The corn is UP

Yup, we're growing corn. It is my husband's favorite and the one vegetable my grandfather would neither eat or grow. For him it was pig's food. For John it's nirvana. He will consume as many ears as I put into the pot.

I had heard many things regarding corn from friends that grew up on farms over the years: tasseling corn was hard work, corn tastes completely different when mere minutes separate it's picking and consumption, it doesn't grow well in Arizona, etc. Well apparently you only need to tassel corn if you're growing it for seed. John would never let it get that far. The ears we have (11 so far) haven't matured enough for us to know whether it tastes better or not. And the last - well there is so much corn growing Maricopa it's unbelievable it's all eaten. And it seems to be doing well in the back yard so far.

The radishes got a lot of black spot. A little more research here revealed the growing medium needs to be sandier with more Boron and the plant appreciates cooler weather. So we'll try again in late fall. Beans - same thing. Tomatoes - they seem to grow no matter what if there is enough sun - a real challenge in our back yard.

All in all - I'm learning how to grow things in this yard. At least the parsley, basil and mint are thriving - sure makes cooking a lot easier.