Maize in its place
Friday, 28 May 2010
In the heat of the afternoon, The Botanist was on a roll, and I helped out. He had shovel-weeded a strip of the midsection of the garden during the morning when I was erranding. So, we made periodic forays into the bright and brilliant sun to plant four (count em’!) rows of sweet corn.
His method is fascinating. First, remove the weeds (duh). Then a quick raking to bust up any clods and remove any plant matter hanging around from the shovel/hoe weed removal. Next, set up a string so you can make a straight row (VERY important). Now, take a hoe and make a narrow trench beneath the string. Drop a kernel (powdered with brilliant fuchsia chemicals) every eight inches or so. Next, the really fun part: water in the seeds, carefully, without letting them get washed down the row (of course, it’s not quite level and drains to the edge, to deal with heavy precip events). Next, grab the hoe and refill the trenchlet, cleverly tromping the soil with your size thirteens (is it critical to have big feet to be an exceptional vegetable gardener?), packing it around the seeds, so they are trapped with the moisture and germinate faster. Do the next row, or retreat to the shade and recover from your labors.
And scare away the robins that are trying to peck at the strawberries!