Planting corn into the vegetable garden is always one of the very first tasks that I need to complete in the summer garden. Though my last frost date has not technically passed, the forecast looks great until the actual date – so I’m going for it! This year, I’ll be planting several types of corn in a small space. This is not ideal. Since corn is pollinated by wind, there is no doubt that the corn types will cross pollinate if they happen to be dropping pollen at the same time. To try to avoid this, I picked a couple different types that mature at different times. Hopefully, there won’t be too much interference.
First, we’ll need to discuss the growing space. The only space available in my yard for corn is a very wet and soggy patch of clay. As you can tell, the water table gets very high in this location, despite the fact that I have added an enormous amount of compost. I’m planting directly after a rain storm – hence, the muddy foot prints. I think this might be a crawdad hole – I’m not entirely sure.
I’ll be planting popcorn, sweet corn, and dent corn in this small space. Even though I ordered seed from a couple different locations, a few of the packets only had about 10 seeds in it. Bummer! In the case of the popcorn, I had decided that the best course of action would be to start the seeds in a tray and then transplant them into the garden once they’ve gotten large enough. Also in this tray is the luffa plants. Those will be planted on a trellis later in the season.
The variety of sweet corn that I’m planting this year is an early bicolor corn called ‘Bon Jour’. Even though I don’t have enough space, I really love growing corn. Sweet corn is especially nice during the hottest part of summer – and I absolutely love throwing the delicious ears onto the BBQ grill! The other variety that I’m growing is called ‘Daymon Morgan Kentucky Rainbow’. It’s a type of dent corn from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I absolutely love growing this corn – last year it was 14 ft. tall!
That’s really about it for this post. Do you grow sweet corn? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below! I hope you’re having a great day!
So I’m curious, how did it work with growing all three types? I’m considering trying the same and wondered how it went for you?