The corn was massacred today by what could only be classified as a whirling dervish constructed of sand and lime rock. I saw it riding on the wind, tearing down the road and bending all the trees in its path. Not far behind an icy rain followed in it's wake. There was no help for the garden, the tall stalks of corn snapped under the onslaught of sand and the brute force of the storms winds. About 10 of the thickest stalks still stand a sad reminder of what was to be harvested in the next few weeks.
After contacting a number of gardening forums to discuss the best course of action, we found that a broken stalk almost always results in a dead plant. Unlike other plants, corn will not continue to grow or produce once the stalk has taken on damage, so cutting the plants at the break and hoping the plant would regenerate to some extent was a false hope.
So my son and I pulled up the corn stalks that were broken and stripped the leaves from the stalks feeding them to the goats and rabbits. They were thankful for the treat. Then we pulled all of the baby corn ears off the stalks. Many were just little buds and broke as we tried to harvest them but the largest was at least 3 1/2 inches. It was truly sad but we did have enough baby corns harvested that we could add them to a stir fry.
The squash was tossed around and some of the bigger branches also snapped but I am hopeful that as the garden bed dries out many of the plants ( cucumbers, cantaloupe, sugar snap peas etc.) will stand back up and not look as terrible as they did when I came in from watering the animals this evening.
The only other notable thing that happened over the last few days is that a lot of my ducks started laying this week. The mornings collection went from 1-2 eggs to six or more. Exciting stuff.. I think I need another incubator.
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