In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
Corn is the noteworthy harvest of the past week. We’ve feasted at dinner five nights. ‘Sugar Pearl’ is a favorite, obtained from Renee’s Garden but also available elsewhere. The thumbnail above shows the last of the first planting and these are the smaller, secondary ears.
Here are a few of the first ears harvested. The catalog description does not overstate its virtues.
Our favorite early white for top eating quality. Sugar Pearl’s fast-growing, vigorous stalks grow just 5 to 5 1/2 feet tall, producing delicious ears of pearly white sweet kernels with that delicate, meltingly tender flavor that characterizes really delicious white corn. Sugar Pearl was bred for specialty and farmers markets where taste is the prime criteria for success. This trouble-free and reliable variety is ideal for short or early season growing, ripening succulent ears before most other white varieties.
No raccoons and no worms with the corn so far this year. No worms I can attribute to mineral oil at first appearance of the silk and weekly sprays of BT to the silk.
I speculated that a haphazard grid of bamboo might deter some well-fed raccoons, which can be the size of small to medium dogs in our ‘hood. To further discourage interest in the corn I sprinkled a horrid smelling mixture of donated peppery spices around the plants. I also doused the bed with Plantskydd granules which has diverted the opossums from making Swiss cheese of our small front lawn. I also used the peppery mix and Plantskydd outside the fence on the alley from whence the critters come. Bird spikes atop the wood fence also make the entry problematic for them.
Perhaps, TMI but we do like our corn and with only a 4 x 8 foot patch, we’d rather share with two-legged friends. The second planting, two weeks later should be ready in a week or so as the 70 day mark approaches.
Only one tomato so far and it didn’t deserve a photo. Several days of this weather last week did not hasten the tomato and pepper crops. I have hopes for some black cherry tomatoes in a week or so and the bell peppers are larger but I’m holding out for red peppers. Corn and beans for drying don’t seem to suffer but the cucumbers have made an early exit.
We get a handful of Emerite pole beans every few days but I’m letting most set seed now. The zucchini yields one or two a day as I remove the powdery mildewed leaves.
The day-neutral Seascape strawberries produce an odd-lot even into September. Though small in number, they are red all through and sweet additions to fruit salads.
A Tropical Storm Hilary “harvest” was a bevy of pine needs from a favorite secluded stone pine tree on a nearby college campus. I find them especially useful for a winter vegetable garden mulch.
These days there are usually a couple bouquets of Red Queen Lime zinnias in the house. I’m enchanted by the color variations and their sweet simplicity.
Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I begin soon to sow seeds for the cool season garden. Then head today to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.
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