Stubby the Squirrel Gets In On the Act

Corn feeding apparatus.

It's that time of year when the first harvest is just starting to come in and planting for a fall crop is in place. In trying to keep some semblance of control with the whole thing, I've found that there's been an interloper getting in on the act.

We've been putting out dried ears of corn on the squirrel bungee cord hanging on the front porch for our resident squirrel, Stubby (click here for the scoop on that story). We were wondering how one squirrel can go through so much corn. She's the only squirrel we've seen on the cob, and it gets replaced every couple of days with a fresh ear. Well, this spring came the answer, when corn plants started growing all over the planting beds, especially in the parking strip.We also have pumpkins growing everywhere and they look like sugar pumpkins which is fine with me. 

The three sisters, courtesy of Stubby.

The fact that the squash and pumpkin were planted among some peas I have growing wasn't lost on me. Stubby inadvertently completed the three sisters, a traditional way of crop planting by Southeast Native-Americans, although the legumes used were beans, not peas. The corn loves the nitrogen fixed by the peas and the squash shade the roots and keep the peas cool and the moisture in. The corn stalks closest to the peas are the tallest. The peas can grow up the corn. This fall it'll be succotash time. And pumpkin pie time too. Hopefully the corn is a kind that is edible by humans and hopefully the coons won't discover it first. Corn is coon candy. Of course Stubby gets a share. After all, it was her handy work.

I have to keep on top of the squirrel planted pumpkins in the blueberry beds. The leaves of the squash are prickly, difficult to work around and shade out the ripening blueberries. They also shade out the cranberry bushes as well, so I've had to make sure that any errant leaves get pruned off.

New corn coming up in the Camelia sink!

I'm surprised the corn even germinated after being dried and bagged for squirrel use. I wonder how many neighbors are growing (or not growing) corn as well.

This morning we just discovered a new batch of corn sprouting in the Camellia sink!

Re-purposing the Re-purposed for the Peas

My quickie pea trellis tent.

Roland usually gets creative when constructing trellises for vining veg such as peas. He has dived head first into his lumber scrap stash to retrieve lengths of mahogany and white oak to create monumental structures to hold all sorts of legumes or row cover frames to keep the bugs out. A lot of thought goes into his creations.

So far this year he hasn't had time to do any garden stuff, not to mention that the weather hasn't exactly cooperated, so I devised a trellis myself re-purposing one of the already re-purposed wooden structures. I had Roland construct a cold frame over half of one of the beds, so the cat proofing was no longer needed in that area. Instead of letting it just take up space stored somewhere, I concocted an ad hoc tent for a pea trellis. I simply placed the ends of the frames onto the beds between other cat proofing and angled them over into each other. Voila! Instant pea trellis without having to lift a nail gun. To hold the top together I used the next best fix-it thing on earth to duct tape, zip-ties. I only used 3 ties, one on each end and one in the middle. Done.

In the space below, I can plant veg that can handle shadier conditions. I have some lettuce there now, but I could plant Swiss chard, spinach or radishes. With the cold weather still around, at this point, I'll be happy if the peas germinate soon. Now that I can cross this chore off the honey-do list, Roland only has to finish the tool shed roof, finish the cold frames, replace the front porch, get rid of the dead cars, paint the house, clean out the garage........You get my drift.