September 15, 2008

Corn!

Last year and this year, I bought and planted a variety of plants, many of which I can't identify now. I'm sort of an eclectic gardener in that I don't have just a few favorites - I like them all - so I try out different plants from year to year. Most of the plants purchased this year were vegetables, and those were planted in our backyard. Thanks to the crazy Colorado climate and our lack of high altitude gardening sense, most of our vegetables did not produce, or produced rather poorly. Our broccoli and Chinese greens bolted too soon, only a couple of tomatoes turned from green to red, and our bean stalks have grown pretty tall but show no evidence of beans. Our Brussels sprouts and bell peppers are looking promising, but we'll have to be very diligent in keeping them warm at night now that the temps are starting to dip.

Our front yard garden is a hodge-podge of various flowers and herbs, but no vegetables, or so we thought. Awhile back, a strange green sprig popped up and Neal kept asking me what it was. He thought it looked a lot like corn, but neither of us had dared attempt to plant corn, especially in the flower garden! As the weeks and months passed by, the plant grew taller and taller and did indeed start to resemble corn. Then one day, Neal noticed one of our resident squirrels burying something in the ground. We regularly feed the squirrels a mix of seeds and corn and it appears one of the little buggers was storing away his corn for the winter - right in the middle of my flower garden. I didn't have the heart to pull it up, so there it stands, waving proudly among the roses, lavender and Dianthus. Too bad it was planted so late in the season and neither us nor the squirrel will benefit from harvesting it. Maybe next year we'll get started a little earlier and intentionally include corn in our plantings!

2 comments:

LiveWorkDream said...

Well, it does make a pretty yard ornament.

I'd be interested in hearing more about your gardening efforts next season, as I know nothing about planting in a climate like yours, and if we end up moving somewhere with a similar climate, I'd sure like to know what I'm doing before I plant.

Lilla said...

Rene,
We are far from pros at gardening, especially in such a high altitude. We're hoping to learn more tips and tricks so that we can produce most of our food when we move out to Westcliffe, which is an even higher altitude than where we are now. I'm thinking a greenhouse is going to be our best bet!

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