"the cornfield" before and after

I would like to share a before and after but winter has descended upon Minnesota so some of the after is not going to happen until spring.  This post will have to be a before and during.

I live on 11 acres in rural Minnesota.  When we move here the farmsite where I live was a working farm.  Then for a while it was a rural residence, a small house, a big yard, some outbuildings and a few animals.  I lived here but worked in town.   Now I work from home and the farm is becoming a hobby farm.  Over the past couple years a lot of changes have happened to this little farm and to the farmer, me, who is undergoing her own metamorphosis, but this post is about the new garden affectionately called "the cornfield". 

October 29, 2012

This is a patch of what used to be grass.  We decided to make a garden here and my brother-in-law came over with his tractor and ripper and broke ground for the new garden.  It would sit this way until spring.

I have had a small vegetable garden, a potager with raised beds, up near the house.  The potager did not allow for the growing of crops that take up a lot of room so this new garden would allow me to grow sweetcorn and vine crops like melons and squashes and pumpkin.  And tomatoes.  Lots of tomatoes.

May 29, 2013

In the spring we tilled up the soil and began laying out the garden.  The garden measured 40 feet by 120 feet.  The south half would be laid out in permanent raised rows and the north half would be the cornfield.  Our cool wet spring did not allow for getting in the garden early.  Some of the raised rows were installed in the spring but others would be done when the crop season was over.

To make the raised rows I first dug a trench.  In the bottom of the trench I placed a layer of straw to help conserve moisture.  On top of the straw I placed a layer of compost.  I compost the animal manure and bedding from the barn along with kitchen scraps and garden waste.  Then I replaced the soil from the trench leaving a raised mound to plant in.

The trench

straw in the bottom of the trench

compost on top of the straw

soil on top of the compost

ready to plant, grass clippings mulch both sides of the row

Once the raised rows were created grass clippings, and later fallen leaves, were used as mulch between the rows to make permanent walking spaces.  I was only able to get some of the raised rows made in the spring with the plan being that the whole garden would be planted and then once the crops come out in the fall the remainder of the rows would be built as part of the fall end of the season clean up.

a few photos of the garden in production:

potatoes

tomatoes

sweetcorn

In the fall as the crops came out I planted oats as a cover crop in the rows that were already raised and continued to build more raised rows.

I put in wood posts along the center marking every fifth row. 

I plan to number the rows so that I can keep records of what was grown in each row each year to aid with crop rotation.

As you can see in this picture I ran out of fall weather before I ran out of garden so there will still need to be a few raised rows built in the spring.  The ones that were finished this year will just need the cover crop turned over and a layer of compost added in the spring and they will be ready to plant.

Raised row inspiration came from here.

My first ever post joining Susan at Between Naps On The Porch.

update on the fall cleanup

I decided--just as it was getting dark--to run out to the cornfield to get quick picture or two to show the progress on the fall cleanup in the cornfield.  The pictures are a little dark partly due to the late hour but also it is a dreary, drizzly, foggy day.  I have been working to finish harvesting the crops, remove the dead plant material, build raised rows where they didn't get built last spring and plant a cover crop.  It is likely too late to get consistent germination of the oats yet this fall but hopefully having them in place now when the weather warms up in the spring they will start to grow and the garden will still benefit.

In the top picture you can see most of the garden.  Where you can barely make out the small black fencepost along the left edge of the picture is where the last two rows of potatoes are waiting to be dug.  That is all that is left to be harvested from this garden. 

You can see the posts that I have been putting in the ground down the center of the garden.  These will serve multiple purposes.  I have placed them every five rows.  I will put house numbers on them so that I can have a little easier time telling which row is which.  I also will mount sprinklers on top of them with a hose that reaches to the edge of the garden.  I can then hook up my long hose without dragging it through the plants.  I also plant to string wire between some of the posts to make some support for raspberry plantings.

The couple orange areas near the bottom right of the photo is leaves that are placed between the rows in the permanent walkways.  Other places I have used grass clippings but at this point i am using what is available.  We have lots of leaves.   

In the bottom picture you can see two green rows and these are the oats that were planted a while back. They are about four inches tall and so far there are only four or five rows that got planted early enough to germinate.  these rows have the grass clippings between them.  At this point there are 25 rows that are completed.  That is counting the the potato rows as done and I am estimating that there is room for another eight or ten rows on the far west end that i hope to get finished before the snow flies.  Getting them done this fall will sure save time in the spring.  They should just require a quick turn over of the cover crop, a little compost mixed in and ready for plants. 

In the back of both pictures you can see the stalks from the sweet corn still standing.  I am still hopeful that those will be dug out yet this fall. 

fall cleanup

It has been cool and wet lately making it challenging to get what I want to get done in the gardens.  Today I worked on removing the frost damaged tomato plants.  The heirlooms were the hardest hit so I am pulling out the plants and sowing a cover crop in the rows.  I am not sure if it is too cold and wet for the oats to germinate but I am thinking if they don't come this fall perhaps they will grow in the early spring.  The ten day forecast looks like 40's or near 40's most days for highs but some nights dropping into the high 20s.

I have been happy with the paste tomatoes and the Brandywines.  The plants are huge and the root systems are great.  There were enough red and reddish tomatoes still on the plants to fill a good sized laundry basket half full.  I guess I am not done canning yet.  Just about put away all the big pots and canning equipment.

The cherry tomatoes are still in pretty good shape and we are trying to rescue as many as possible while they are still producing.  They are another variety that I have been pleased with this year.  I am planning to save seed from these varieties and see if I can grow some in the spring again for next summer's garden.  What I will do differently is a better job of staking or caging them and to not plant them in adjacent rows.  I am planning to do a lot of research and planning this fall to incorporate changes and see if we can find a way to make it a little easier to harvest the tomatoes.

The big beef tomatoes were great.  The fruit was great tasting, did not have a lot of trouble with bugs and was nice sized except for the last of the season which were smaller.  They were tied to a fence and did really well.  The fence seemed to be tall enough and plants on both sides worked out pretty well.    I would do that again.  The indeterminate tomatoes tipped over the cages so I think that i will look at doing a taller fence for them.  Even the larger diameter cages did not support enough of the plant. 

Once the tomatoes are done I still have the potatoes and sweet potatoes to dig and then those rows need to raised.  Hopefully the weather will hang on long enough to get that done.  Other projects include digging up the sweet corn stalks and stacking them and pulling up the rest of the vines and the fallen fruit.  And then there is the potager...

a couple of firsts

Today it was drier than I expected.  We have had three inches of rain within the last week and yesterday the cornfield was muddy.  Today, the top of the soil was dry and it allowed me to really try out my new garden tool.  Thank you, Nikole!!

My new tool is called a stirrup hoe and it looks like a red stirrup and it has a little bit of swivel to it and it cuts on the push and the pull in order to cover a lot of ground quickly.  It doesn't work too well on mud but I have been trying it every day waiting for the right conditions and today was  the day.  I used it in the cornfield in the Johnny corn and it worked great.  I mostly cut with in on the pull, partly because I would forget to push and partly because my weeds were mostly grass and it got under the roots  better on the pull.  I did try pushing and on small broad leaf weeds it worked great.

The other 'first' today was that I watered the cornfield with the new water system.  I needed four hoses to get to the far end of the field.  I did both some watering with the hose and some with the sprinkler.  I ended up with some hassles dragging the hose up and down the rows.  I was concerned about plant damage from the hose as I moved in and out of the rows.  There may be a solution to that if I give it some thought.  There would be less potential for damage if I used the sprinkler so that might end up being the method that I eventually settle on.

Boy have the weeds been loving this weather.  Everywhere I look there is weeding to do.  That will be my agenda for the weekend.  As I get done I will try to post pictures.  I am not too excited about showing off my weeds.

look at this poor little zucchini...

And there are four more just like it.

The flowers are almost bigger than the plant.  We had a half inch of rain during the night and things are looking a little perkier in the cornfield. I don't think that watering is quite the same as a nice rain shower so it was nice to have a little help from mother nature.

Tomorrow the plan is to get some measurements to get water through the grove so that we can use a hose to water.  I don't think that we will find a portable tank.  The two options that are being considered are a hose or lengths of pvc glued together that would lay through the grove and hoses would be attached at each end to get to the faucet on the east end and to a sprinkler or wand on the west end.  Mom and Dad are coming out and we are going to check out our hose supply and see if we can come up with a solution.  Carrying water was doable but very putzy.

Just as an update I think that I am done planting corn.  We currently have with the two varieties 42  planted rows that 20 feet long and 40 seeds planted in each row.  It is last years seed so we can expect some loss in germination rate but still hoping for enough to eat, share and freeze. And maybe sell some.  It would be nice to have enough sales to pay the expenses like seeds, seed starting mix and containers and the additional utility costs for the greenhouse.

I have a couple small spaces yet that are not planted which could be succession plantings.  I have planted a row of carrots, a row of cilantro ad a row of kohlrabi mixed with radish.  They are planted along side the melon patch.  I think I have space to make three more raised rows that can then be planted.  I will have to inventory my seed stash and see what i have left.

watering the cornfield

Well, we didn't get the rain that was predicted on Friday so on Saturday I hauled water to the cornfield to water.  The little green wagon that pulls behind the lawn mower holds 8 cat litter boxes and I think that I made six trips.  I got all of the south half and the melon patch done and half of the Johnny's sweet corn.  I am still considering laying a hose through the grove to allow for easier watering.  I may have to get some measurements to see what I have for hose and how wide the grove is.  I am not sure how easy it will be to drag that much hose to the end of the cornfield. 

The weed situation is pretty grim.  With all the moisture that we have had the lawn and the weeds are flourishing. I did weed the orchard, rhubarb, blueberries, asparagus and black raspberries.  There were two holes in the row of asparagus and the two new transplants that were grown for those spots are now planted and everything got a drink of water.  There were a few blossoms on one variety of blueberry and lots of blossoms on the raspberries. 

I am noticing that there are blossoms on the older growth of raspberries (what we planted last year). There is also lots of new growth coming which is not flowering yet.  Perhaps it will not flower until next year.  I will have to note where the fruit comes and then make note what to prune.  These plants are transplants from those that have grown wild on the edges of the grove so we do not know what variety they were. 

The grape plants got weeded and watered but I still have to weed the patio stones under the arbor.  All four of the grape vines are getting lots of little baby grapes.

I have lots of weeding left to do in the flower beds so that will be on the agenda for this week as well as planting the rest of the sweet corn.  It will be interesting to see if there is a benefit come harvest to staggering the plantings of the corn.   

Took Sunday off to go to the lake for Father's Day.  The mosquitoes were thick by the time we got back to the farm so there was no chance for evening weeding.  I did harvest a few radishes and made some kale chips to take along to the lake. 

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

cornfield and greenhouse updates

Yesterday was a nice day for working outside and I was able to get a few more rows in the cornfield.  Today rain is predicted for this evening and we have had a couple spits and sputters during the day but not a measurable amount.  It has been cloudy which has helped to keep the greenhouse from overheating.  The greens are bolting and going to seed so they are about done.  I am trying to get the transplants in the garden as quickly as possible.  It will be nice to be able to shut down the fan, clean up the potting equipment and empty and store the water containers.  I think I will use the water to moisten the nearby compost piles.  Rain is predicted for tonight and if we don't get too much I hope to get the rest of the transplants in the ground tomorrow.  If we do get rain then it will hopefully be Monday or Tuesday.  Mostly there is just the Amish paste tomatoes left along with a few other miscellaneous things.  The majority has gotten in the past few days.

The cornfield is a long rectangle that runs 40 feet from north to south and 125 feet from east to west.  it is divided into a northern 20x125 foot part that will be for sweet corn.  This year we have two varieties of corn left over from last year to use up and that will fill up most of the space but beginning next year half of that space will be corn and the other half will be vine crops like pumpkins, melons and squashes.  These two crops will rotate between the east side and the west side of this space.  Our corn will be in 20 foot rows that run north and south.  This year we planted 40 seeds per row and our rows have 2 feet between them.  If this spacing works well next year we should be able to have 1000 corn plants in the space allotted for corn.  So far we have planted 18 rows of our Johnny's corn.  We also have some Dekalb corn that was shared with us by a friend and that will go on the other end.  That is yet to be planted.  There are some melons planted next to the Johnny's which will provide a buffer between the two varieties.

The south half of the garden will be gradually established for permanent raised rows.  The raised rows will be 18 inches wide and 20 feet long with 24 inch walkways between them.  So far I have built 7 raised rows and hope to get a few more done this spring and more yet done this fall as the crops come out.  I am using grass clippings to mulch the walkways.  So far with the grass growing like crazy, there have been clippings to use.  I have also been gifted some grass clippings so thanks Lisa and Grant.  I appreciate both of your donations. 

I started building the raised rows at the east end.  This is what i have in the ground so far:

Row 1:  Empty-will likely be bush beans from seeds.
Row 2: Sweet potatoes
Row 3: Big beef tomatoes- 16 plants
Row 4: Sweet potatoes
Row 5: Second planting of pototoes
Row 6: Second planting of potatoes
Row 7: First planting of potatoes
Row 8: First planting of potatoes
Row: 9 First planting of potatoes
Row 10: Cherry tomatoes- 8 plants
Row 11: Cherry tomatoes- 9 plants
Row 12: Pole type beans
Row 13: Cucumbers- lemon cucumbers on one side, three different Johnny's on the other
Row 14: Brandywine tomatoes- 9 plants
Row 15: Brandywine tomatoes -10 plants

Currently rows 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are raised rows.  Rows 16 and 17 will be the Amish Paste tomatoes and they will be raised rows.  There is about a 25 foot wide section where rows 16 and 17 will go and I am hoping to make the rest of that into raised rows and have later plantings either from seed or more transplants.  If I start the transplants soon they might be up by the time I am ready for them.

Beginning on the west end of the south portion I have planted hills of pumpkins and winter and summer squashes and then some rows of vine crops.

So far:
12 hills of acorn squash
4 hills of yellow summer squash
10 hills of pumpkins
7 hills of butternut squash
5 hills of zucchini
4 dill plants
1 row of Halona Cantaloupe 9 plants
I row of butternut squash 9 plants
1 row of Maverick Muskmelons 10 plants
1 row of Vine Peach Cantaloupe 8 plants.
the last row contains 4 mystery plants (forgot to write down what seeds were planted) and 1 hill of a cantaloupe, variety uncertain.

The melon patch between the two corn varieties has:

4 hills of Maverick muskmelons
3 hills of yellow watermelon- Lisa's saved seeds
4 hills of Vine Peach cantaloupe
3 hills of red watermelon
1 row of red watermelon- 13 plants

What is left to do:
Build raised rows for the Amish pastes and get them in the ground.
Plant the rest of the sweet corn.
plant a few more seeds or start transplants.

Update:  Found my sticky and the mystery plants are yellow watermelons.  Yea! Thinking the cantaloupe in the same row is a Halona.  will have to check it out when the the fruit comes.

some of the sweet corn goes in

On Friday I had a chance to plant a few rows of the Johnny's sweet corn.  I laid out the stakes for the rest of the crop and then transplanted some melon to the west of the corn.

On Saturday I had wonderful help from Nikole and Michelle and we were able to get the rest of the Johnny's planted.  We have 18 rows, each with 40 seeds per row.  This was corn seed that was purchased for last year.  We also have some other seed from last year and once I get more of the transplants in I will be adding that corn to the other end of the field.  I am hoping that it will be at least as much. 

We were also able to get the rest of the sweet potato slips in the ground.

While we were planting Nathan was modifying the discharge hose for the sump pump in the well hole.  Now all three of our sump pumps have rigid PVC pipes to lift the water.  Thanks kids for great help. 

racing the storm

So the weather channel online was predicting a storm for this afternoon and we decided to try to run the tiller back through the cornfield ahead of the rain.  Dad shows up after breakfast and it is thundering but no rain.  He begins tilling and the weather is getting darker and darker and the thunder continues.  Pretty soon we are hurrying to get done before the rain comes.  Here is a picture finishing the last pass.

And heading for the shed.

And then a few minutes later there was this.

And this.

I am sure that we had an inch of rain and a couple rounds of tiny hail.  We tucked the truck in the shed and waited out the storm.  Glad to have the tilling done.  Now as soon as it dries out a little the sweet corn goes in!

cornfield update

I spent some time today in the cornfield.  It was really too muddy to do much planting but I was able to spread the grass clippings that I had collected between a few rows and lay out some stakes to mark planned rows.  I did plant about half of the sweet potato slips.  They were looking pretty wilted, as the directions said they might.  I decided to chance putting them in the too wet soil and have the rest standing in water hoping to revive them and plant them when the ground dries out a bit.  Hopefully both groups will do well.

Two of the three rows of potatoes that were planted on May 7 are up nicely.  The third is coming but a little slower.  These were gift potatoes from my sister and were of a couple different varieties that were mixed up and they were planted without sorting for variety.  It is possible that there is a difference between varieties.  The potatoes in the potager are also up in both towers and some of those came up earlier than the others as well.  I have more to plant.

Our apple trees our blossoming.  Both are full of blooms.  This is the first year that we have had blossoms and I am hoping that means we will get some fruit.  Last year we lost our blossoms to a later frost and had no fruit.  I have got my fingers crossed that come fall we will be having some of our own apples. Here are some pictures of the trees in bloom.  the full size apple continues to lean.  It was staked for the first year but last summer I took the stake away.  Looks like I need to put it back.

The dwarf apple

the full size apple

Here is the new pear tree.

And last years pear tree.

And the plum trees.

The plums have had some very tiny white flowers, so maybe they will produce fruit this year as well. In the background you can see my scruffy lawn.  It needs to be cut again at a shorter setting.  I had to raise the deck up because it was just to long to cut but it did leave me with some grass clippings to collect and

a greenhouse evening

It was still cloudy and wet out today so there was not much to be done outside.  All of a sudden parts of the lawn are looking shaggy and there soil is too wet for any gardening activities.  It was a good time to put in a little time with the seedlings.  I have a bunch of seeds that were planted late in April, maybe two weeks ago that will be transplanted into the corn field when it is warmer out.  They are only a couple weeks old but already the roots are growing out the bottom of the seed cells so it is time to get them in a bigger pot.  When I seeded the cells for the melons and squashes I seeded some as singles and some with two or three seeds in a pot.  The singles will be planted in rows and the multiples will be planted in hills.  The multiples were the most crowded and so they were transplanted from a 2 inch cell to a red solo cup.  Here are the rows of transplanted cups.  the smaller white cups in the middle are the brandywine and big beef tomatoes.  The acorn squashes are in the front and the Pumpkins are in the back and the squashes--zucchini, yellow and butternut are in the two rows behind the tomatoes.

Here are more tomatoes, Amish paste on the right and Matt's wild cherry on the left.

Here are a few more seedlings the left box is the inpatiens, they are not growing.   The large round and square containers are the asparagus, the small white cups are Swiss chard and the front box is mostly cucumbers.

Here are the marigolds

And another the greens from the sampler:

Some are starting to try to go to seed but I have been picking the seed heads.  They are tasty.  Much of the kale has been moved outside.  I am hoping that is not a mistake,  It seems a little windy.  The kale in the bigger planters are sitting outside.  One of the gutter planters has been transplanted into the garden.  They never got very big in the confined space in the gutters,  I am curious as to whether or not they will get bigger with lots of room for their roots to spread out.

I started an inventory of the seedlings that are doing well and hopefully will be ready for transplanting in two to three weeks into the gardens.  I think we may have some extras to share.

Last year we got an earlier start on tomatoes.  We started them in two batches the earliest ones intended for pots and the later planting intended to go into the ground.  By the time we had gotten to our last frost date the tomatoes were starting to flower.  We are not gong to be nearly that ready this year. I have started planting some of the tomatoes into big pots.  These will make the trip to the twin cities for Nikole's garden and yard.  Two brandywines:

And a big beef:

There will be more to come over the next few days.

cornfield update

Sunday we had a break in the wet weather so it was a good time to get in a little garden therapy.  I measured the cornfield and put out some stakes to start to lay out a plan.  The growing area is 40 feet deep (north and south direction) and 125 feet long (east and west direction). 

So far I am thinking about dividing the field in half the long way and then dividing the north portion in half crosswise creating two cornfields where I could then rotate each year between the two for corn.  That would give me an area that was 20 feet by 62.5 for corn each year.  If the corn was spaced 12 inches apart in rows 30 inches apart and if my math was correct that should allow for 500 corn plants.  Perhaps the corn could rotate with beans or peas for their nitrogen fixing properties.

I am looking at putting a semipermanent walkway running east and west between the corn plots and the front plot.  It would not be a hard surface but perhaps mulched to keep down the weeds and to reduce soil compaction in the growing spaces.

The front (south) portion could then be used to grow the melons and squashes and pumpkins as well as rows of other crops.   I am planning to try the raised row type of gardening for at least part of the front part perhaps putting in a few rows to see how it works.  In raised rows straw or compost is put on an 18 inch wide band on the soil or in a shallow trench.  This is then covered with soil to create an elevated area where the plants or seeds will go.  The straw helps conserve moisture, the elevated ground dries out and warms up quicker in the spring and the soil amendments only need to be added to the actual growing area, not the space between the rows.  The space between the rows is mulched and becomes a walkway.  The raised rows do not need to be tilled, the soil does not become compacted because it is not walked on.  I am excited to give it a try.   I have a pile of old straw that came off of the well piled here and ready to use.

I have potatoes from Lisa that are ready to plant.  I am expecting sweet potato slips that will go out here and have started lots of seeds in the greenhouse of tender plants that it is still a little cool to plant yet. 

first in the field, corn ground is ready to go

Our new growing spot is affectionately referred to as 'the cornfield'.  It will be where we grow sweet corn and melons and squashes and pumpkins and other crops that need lots of room.  Last fall, Brad,  my brother-in-law and neighbor came over with his tractor and an implement for tillage called a ripper.  He used this implement to disturb the turf that was there.  The spot sat over winter and this spring as soon as it was dry enough Dad ran the tiller over it to break up the clumps and smooth the soil. 

When Dad and Mom met their friends for lunch today Dad said that he reported that "we were the first farmers in the field and the corn ground was ready to go".  The ground looks beautiful.  

Here is dad way down at the west end of 'the cornfield'.  In this picture the ground has been worked once and parts are getting a second pass.  The field is rectangular in shape and Dad spent some time squaring up the edges and making a neat perimeter so that I will be able to mow right up to it.

 This shot is of the one corner that was still a little too wet to work.  A couple days ago there was a big snow drift here.

 Here is Cody supervising. 

 And a few action shots of Dad on the tiller...

Thanks Dad!