I GROW SWEET CORN BECAUSE . . . SO MANY REASONS
Conventional Wisdom is Wrong!
Conventional garden wisdom holds that sweet corn isn’t worth planting in a backyard garden. The reasons given are that it takes up too much space, that pollination is poor from small, backyard plantings, and that it’is relatively inexpensive and of high quality from markets and farm stands. I take issue with the conventional “wisdom” on all counts.
A ROCKET FOR YOUR GARDEN
And a Welcome Dame
There’s a rocket in my garden, and it’s not in the sky. The rocket? It’s dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis). Individual plants are ho-hum, but these plants like to congregate. Here on the farmden and beyond, dame’s rocket is now blanketing the dappled shade of woodlands and roadsides with its white, mauve, or purple flowers. In mass, they will bowl you over with their sweet scent, especially pervasive on late spring and early summer evenings.
MAY I BORROW YOUR LANDSCAPE?
No Work Garden Expansion
If you’re feeling that your garden or yard is too small, you can expand your horizons without buying another square inch of property, without even much work. Just borrow some landscape.
“Borrowed landscape” originally appeared in the 17th century Chinese garden treatise Yuanye; the technique was borrowed by the Japanese and shakkei, as borrowed landscape is known, has been frquently used in their gardens. But it can be employed in any garden style.
The idea is to incorporate some elements of the surrounding landscape into your landscape to create the feeling of greater space within your garden. You could reap a feeling of infinite space if that distant element is a mountain or ocean that stretches all the way out to the horizon. Read more
