Corn

It's been a dry August so far. Knowing the corn would soon be ripe, I began watering the corn every other day last Sunday in an effort to get the kernel size up.

I picked the first ears tonight, and the effort seems to have paid off. In most of the ears, the kernels were big and juicy, although a little more starchy than I had hoped. I'm not sure if I waited a few days too long to pick, or if it's just the variety of seed I used.

The corn is not the only plant happy for the water. The zinnias are doing exceptionally well this summer with plenty of long-lasting blooms and very little mildew to date.

I did learn by observing my neighbor's zinnias that I may have been able to get larger blooms had I spaced the plants a little further apart. I guess I'll be a little more brutal when I thin seedlings next year.


The dry August also has the pumpkin and squash vines turning yellow and drying up. We already have some small, orange pumpkins, but we also have a few other bigger ones still growing on the vine. It's getting easier to count the squash, including these two young acorns that have a few more months to go.