Corn - a new challenge

Corn in Cascadia. Is it doable? We'll find out.

I discovered the 'three sisters' concept last year. (More info: gardenweb.com and Renee's Garden I'm determined to make it happen. Squash and beans are no problem... they're easy. Corn on the other hand, is more complicated.

First off, there's planting the corn. Corn can't just be dropped into any bed. Corn roots go deep (up to 4 ft!). "Over the course of a growing season, about 40% of the water used by corn will come from the first foot of soil, 30% from the second foot and 20% from the third foot. Less than 10 percent will be obtained from the soil below 3 feet." We diligently till and amend the soil in all our beds, but not 4 feet down.

To solve this problem, I've decided to build a new raised bed. Raised beds offer several advantages. Even with building a raised bed and importing soil from the nursery, I still have to dig down to break up and amend the existing soil - but at least I'm not digging down as far. (I'm aiming for 18-24 inches down and a 24" high raised bed). The earth under where I'm putting this bed has had excavators, my F-150 on top of it... and it's even been worked over with a compactor. Breaking it up took some work. Another benefit of raised bed gardening is that the temperature of the soil comes up faster in the spring. I expect that this raised bed will prove useful for other warm weather crops in future rotations.

A change from other crops we've grown is that corn has both female and male flowers on the same plant. (Primer) Normally the wind would provide what's needed for pollination to occur - but to ensure a strong crop I'll likely have to manually pollinate the corn.

To top it all off... lots of things beside humans like to eat corn. We've got raccoons, crows, and squirrels in abundance and they all like corn.

A worthy challenge... but worth it for the prize of fresh, sweet corn.

Rasberries

Rasberries are done and ready for the season.

Pruning, weeding, a top layer of compost (2 bags gave a 1-2" layer for a 1' x 50' bed), and then fertilizer. The fertilizer was put together by Amber - it's a recipe from a great book: Steve Solomon's "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades".

This is the second full spring for this bunch of rasberries. Last year was a bit disappointing in terms of yield. It was good enough for lots of munching, but barely enough to also supply preserves in the freezer. I'm not sure about this year yet... but I'm pretty sure that next year will be fantastic - the root system has spread throughout the bed and new shoots are coming up all over the place. By year four we may need to thin the bed out.

New Year! Try again...

Well last year the postings became few and far between as the weather turned nicer..... but it's a new year!

Other than a couple of weeks in the middle of December, our winter has been mild. We started planting about half way through February, and we have some lovely sprouts to show for it at the end of March.

Amber and the kids started the ball rolling in our 'triangle bed' with some radishes and carrots. I finished off the bed with some broccoli, bok choi, and salad greens. I also added some fennel and marigold seeds to the mix to see if we can do better work with complementary plantings that attract some beneficial insects.

We had some stuff planted in this area last year... but this year we built up the bed and amended the soil.

Amaya and Cyrus helped me plant some flowers, more carrots, swiss chard, and (I think) some romaine. We still have half the bed to amend and plant.

The potato boxes have been planted as well. Last year the potato crop was... unsatisfying. I've since learned that you really can't let the greens shoot up more than 3 inches before you mound up the dirt. The thing is- once potatoes start growing up, they grow super fast. I'm resolved to be much more attentive (and aggressive) with getting them mounded up this year. I'd really like the fingerling crop to be good....

French Breakfast Radish Harvest

The French Breakfast radish harvest has proven to be a lovely early crop. Cyrus apparently loves radishes (at least this year he does).

(an email)

"Your son is a fellow radish lover. The kids each picked one this morning, which I was annoyed with until they washed and ate them! I was surprised, so I said: If you like them, you may pick them whenever you want. One at a time. And that's what Cyrus did for like 10 radishes. I guess they call them french breakfast radishes for a reason. =)"

Cyrus harvesting the last of the French Breakfast radishes....

Satya hasn't proven to be a radish lover like Cyrus and I, but this is a fun photo all the same. :)

Final harvest for the French Breakfast radishes were about two weeks over due. Not really too bad considering the winter/spring we've had. I'll definitely look towards radishes as being an early garden gem in the future.

Sunflowers

We transplanted the sunflower starts today! The primary focus of the garden is food, but...

"We want to plant flowers for the bees because they help the vegetables grow"

"Why do they help the vegetables grow?"

"They land on all the flowers and take care of the flowers, and the flowers turn into vegetables."

"Oh!" (Happy smile)

Once before I tried using the word 'pollination' in an explanation, but that didn't really sink in. The fact that bees sting, but they are still considered "Good Guys" was a source of confusion. The bees-take-care-of-flowers logic seemed to get traction. I figure it's a good enough explanation. It forms the linkage between bees, flowers, and us; which is really the important part of the concept. A 5 year old doesn't care about the technical 'how' of pollination. It's too abstract. 5 year olds are only concerned with 'why'.

We definitely need more flowers in and around the garden....

I found a list of edible flowers that looks very promising. One flower in particular looks very promising: nasturtium. They come in all manner of colors, there are climbing varieties, and best of all... the flowers go great in salads and can even be pickled! Other fun facts about them are that humming birds like them and they tend to attract aphids away from the veggies. Looking for seeds, I found yet another online seed company that is really great- Renee's Garden. (Her selection of nasturtium seeds in particular has no peer.) I'm starting to think that all the vertical space we have can be fully incorporated into the garden.