Fall Garden

This year we dug up a patch of garden in the back yard, and planted cucmbers,yellow and zucchini squash, peppers, lettuce, carrots, and corn. In the end, most of the zucchini was a no-show (not that I mind), though we did get some of the yellow squash. The cucumbers tried to take over the whole patch, and did yield several nice specimens — more than we could consume, in fact. The lettuce and carrots eventually emerged after several weeks of dormancy, and a few pepper plants have even appeared (after I went ahead and dropped in a few store-bought seedlings).

The most fascinating to me has been the corn. Early on, heavy rainstorms threatened to kill it, nearly flattening the young plants. I kept propping them up, watering and feeding them, and fighting off the pests that seemed determined to gobble them up.

I was also warned that it is very difficult to get a handful of corn plants to bear fruit, because they don't pollinate each other as well as a whole field does. But I found a gardener online who explained how to manually pollinate corn(!). It was a fascinating experience, daily monitoring the plants, gathering the tassles, collecting pollen, and applying it to the silks. In a short time I gained a little education in the complex workings of just one of God's creations, and participated in the process myself.

At this writing I've just harvested my first three ears, and dutifully iced them down. We'll soon steam them and get an idea of what "Texas Backyard Sweet Corn" tastes like. If the weather holds, later on we may get to enjoy some peppers, lettuce, carrots and tomatoes (added later).