I have so many awesome things to blog about, it all just piles up and gets more and more daunting. My entire life has been my garden the past few months, and happily so. The flowers, the vegetables, and maybe most exciting, the abundance of invertebrates that find their homes here. Who knew?
But something needs to get posted soon, so here’s a quickie. First, here’s a series of four photos looking to the southeast over the main “perennial bed.” Most of what’s here was planted by the previous owners, and they chose plants that are favored by insect pollinators – mostly members of the families Asteraceae and Lamiaceae. I’ve added a few things here and there, but for the most part you can’t see them. Maybe the annual sunflowers and the little trellis of green beans on the right are the most obvious.
April 8
May 20
July 1
July 11
Maybe one of the biggest visual changes to the yard has been my sowing a small plot of corn. I do like sweet corn, but you can’t plant just three or four to feed yourself, and I didn’t envision that I’d be able to put up a big batch in the short window of time that it ripens. So I chose popcorn, the harvesting and preserving of which can be put off until it needs to be done. I measured the area, counted the seed, and found I had just the right space for 70 plants – seven rows of ten plants each. The variety I found is called ‘Glass Gem.’
In each spot I added some amendments – keeping in mind that corn is a “heavy feeder” and that my soil here is relatively poor in nitrogen but naturally rich in potassium and phosphorus.
I sowed them all on May 10, and already in five days the first seedlings were up.
This is what it looked like on May 20.
And here on July 1.
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