17 June 2005

Here lie three sisters

RIP.

Our trip down to our little site (why do I keep calling it little when it’s bloody enormous?) on Monday was disheartening. The frosts last week had killed off all but two of my sweetcorn plants and the three pumpkin plants I’d put into the triangular bed. The crispy pumpkin plants were not too worrying as I have loads of other squash seedlings, far more than we will have room for. But the sweetcorn? Well, we were gutted. Gutted in a shrug your shoulders and just get on with it sort of way.

It’s very disappointing because we never used to eat sweetcorn. No, hang on, let me explain. Last year Ben gave us some cobs that he had grown and we were converted. We now eat a lot of it - shop bought and organic, but not a patch on the super fresh delight that was Ben’s gift to us. So we were really looking forward to at least a couple of cobs that we’d grown ourselves. It all looks like something of a pipe dream now. I’ve picked up some more seeds and sowed them yesterday evening, but I’m worried that it’s too late.

I wouldn’t mind, but it does seem a bit unfair to have frost in June, don’t you think? I’ll admit that I’m impatient and I put things in the ground too early, but frost in June? Give me a break!

This also means that my three sisters experiment has come off the rails. All the beans I’d sown next to my corn sedlings have germinated, but as they do not currently have anything to climb up, I’ve had to pull them out. The courgettes are also germinating nicely so I’ve left them to get on with it so that there is something in the bed. If my newly sown corn grows well, then I might sow some late beans, just to see how they get on. It’s just a bloody good job that we have ample amounts of bean plants in the garden at home or else I’d really feel like throwing in the towel.

If Monday was disheartening, yesterday was a big improvement. We went down for a while in the evening and weeded, watered, trimmed and planted until nearly nine o’clock! I also noticed that my broad beans are really going for it. Loads more flowers which the bees are going crazy over and pods emerging. Fantastic.

Back again this evening only to find that the Turk’s Turbans I’d planted have been slug munched. I still have plenty of reserve seedlings but until someone takes down the neon sign above my plot that reads delicious slug food here I’m not sure it’s worth putting them out!

The one very good bit of news is that Owen remembered to pick up some anti-histamines today so when we returned home this evening we did not have extremely itchy eyes or resemble chief mourners at some very moving memorial service.

For my sweetcorn seedlings or Turk’s Turbans, perhaps.

Filed under: Hard labour — Clare @ 7:54 pm