Corn Out My Ears and In the Front Yard!!!


Corn and squash, great companion plants
I did the craziest thing this year, I planted corn in my front yard.  And not just corn, I planted an organic "corn fence".  This is one of my more outrageous ideas, and it has been the talk of the neighborhood.  We all love it!!!  I have this crazy notion to tie ribbons around sections of it and let it be it's own Fall decoration.
Cinderella squash peaking our from under her leaves.
Front yard gardens are becoming a trend and also a problem in some communities.  I recently read about a family that was charged with a misdemeanor for planting veggies in the front flower beds.  Absurd, if you ask me, but some cities actually have ordinances that state what can and cannot be grown in front yards.  If I get drug off to jail for my corn, I hope that you will all protest for my release and freedom to grow whatever I please in my yard.

From our neighbor's side, you can't even see our house!  Privacy and it's EDIBLE!!!
One of the hundreds of ears of corn...I can't wait to eat some!
I always plant pumpkins and squash in this same spot, since they get along well with corn, I decided to plant them together, and it has become a fun and quirky landscape experiment.  Actually, corn, beans and squash are all wonderful companion plants.  They shade each other, provide support and keep weeds down.  It is a really good way to use a small amount of space to produce a lot of produce.  The only extra work I have had to do beside the occasional weeding, is shake the corn stalks to make sure the row is well pollinated.  Corn grows and pollinates best in a 10 x 10-foot patch, but with the long skinny space I had, I have had give the process a little extra love!  It looks beautiful, it is producing like mad, and I have not heard one complaint except, "why isn't my corn that tall?"!

Heirloom Boston Marrow Squash, just about ready!

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