You Reap What You Sow - Part 2

Now that Tony has prepared the soil and layed off the rows, he's ready to plant the seed.  Because we plant the same vegetables each year, Tony rotates the garden.  One year he will plant the corn on the upper side, then in the middle and then the lower side.  This keeps the soil from being depleted of nutirients.  The plants draw nutirients from the ground and it is important to also put back in the soil by feritilizing.  Last fall Ashley, Tony's nephew, covered the garden with stable manure.  The ground should be rich and ready for whatever we plant. This year Tony decided to plant the corn on the upper side and the beans in the middle.  It really works well that way because there is a slight incline to the garden and the middle seems to hold water and that's great for growing green beans.

This year, as with every year, we will plant 8 rows of corn, 2 rows of beans and one row of okra.  Tony will use a push planter to plant each seed.  The planter has a disc for each type seed we plant.  And you change the disc so that the seeds will be the proper distance apart.  Even though we always use the right disc, the seeds are sometimes too close together and when we hoe the garden the first time we thin out the plants. 

The first row of corn we planted was silver queen.  And the remaining seven rows are merit sweet.  These are two completly different varities of corn.  Silver queen is not as full or sweet.  It is whiter and does not cut off as well for whole kernel.  The merit corn has alot of starch and is sticky and sweet.  It goes a long way when cutting off.  And it is perfect for eating off the cob.  My personal favorite is merit sweet.  But it is nice to have a change.

Tony and Granny have had a "disagreement" regarding the green beans.  I'm still not sure of what they are talking about.  As I said in Part 1, Granny likes the long skinny pods with the small bean.  Tony said that is what he planted last year and he has the seed.  She doesn't believe him and saved her own seed.  Tony just went along with her and planted her seed!!  We've learned it's just easier to agree with her. 

The last row he planted was okra.  It is a little early to plant okra because it is a hot weather plant.  But, because he had the seed and he's doing his planting later than normal, he planted it anyway.  Okra seeds are very small but the stalks can grow over 6' tall.  We planted the cowhorn okra.  The pods get long and they stay tender.  I love okra...fried, pickled or boiled.