Usually, we purchase our fresh corn but this year I decided that I would grow our corn. I did my research to learn how to grow corn in small spaces, prepared my soil, and trotted on down to the farmer's co-op to purchase the right seed for our neck of the woods.
Only a few seeds germinated; puzzled by the poor showing of my corn crop, I decided to fill in with a second planting. Much to my surprise, I found many fragments of chewed up corn kernels all through my garden. My second planting didn't germinate any better than the first. I tried again, with a third failure. It was plain to see that a critter was treating my garden like its personal pantry.
It was clearly a lost cause. I left the 15 corn stalks to do the best they could but corn needs dense and plentiful planting in order to pollinate all the kernels on the cobs, something that wasn't happening in my backyard.
This morning, I picked what we got--not much to show for $5 worth of silver king corn seed and an entire bed of my gardens. I've experienced some other damage in my gardens this year and have a suspicion that my culprit is a raccoon. I'm working on a permanent solution to this problem.
But I think I'm done trying to grow corn. Summer will still be perfect even if I can't grow fresh corn myself.
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