"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Saturday, July 16, 2016

This is the time of year when one can walk through a field of corn..........

and never be seen again.........
it is so tall and so thick....
and so wonderful to eat........
but you wont find corn growing in my gardens.........I have to purchase it from stores or farmer's markets........
from those who somehow.........can grow corn

I have tried.......every year.........to grow corn. It sprouts.......it grows tall.......
it starts to get big ears of corn on the stalks........... I get excited...........
and then.....moths lay eggs in the ears and the larvae eat the corn.......
what ever is left........birds.......by the dozens.....
camp out around the garden ......
and peck away every kernel......
I have tried scarecrows......wrapping foil around the stalk...(advice from a farmer)
but nothing works.......
so now.........I purchase......enviously and enjoy.
I can grow flowers.....and pumpkins......but never corn......
any advice??


Speaking of pumpkins.......this year I have fairy tale pumpkins on the vine


and weird gourds with warts

and large yellow gourds.....with more fairy tale pumpkins.

and I have the usual long and large pumpkins


I started growing pumpkins years ago......for one reason. I wanted dozens of pumpkins to decorate the porches and tables with.......
dozens of pumpkins and ornamental gourds.......
cost dozens of dollars......which I did not have.
The first year that I planted and raised pumpkins,  I had so many pumpkins that I ran out of places to decorate.........
which I loved. 
I still grow pumpkins for decorating.......and I love fresh pumpkin for pumpkin pie......
but the main reason I grow them now.......
I love the large leaves and the large space that the vines and orange globes take over. 
I look out of my window........or walk up the path
and my heart is happy to see 
their large leaves blown by the breeze ......as if they are waving.......
saying ......."welcome home!"
How about you?
Do you grow vegetables well?.........including corn??
Do you grow decorative plants such as flowers and pumpkins?
I would love to hear!

15 comments:

Recycled Cottage & Garden said...

Here the gardeners will put mineral oil in a squeeze bottle and will squirt a little bit into the shuck around the ear to keep out the moths. I guess they don't like mineral oil but it does seem to work.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

We had a large vegetable garden at our VA home with 5 beds that included beans,tomatoes, zucchini, cukes, butternut squash and corn. We managed to get some edible corn, but had similar problems. So like you we bought fresh corn from local growers.

SmartAlex said...

I've grown corn but it still falls on my list of: Things From The Farm Stand That Are Better Than Mine.

Sherri Farley said...

I plant a few things in pots, kept close to the house. The woods are full of critters so gardening isn't easily done here!

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

I love growing pumpkins for decoration, too. I just didn't have the room this year due to the amount of space that my strawberries took up. I have no corn advice. I lost mine to raccoons one year. I let people grow it who can hide it in the middle of their corn field to outwit the coons. -Jenn

Debbie said...

Your pumpkins and gourds are amazing. I live in the pumpkin growing capital in the Midwest, much is sold for canned pie filling. The corn here is 6-8 ft tall right now. You are so right about the prices! I always cringe about spending so much for perishable decor, but our apple orchard is a little more considerate in pricing. My gardens aren't large enough to support all those vines and I have too much shade. I hope to one day have a larger sunnier yard when we retire and I have some help. ;)

StitchinByTheLake said...

I'd love to grow pumpkins - maybe next year I'll try that! I grow herbs....I dehydrate them and use them a little but mostly I just like growing them. :) blessings, marlene

Granny Marigold said...

How disappointing about your corn efforts. But, you grow the most amazing pumpkins and gourds!! My yard is quite shaded by big old evergreens so I grow lettuce, which doesn't mind a bit of shade, and tomatoes and green beans in the few areas that get sun. Otherwise it's all about flowers.

Sally said...

You might not be able to grow corn, but you make it up with all the wonderful things in your garden! I don't grow vegetables mainly because the grasshoppers love to eat my flowers so I figure they'd like veggies also. They aren't picky about what to attack. The first year hear, every the got us, the second year, they left everything alone. Now, this year they're back! ugh

xoxo

Debra said...

We don't grow corn either-it calls all the raccoons to our yard-they always get the corn and we don't! But it's so dry here now that my garden is pitiful. A lot of my flowers are frizzling up, and I may lose some of them....I have a few sad looking tomato plants. I have lots of poppy flowers that I'm letting the seed heads dry for decorations. They are nice and tall, and the seed heads are quite big. No pumpkins though, but maybe next year!

lil red hen said...

Corn ~ what doesn't like it! I've wondered how farmers who raise it as a crop manage to keep critters out of it. My corn, in the garden, was a beautiful, dark green and grew tall and straight. Finally there were tassels and before it could make ears, the weather turned dry, there was a wind storm and it blew down. What few ears there were, didn't have full rows of kernels. This morning, when I was picking tomatoes, I noticed there weren't many ripe ones on the vines and now and then there were traces of partially eaten tomatoes on the ground. We suspect a raccoon was the thief, so tonight we have two traps set and baited with cantaloupe, which they love. Wish me luck!!

Connie said...

We grew corn years ago, but we weren't very successful with it. Your pumpkins and gourds are pretty. Looks like you will have plenty to decorate and use for pie this year!

Elaine/Muddling Through said...

I have grown corn, but our little garden is hardly the place to make it a worthwhile crop. Right now, most of my tomatoes have about given up in the heat. The zinnias are doing well though, this year they are taller than me! Your pumpkins are another crop we don't have room for, so I'll just enjoy seeing yours.

Sue said...

We have tomatoes, peppers and green beans planted. Didn't get to do corn and forgot about pumpkins! Kicking myself now. I love them to decorate with and they are so high to buy! We had such a wet spring that plants had a hard time. Now hot, hot, hot but are occasionally getting rain.

Vickie said...

Hi Kathleen - it is too late to plant some seeds for pumpkins for fall? Someplace I read July 4 or so. It's already getting to the end of July... Sure miss blogging - my priorities have changed towards my granddaughter, and my other two kids are plotting... :)