Garden Woes

(This is my 300th post! Who would have thought?)

I have decided to give up on a corn crop this year. The ground is completely saturated, and rain is forecast for most of the next two weeks (which is as far as accuweather.com goes.) By the time it dries out enough to plant corn, it will be too hot for it to grow well.

The potatoes are struggling with the field so wet; I've lost about 1/5 of my crop to rot. All my melon, cucumber, and squash seedlings were pounded flat in the last thunderstorm. I'm going to try re-seeding those (and re-growing the Ginger Pride melons and the Royal Golden watermelons inside. They don't do well direct-seeded.) At least I still have my tomato seedlings, since I don't have their bed ready yet. And the onions and garlic are doing fantastic.

So this year will be the 'Year of the Bean'. I'm going to plant the entire corn field in beans. Left-over room will be filled in by squash. We'll freeze beans, can beans, dry beans and string leatherbritches. And the animals will have to get used to the fact that there won't be much corn this winter--they'll have to eat squashes instead. Oh, well, at least they'll eat...and so will we.