibility.

Besides speeding germination (which I’d guessed), the soaked seeds are less likely to rot in the ground and won’t tend to rise to the surface, should a heavy rain fall soon after planting.

I under-bought on the seeds. Two regular sized packets of Burpee silver queen only filled three furrows, spaced at one seed every 4 or 5 inches. (After sprouting, I’ll thin them to one plant every foot.)

But when I went back to the garden store, they only had one packet left. Since that wouldn’t do, I ended up at the hardware store, which did have an ample supply.

No Burpee seeds, though. But figuring that one brand of silver queen is as good as another (we’ll find out), I filled the other four furrows with the seed from two larger packs of Ferry Morse silver queen.

Think of it as a test plot. One other difference is that I didn’t soak the Ferry Morse seeds as long, 4 hours as opposed to 12 or so.

Either way, we’re bound to get at least a few ears to eat this year.

Maybe.

And while we’re at it, we’ll get a chance to be part of a community garden for the first time since the ’80s.

I know some of the folks. Others I hope to meet. And the best thing of all, besides making new friends?

The community water spigot is right next to our plot.

Posted by: Mike

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