kathyp, cool so you are into the vegie gardening too. It is a wonderful thing to do. I'm going to try to get the seed for lemongrass too. Speaking of the squash. Do you grow the blue hubbard winter squash. I haven't tried it, but I bet it is GOOD. What winter squash were you referring to when you talked about it? I love the butternut squash. But even better loved is the spaghetti squash. Curious about why you say you can't grow the summer squashes. How come?
I am not big on the hot peppers, so I don't grow them. My sister loves them. So she grows them. Her preference is plainly the habanero, so she grows them on. I like the sweet bells. I usually always plant the red variety, that way I can have green or red, depending on what I want to be eating.
I used to grow corn. I had a great big corn patch and planted the sh2 (supersweets). I loved the fact that the supersweet held the sugar content intact before converting to starch for so long, even once picked. BUT...
The summer before last must have been an extraordinarily hungry year for our resident bears. They normally do not come around too much in the summertime. But...the corn was almost ready to begin to start harvesting. Well, we actually had probably three meals from the patch. One morning I went outside and looked over at the corn patch. It looked kind of funny. Of course curiosity got this beast and over I went.
Holy mackeral!!!! the damage done to this corn patch overnight was beyond your wildest dreams. Most of the stalks were all knocked over, many stalks ripped out of the ground and just laying over. Whew. I walked around and looked at what the bugger had done. Well, actually, I bet it was a couple of them at least. There was a pile of corn cobs about the size of a garbage can all in one area. It must have sat and just sucked the kernels right off. All the way down the ravine had been made a trail through the underbrush by this monster. The underbrush was all crunched over and all along the trail was a trail of corn stalks.
As I am typing this recount of this occurrence I am sure that many may think that I am embellishing somewhat. But I am not. That put me off growing corn here (for a time). I do not want to invite the bears and that is exactly what I would be doing if I were to plant in the same spot again. It bordered the ravine, so no wonder, it was easy picking for the bears for sure.
So this year I have my yearning for the sweet corn brought back. I am going to change the location and move it to a place that is right beside my daughter's place. The bears will not venture up there because of the dogs' proximity. I don't think that a bear would venture that close to the house. And besides, I haven't grown corn for about 4 years so I am hoping that either the bear that ate the corn has passed on, or forgotten about the sweets he got that night.
Now I grow garlic in that old corn patch. The bear never bothered the garlic (LOL).
My husband is going to build a small greenhouse in the southern part of the garlic patch so I can grow more tomatoes this year. We live in that moist climate wherein the tomatoes get the late season blight, so they generally have to be grown under glass. That is another story in itself.
I can't wait for spring, it is just around the corner. Great day. Cindi