Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Oh, How the Wind Doth Blow!

We had a wind and rain storm last night that brought us 3/4 of an inch of rain.  The winds were forecast to be up to 40 mph, and I don't know how strong they actually were, but they managed to do a little damage in the garden.


Papa Pea had to make some repairs to the cold frames that had trouble holding their own in the wind.


I think this signals the end of my corn crop for this year.  Matter of fact, I don't think I'll plant corn again next year.  Last year it got flattened twice by wind, and we got zip in the way of a yield from it.  Perhaps Mother Nature is trying to tell me this isn't corn growin' country.  Sigh.

24 comments:

Carolyn said...

Aw, man. Bummer about your corn. Were these the colorful ones?

Mama Pea said...

Carolyn - Yup. :o[

Susan said...

Dang! It's been some year, hasn't it? Keep an open mind as far as corn planting next year - we've got to get a good gardening year once in a while, right? RIGHT? Please say yes...

Sandy Livesay said...

Mamma Pea,

Can you get these corn stalks to stand backup?
One year we propped ours up and they continued to grow.

Tombstone Livestock said...

Hang in there, I heard on the news this morning snow might be coming your way by way of Canada.

Sparkless said...

That's so sad about your corn. Is there no place you can plant it that the wind won't knock it down? Or maybe you can put up some kind of wind break?

Sue said...

Bummer---but you'll keep trying, I just know it.
Northerners have no business growing it, but we keep trying, cuz even if we only get 2 or 12 ears, it's worth it.
Sorry about the blow-down. Hope you were able to salvage some ears.

Liz said...

That had to be a bummer seeing your corn all blown down. We had bad storms last night with lots of wind but thankfully not a lot of damage.

odiie said...

Will it mature laying down? I mean, if the roots are still in the ground?
Next week is supposed to be warmer. If we can just make it through these next three nights....

Lisa said...

We've tried corn going on now 4+ years? One year - wind, one year - deer, most years poor pollination and soil we think...... so, after visiting our local u-pick place last month to remember that we could buy 5 dozen ears of fresh picked that morning Silver Queen corn for $13.50..... we decided then and there we'll not plant corn again. You guys have really had a summer to remember this year.

Mama Pea said...

Susan - I'm sure not swearing off gardening . . . yet . . . but the last few (several?) years have sure thrown some wonky gardening weather at us all!

Mama Pea said...

Sandy - There are too many of them, and too close together, to try to prop them back up. Plus they're fairly heavy with the forming, but immature, ears on them.

Mama Pea said...

Tombstone Livestock - Scary, but true. Thirty miles north of us they had 29° this morning. We had 39°. Brrrrr!

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - I rotate my crops every year so this is a different place for the corn than last year. Believe me, I've wracked my brain trying to think of a windbreak to put up but it would shade too much in the rest of the growing area . . . and be time-consuming (to move every year) and expensive.

Mama Pea said...

Sue - None of it is mature yet as far as harvesting goes. That's another little "problem" of course, especially with our really cold weather forecast in the next few days.

Mama Pea said...

Liz - Well, as they say, there are no failures in gardening. Only experiments!

Mama Pea said...

odiie - That's what I'm hoping for, but have no idea if the ears will mature. Heck, they're gonna have a hard enough time with our "hot" (warmish?) summer growing weather kapoot now!

Mama Pea said...

Lisa - The only organically grown corn on the cob we can obtain around here is that sold at our local co-op for $1 an ear. That's why we've tried to grow our own. Don't know why I keep trying as it takes a big part of the garden and rarely gives us much return. Just fun to try, I guess! :o)

Anonymous said...

Never, NEVER give up! (That's what I keep reminding myself to do, anyway) Corn will come your way again--I promise!-M

Peggi said...

We have pretty high wind here and I was thinking about how to keep the corn and sunflowers up. I took tall T post and put them in the ground at the edge of the patch, at the four corners. I tied laundry line to the posts to go around the patch. It kept the sunflowers from falling. I think when I do corn next year I will do T posts about every 3 ft on both edges and run the line across from one post to the other side. Should help hold them up. Not sure how hard to harvest though.

Mark said...

Now your corn looks like some of mine. Bummer! I was able to scrounge some good ears off the stuff that went down. Our was able to finish up even though it was mostly on the ground. It didn't have far to go, though. Hopefully you'll get some, too.

Mama Pea said...

M - I know this is just my end-of-the-year-I'm-tired thinking! You're probably right; I'll be plotting out my corn patch again next spring!

Mama Pea said...

Peggi - I think you have the best idea of any I've seen/heard of so far! It would require a lot of t-posts and a maze of rope, but I do believe it would work!

Mama Pea said...

Mark - We harvested some ears end of last week, but they weren't mature enough. No frost here yet so there's always hope!