Three Minute Monday. Ep.18. I Need to Mulch my Sweet Corn.

It's hot, it's hot and bloody dry so I need to get some mulch around my corn to try and maintain a good moisture level so as to get the best from my corn this year.

Sweet Corn is Made of This.

🌽 Well, I missed the three-minute mark by quite a bit but there was a lot I wanted to cover on the no-dig approach. 🌽 Sweet corn likes a few things for a good result. 🌽 Sunshine and heaps of it. 🌽 Water and heaps of it. 🌽 Protection from strong winds 🌽 A rich, well prepared, no dig, organic soil.

Nothing beats rain.

      Over the last three or so weeks we've had more rain than I can remember since March/April last year and the veggie garden is loving it.

Everything is putting on new growth and looking very healthy.

It's a joy just walking around and taking it all in.

Here are a few photos showing the fresh new growth in my 'work' patch.

Cheers

Stewart.

The Chronicle story.

It just goes to show, you never know who's reading these bloggie things.

Yesterday I received an email from an The Chronicle reporter, that's our local newspaper, asking if she could have a chat to me about a story she is putting together about local veggie gardeners.

Seems she put the question to Dr. Google and up came the 'My Veggie Garden' blog.

Anyway, a time was set a chat was had and we're, that's me, the blog and the veggie garden, supposed to be in the paper tomorrow (5/10). You can be sure I'll post a link to the story when I find it and in the mean time I might have to go and do a little house cleaning for the rush of new visitors coming my way.

Sadly for me I have work tomorrow but the good news is I have all day Sunday and Tuesday to get veggie gardening and at this time of the year there's always something to do and plant.

Zucchini, Sweet Corn, Climbing Beans and some Spring Onions for starters will be getting planted along with the regular jobs of weeding, mulching, watering (is it ever going to rain?)

There's two tomato cuttings that have struck and a Gross Lizzy Tomato that need to be planted out as well.

Plenty to do, cheers and happy veggie gardening

Stewart.

Gone in 60 seconds.

 Gone in 60 seconds. The highlight of my veggie growing summer.

Sweet sweet corn.

Mawhahahah. In the pot cooking as I type!!!!

Sweet, Sweet Corn

 Sweet corn, if I'm planting in late October then obviously that makes it a warm weather crop.
I'm planing on planting four monthly crops of nine or ten plants, which will make early February my last planting but should leave me enough warm weather to finish off the crop.

Sweet corn is also a hungry plant as in it likes plenty of water and a rich well fertilized and well drained soil at planting time and additional fertilizer, applied in my case at monthly intervial until all the corn cobs have been eaten.

Talking about eating when it comes to reaping the rewards of home grown produce then sweet corn is right up there. When it comes time for me to cook my corn I usually have the water boiling on the stove before I go and pick what I want to eat. I also remember an episode of M.A.S.H. where Col. Potter was talking getting back home an his idea was to somehow peel back the skin off the corn and just lean the plant over and dip the corn cob into the boiling water. Now that's fresh.

The photo on the left shows a roughly one meter square area that I prepared for the corn I used a bucket of aged compost and a half bucket of Searl's 5 in 1. I also used two hundred grams of Organic Xtra, an organic fertilizer I've been using with some good results.

I usually grow my corn from seed sown direct where it is to be grown but I've had a late start to the growing season therefore I bought a punnet of corn in order to catch up four of five weeks. The next crop will be planted from seed.


Organic Xtra blends the proven properties of

• composted manure
• blood and bone
• feather and fish meal
• seaweed
• natural minerals
• and Sulphate of Potash.

Ta-dah, the finished product. Watered in with a fish and seaweed liquid fertilizer (told you they were a hungry plant) I'll mulch with some straw after I get the first lot of weeds out, fish and seaweed liquid fertilize every week or two plus another one hundred grams of Organic extra at the beginning of each month.

Have I missed anything?I think I've covered it all.

Cheers and happy Sweet Corn to you

Stewart.

Highly recommended #1

Planting corn after broad beans.

I read about planting corn in between broad beans early last year and decided to give it a go.

Having never grown broad beans before I wasn't sure what to expect so I prepared the soil with aged horse manure and compost and planted the beans which grew really well and gave me a nice crop of broad beans.

Next after the broad beans were finished I removed the above ground parts and left the nitrogen rich roots in place.
I didn't turn the soil I just loosened it a bit and planted my corn seed directly into the soil between where the beans plants were and after 3 mts my corn is ready and probably the healthiest crop I've ever grown.

Now I used corn here because it is a high user of nitrogen which the broad beans seem exceptionally good at fixing to their roots and as they say the proof is in the eating(pudding)

Post Christmas Post. 2.

Boxing Day
Mid morning munchies don't come any better than freshly picked and cooked corn.














Just out of the husk

















Just out of the pot. Was hoping to capture the steam coming off the corn but it's nice and hot just ready for the butter.














These are just a collection of tomato's I'm picking atm.
The yellow is the Beams Yellow I planted way back in Sepetember and is still growing and producing.

The medium red cherry toms are the Tiny Toms planted about the same time and if you are stuck for space then I highly recommend these guys. They would definitely do well as a potted plant.

The teeny weeny little red toms are just a self sown cherry tom but taste just as great.

After the rain

Butter beans that need a bit more buttering up yet.
















Growing up the mesh is a cucumber and to the right is a rogue pumpkin and somewhere in between a not very noticeable eggplant.















This is the real corn as opposed to the baby/pop corn. Flowering well so it shouldn't be long before I'm eating fresh sweet corn

Potatoes in the foreground are lovin' the rain.












This is my roma Tomato San Marzano stand that I'll use for sauce and relish and whatever else I can think of (jam). I have a book here devoted to cooking with tomato's.











My beam's yellow tomato I planted on the 10th of September

Now, at least 7 feet tall and full of fruit.












My climbing beans now 3 weeks old and going gang busters.

"Gang Busters (Wikipeda)was an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered as G-Men, sponsored by Chevrolet, on July 20, 1935".







Remember these guys. (2/10/08)














And now. Whoo who. Chips, Baked spuds, mashed potato, hash browns, potato bake, potato salad, ooh I can hardly wait.

Q. Why did everyone leave the party?

A. Because there wasn't mushroom.


Some idea of how much rain/dampness we are getting along with overcast skies and the odd shower is that I have mushrooms growing wild in my backyard.
I'm a complete void when it comes to mushroom knowledge and have no idea if I can eat them or not, but they sure look tempting.













Q. Why was the mushroom invited to the party.

A. Because they heard he was a fungi. (fun guy)

















Guess who's lovin' the rain apart from me.

That's right it's my baby/pop corn and I swear it's growin' overnight.

Almost better, "cuplla days".

Hi all,
Well I'm nearly alive again.
I have managed to do some much needed watering and a little bit of weeding. Still a bit on the week side of things but I am improving each day.
I'm hoping to get some climbing beans planted out before the end of the week plus catch up on some progressive planting of lettuce and butter beans.
I'm also happy to see my Magic Bean mix and my pop/baby corn have sprouted and are making nice growth.
Everything else is doing well despite a week and a half of neglect.
Scotty is still at the machine shop getting his head read. So far the valves are ok but he might need new valve guides. Oh well, there goes the long weekend.

Beautiful mid spring day

Beautiful mid spring day here, cool easterly breeze fine sunny day not to hot and not to cold, just right said Goldilocks, I just cant help myself but go outside and work myself stupid.

Just some up dates and progress reports.
This is the tiny tom I'm trying, it is growing vigorously atm which is all I can hope for.

I mulched them this morning as well as my egg plants and watermelon I planted the other day.
The rain we had during the week was excellent, but there is still dry patched here and there when I dig somewhere to plant something. 70-80 mls of soaking rain over a week would be terrific but that hasn't happened around here since Noah was a boy.

I prepared a small area for my baby sweet corn which if I let mature I can use for pop corn as well so I'll plant them this arvo.






Most of my silverbeet is in it's second year and is now bolting to seed. I save some and see if I can grow more from my own seed.













The first of my sugar loaf cabbage is starting to form heads so it wont be long now.


















My potatoes are growing like mad. The King Edwards at the back are flowering and look absolutely divine.










My first planting of sweet corn is doing nicely as is the extra seed potatoes I planted that wouldn't fit in the main potato bed.













Last but not least is the globe artichoke with it yummy flower heads about half formed.

More veggie garden adventures

Ok Lots to catch up on.
Firstly on Wednesday I planted some butternut pumpkin and some Sugar Baby watermelon into little 5" pots on account their bed is not ready for direct planting.
Then I potted on four seedlings of capsicum so as they can get a little more established before I plant then into their final growing position.


Corn I planted on 8/9/08 was ready to be planted and was dispatched to the prepared corn bed.

Two more lettuce seedlings were planted to continue their successive planting.
















Now you see it











Now you don't.

Peas were pretty much spent so out they go to make room for more sweet corn. Just need to add some compost aged manure and blood bone turn it over and away I go.









I did get a nice basket full before they came out.

Damn fine weather, but

Damn fine weather, but it's fairly warm and humid which is playing havoc with my peas. Cool misty nights and warm humid days are a perfect recipe for powdery mildew which I'll have to attend to.
Here's a photo of my tiny tom tomato's I transplanted today. They only just have their first set of true leaves on so I have put them into pots to grow on before I plant them into the garden proper..
I had a productive morning mulching/weeding and watering. I also planted this seasons first row of beans plus another two foot row of carrots.
The Sweet corn I planted has sprouted and a few more Chilli have come up.
I also planted another two cabbage in my secession planting goal. At the moment I should be able to have cabbage when I want it for the next three months without having any excess or waste.
Cheery bye.

Pak Choi

Here's a photo of the Pak Choi I mentioned earlier. It was only last Monday I planted the seed.

Today I finished preparation for the Sweet Corn by adding compost and blood and bone. Seen as corn is just an overgrown grass I don't mind having a very fertile soil to plant in. It will also be given a good regular dose of Charlie Carp as it Grows.

Also prepared two areas for Cucumbers with Blood and bone and compost and dropped four seed into each site. They are planted close to a wire mesh fence so I can train them to grow vertically.
They are Cucumber 'Crystal Apple' and Cucumber 'Marketmore'.

Today

My wife commandeered me today for some car repairs but, I managed to get some seed planting done.
Sweet corn Snow Gold Bicolour F1 x 10
Pak Choi x 6
Broccoli Italian Sprouting x 2
Cabbage Sugarloaf x 2
Tomato San Marzano x 6
Lettuce Iceberg x 6
Celery Green Crunch x 6
Basil Sweet Genovese x 6