By Arnold Krusemark As mentioned last week one of the first things we look for is the appearance of our new gardening catalogues. And then to look through them. Most catalogues include garden vegetables, flowers (including some bushes), and sometimes trees. Then we glance through what’s new. Nearly every year there are a few new varieties of some things. Nearly every year there is at least one new hybrid sweet corn. Might be worth a good try to buy a pack of the latest and maybe some other packs too. We should mention with new varieties of anything the nursery stock may be limited so if you want new things order early when they still have stock. With hybrid sweet corn the newest usually is listed as sweeter and sometimes more resistant to garden problems.
When planting, be sure to plant the same hybrid in at least two rows and give the garden several rows of space before planting different hybrids. If you have a big enough garden then you can plant sweet corn in several patches from smaller early varieties to late bearing. That will give you sweet corn through the season.
In our family, Father always had some field corn which was very late bearing silo corn. This writer can remember more than one time Father bringing in a big ear of field corn which fed the entire family through more than one meal.
As for other new varieties, we always thought we should at least try some other new varieties too. At least to try them out. They didn’t always come out great.
One year we tried a tomatoe which looked like 3 tomatoes growing together. None of them ever made it to to red ripe. We haven’t seen those seeds again. While we are at it, sweet corn is not the only garden plant which can’t be grown together. For one thing squash and gourds don’t mix. And in other catalgues we find Seed Savers which grow and sell the same seeds from one year to the next. These are purebred varieties. We did that yearly with green beans (climbing).
And we’ve mentioned in past years one squash got into the garden fence and grew. Then the next year the fence line was already seeded. And stayed seeded for several years. All we had to do was pick the squash when we needed something for the table. These are some thoughts you might keep in mind when going through the catalogues and placing an early order.
Here’s to your good gardening this year.
Don’t forget to water your house plants too.
Until next week.
