CORN

I love growing corn. It's so earthy and satisfying. When the time is right and the corn is as high as elephant's eye - the kids walk between the rows, pick an ear or two and hunker down on the porch to snack.

For a Minnesota girl, nothing reminds me of home more. Don'tchaknow?

We have this smallish space on the side of our house - my mantra is, 'use every bit of available sun space' - it's maybe 5x5 - if that. And it's really all you need to plant 15 or so corn plants. You can really pack 'em in there - even grow lettuce underneath them as they get taller.

We've grown corn here once before, so I know it can happen. This year, I thought I'd plant in easy compost hills. One bag per row. It's so easy - mound a hill, make a hole, stick a plant in and cover.

Little Manster helped me plant these three rows, but I didn't get it on film. I don't have the skills to plant and shoot. I suspect it would take a mother/farmstress with six hands to manage such a feat.

NOTE - the corn pictured above is new corn I bought. My seedlings didn't survive the strange heat spell of 2010 ..(aka the days I either didn't water them enough or forgot about them entirely)

NOTE 2 - The trick with corn is you need at least 6 plants growing together to make something happen - as in, produce actual ears of corn. You know, the corn plants need to...umm..pollinate and such.

.....I won't go further - this is a family blog.