Wednesday, May 30, 2007

An Experiment: Growing Corn in Raised Beds


If I pull this one off, I will be absolutely beside myself with glee.

The thought of fresh corn, from my own garden, seems to be on the level of another vegetable gardening stratosphere. So unattainable. But, like any garden junkie, I always think this year will be different.

I did a little research and here is what I am testing out.

In a 5'-wide raised bed, I measured out four rows across - leaving one foot between each. I then planted length-wise (another 5' or so) - again, leaving one foot between each planting. From what I understand, this should take care of the necessary cross-pollination for corn to grow and should work for a hobby-sized planting.

I planted an heirloom variety - Stowell's Evergreen White Corn from Heirloom Acres. Here is what they had to say about this variety, "Introduced in 1848 by Nathan Stowell of New Jersey, this is the king of white sweet corn. Just plain delicious sweet corn taste on 9" ears with 16-20 rows of plump, white kernels. Matures slowly over a long period, extending the harvest. I can't say enough about this one." Yowsa, yowsa, yowsa. Is it August yet?!

I am shamelessly mooning over corn-inspired recipes and thinking about parties centered around fresh shucked and grilled corn.

It's all about the zen visualizations. Sow the corn. Be the corn. Butter the corn. Eat the corn.

And if that doesn't work. Buy the corn. At the market, er, um, down the road.

And revisit and replot next year. As per usual.

5 comments:

Wear Your Wild said...

I've grown Stowell's Evergreen. It's delicious! Good luck with your corn bed. You should have no problem getting corn out of it.
Soon, we'll both be eating corn from the garden!

Steph said...

Good luck with your corn! My daughter really wants to plant some, but I think we will see how the tomatoes and basil do first!

Tracey said...

Thanks, ladies!
Fingers crossed . . .

Unknown said...

Hi Tracey,

I was searching for information regarding planting corn in raised beds. Your blog invited me right in.

We have just created our very first raised bed garden. Our son suggested we put in corn as his friends in ND have done (very successfully).

I'm excited about this project and can't wait to see how things turn out.

Tracey said...

Best of luck, Mrs. D. I'll love to hear how it all turned out!