Mountain of Brush Cleared - Sweet Corn Planted

Red KnockOut Roses are joining their white rose siblings in blooming.

Springdale sent the truck to pick up our brush, but I had enough to fill the entire truck bed, so they stopped in front of the house. I went out to talk to them, anxious to have the jumbled mountain of limbs taken away. They laughed and said, "We will be back today when we are empty."

Sassy and I watched later as the claw truck came back and began loading. When I thought they were almost done, they made five more grabs with the claw. They raked up debris and took every last branch away. I walked outside and thanked them. They grinned and said, "We are proud of our work."

The red KnockOut roses began opening up, and most new roses are leafing out well. Tomorrow will be another round from the Intensive Creation Unit - barrel water and pruning shears.

I saw some ugly weeds growing in the back. Several were Queen Ann's Lace that I inserted by leaving seedheads in the back area. Once I recognized their carroty nature, I was happy to see them. Another ugly one had a reddish bottom part. Red root pigweed? I like that one too. I would like more goosefoot, which is wild spinach, good to eat.

Earlier I planted "spinach strawberries," a type of goosefoot that grows berries enjoyed by birds.

Parsley seems to be growing in the vegetable garden, although I remembered planting it early in the corn patch. Everything in the corn patch failed - it was too early during a volatile snow and sun spring.

Three Sisters Garden

I hope this guy is happy with his birdfood and does not covet my sweet corn seeds.

Sweet Corn
Sweet corn is the star of the Three Sisters Garden, and Silver Queen is the regent of all classic sweet corn. Some claim better versions with more sweetness.

Corn demands:

1. Warm soil, so early planting is foolish. Treat sweet corn like tomatoes.
2. Full sun. Six hours of sun is needed, so the sunniest patch is best for corn.
3. Rich soil. Corn is a heavy feeder.
4. Water. Corn grows fast and is thirsty.
5. Nitrogen. Nitrogen is green, growth compound.
6. Close quarters for wind pollination.

Seed sellers disagree about how far apart to plant the corn. The plants can be 6 to 12 inches apart. The rows can be close, 12 inches apart, or several feet across. The answer is - closer is better. I work on 12 inches for both, but I plant rapidly and somewhat haphazardly.

I bought 400 seeds and dropped in two seeds to a hole. Some gardeners put in three seeds. The idea is that the corn plants support each other, or gardener can thin them out later. 

Paul did say, "Sow abundantly, reap abundantly." I cannot tell which seeds will survive the squirrels, the crows, the weather, and my own mistakes in planting them too deep or two shallow. I do know they are almost 100% alive and ready to grow.

God's Word is not almost 100% alive, but completely alive, powerful, and effective. No one who looks across the landscape can figure out how God's Word will take root. I have seen many clergy blinded, hardened, and deafened by God's Word. They are like the hollow geodes that float in water, surrounded by water, with no water penetrating the inside.

That does not argue against the efficacy of the Word. Just the opposite is true. When people scorn the plain meaning of the Word and solemnly declare their sect has all the answers, they are hardening and blinding and deafening themselves by playing games with the Almighty God and His Word.

When thieves break into a power station and melt themselves by trying to steal live, thick powerlines because of the copper, they are doing that to themselves, no matter how clever, strong, and daring they imagine themselves to be. Electricity is powerful, far more than copper thieves realize, but God's Word is even more powerful, able even to "save souls." 

When I am planting seed, the doubts arise, and yet what I see around me chases the doubts away. Some great plans, like the Creature Convention Center, lasted a few hours at first. But the overall effect of applying the principles of Creation is impressive. I am doing very little work, a bit each day, to allow God's creatures to do the work for me. 

The corn patch, as a lawn area, was difficult to dig, so we covered it with newspapers and shredded cyprus. When we had too much mulch, we begged for more newspapers. When we had too many newspapers, I bought more mulch. For seven months the creatures worked on the grass and weeds that died under the shade of Jackson Mulch.

My wife said, "I thought you just were going to sow the corn, toss it on the ground." I answered calmly, "That is called - Feeding the birds."

The soil was soft and easy to dig with the small trowel. Assuming the corn germinates and rises above the mulch, there are almost no weeds to face. Worst case - I have an area for pumpkins and beans. In all that time, almost no weeds had grown in the entire corn patch, more than 120 square feet.

Some gourds are already planted.
Pumpkins are good for covering the floor of the Three Sisters garden.

Planting the Three Sisters - And Planning Ahead

The Hortophile gardener's blog.
The start of the Three Sisters.

The Legend of the Three Sisters

One gardener's approach to the Three Sisters Garden

The Hortophile gardener's blog.
More growth of the Three Sisters.

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In Midland I planted the Three Sisters Garden behind the garage. First I had a very large hole dug for compost. We took a long time to fill it with leaves, grass, even a Christmas tree. Earthworms came from the rabbits' swimming pools (where we caught manure in soil  harboring earthworms). Some fat worms got this benediction from Little Ichabod, "You about to enter earthworm paradise."

We also added Rabbit-Gro, our patented combination of top soil, rabbit manure, and  hundreds of earthworms per scoop. No, it did not stink. The soil absorbed the manure and the worms sanitized the soil.

The first time warty gourds popped out of the compost, uninvited, and grew faster than Church Growth programs and bad rock bands. They climbed over to the garage chicken wire, where edible pod peas had grown. They raced to the bushes for support, and they grew among the corn. The price of warty gourds crashed that year as the supply over-reached the demand.

Not knowing the Three Sisters Legend, I heard about maxing the garden with pole beans, corn, and pumpkins. I planted the three together on the compost and filled the rows between with newspapers and grass clippings.

Our only weeds were purslane, which is an edible salad plant. The purslane was rampant in Midland and decided to grow up with the corn, very ambitious and opportunistic. I had the biggest, fattest, juiciest purslane in town.

The pole beans were difficult to harvest inside the Silver Queen corn plot, but it was fun to see them climb the corn. I used Atlantic Giant pumpkins, so we had giant leaves shading the rows. We had a few homely AG pumpkins.  My neighbor said, "Your pumpkins are invading my yard." I said, "Chop the vines when they get in your way." They were like the Anaconda horror film, the giant snake, only this one was green, stopped only with a hatchet - or frost.

The idea of pumpkins is to shade the ground and deter the pests. Nevertheless, one squirrel chewed off a pumpkin gourd and tried to drag it away, while it was quite young. People living near creeks or rivers in Midland had a big problem with masked bandits, raccoons, who robbed the corn patch at the moment of harvest.



Although pole beans will help fix the nitrogen in the soil, I doubt whether the pole beans make up for the draining of nitrogen by corn and pumpkins at the same time. However, if the remains are put back in the soil, the loss of nitrogen will not be great.

Our Three Sisters plot is now in practice mode, with sunflowers, spinach, lettuce, egg plant, and kale planted. In the fall the area will be expanded for the spring plot. The time to plant corn is when the soil is warm enough to sit on. Before that time, corn will rot in the soil. Corn loves heat, rich soil, plenty of water and sunshine.

Whether the method is called Three Sisters, organic, square foot, or French intensive gardening, this illustrates how the growing traits of each plant can be used to harmonize with the others. Because so much was happening underneath the surface, all the plants could burst with energy derived from compost and high nitrogen manure.

No pesticides were used, except to invite garden spiders to stay and feast on pests. When the dew covered the webs in the morning light, I could see the spiders were hard at work, stretching their lace across the rows of corn, predators fat with choice insects fattened on organic plants.

The only kind of sweet corn I care to eat
is from my garden.

The neighbor who feared my invasive pumpkin was very anxious to know when my sweet corn was ripe. The other neighbor who smirked at my gardening methods was just as curious. I even had a Dow Agriculture expert come at gawk at the height of my Silver Queen corn. I told him how large the ears were. "Oh, too bad, really tough, huh?" I said, "No, they are gigantic and flawless, soft and sweet."

Each cob was tossed into the yard, after we ate from it, for the squirrels and birds to harvest the rest. The garden's remains were all composted.

The Rules of Creation
Easy organic gardening is inexpensive, a neighborhood project where five families are gathering newspapers for additional expansions. The unused back area will make a great pumpkin garden and the rose garden is bound to grow next spring.

Nothing I do is really new. I have found most of them by reading the books and a few by violating the myths shared by people with very little experience in gardening.

These rules were established at Creation to govern and manage the earth for our benefit. When they are violated, such as with overcropping and stripping hills of vegetation, disaster strikes.

Church leaders think they can lie to everyone and cover up crimes - in the name of public relations. They would rather feed victims to abusers than admit to the abuse. The Church of Rome gets well deserved infamy for this, but equivalent crimes are easily mined from the Internet, or experienced firsthand among the Protestants who shake their heads about Rome.

For some Judgement Day comes when they die. Others may see the fruition of all their evil deeds and teaching. They will say, "Hills, fall on us."