Racing to get everything into the ground

This past week we planted over 2 acres of sweet corn that were kindly donated to us by my good friend Mike Dixon from "Seeds of Life Nursery".  While Jason Wood was planting 50+ acres of field corn we strategically selected the acreage closest to my house for the sweet corn.  The neighboring deer can make short work of sweet corn, so our hope is that my here-to-for useless dogs might be able to ward the corn predators off when they are not napping.  It is notable how very expensive sweet corn is.  It comes in small bags that barely large enough fill to bottom inch of a corn planting bin.  Each bag is $50 and is comparable to opening a bag of chips that contain more air that chips.  Since the corn was planted on Monday we have yet to see any appreciable rain.  In fact we are getting off to a very dry start this Spring which does not bode well for the hotter months to come.

We also laid 8 plastic covered rows, each roughly 200 feet in length for our pumpkins, watermelons and lopes.  Marlo Leafty,  another generous friend, lent us a plastic row layer (I know that is not what it is called) that enabled us to prep the rows in less than an hour that otherwise would have taken a full day and back straining work and shoveling.  The plastic inhibits weeds from taking over the rows so that we grow only what we want.  The cool thing about Marlo's attachment is that it lays down irrigation line in the center of the row at the same time.  Even if the summer is dry we will be able to get the plants the water they need.  Last year we enjoyed Josh's amazing yellow watermelons which were planted on less than 100 feet in our garden.  We should have 5 times the number of melons this summer.

For those of you less knowledgable,(which include me) pumpkins and watermelons spread out and are not susceptible to deer and rabbit damage.  Since there is no need to plant the seeds in the deer protected fenced garden, we have a lot more room for other veggies.  To date; half of the fenced garden is currently planted, the greenhouse has lettuce and spinach ready for picking, the 6 rows of potatoes and sweet potatoes are already sprouting and the 8 rows of Melons and lopes get planted this week.  If all goes well, should quadruple our output from last summer with sweet corn and potatoes added to the mix.

We concluded the week with our first farmers market in downtown Frederick.  It is early in the season but we did pretty well selling mushrooms and spinach for about $250.  It is a start.

                                           

Jason with the little $50 bags of sweet corn

                                           Plastic covering attachment for the melons and pumpkins