Some of the ears are bursting.
A white juice works inside.
Cornsilk creeps in the end and dangles in the wind.
Always—I never knew it any other way—
The wind and the corn talk things over together.
And the rain and the corn and the sun and the corn
Talk things over together.
-from "Laughing Corn" by Carl Sandburg
Yummy, sweet, crunchy corn!! This week's corn studies arrived just in time for the kids to help me stake our corn on a turbulent, gusty, wildly windy day. Despite our efforts, about half the stalks were blown over, and I wonder why, as I have for the last 3 years of gardening, why I keep planting corn. Despite the endless fields of corn successfully growing in the farm lands around us, my corn doesn't ever grow well and the winds beat it down. Oh well . . . at least we will have corn leaves to dry for a future project of corn husk dolls.
Also for our corn studies we set up our corn seeds in a plastic bag for the coming week and . . .
. . . and set about munching on a delicious school assignment.
The kids also helped me plant our green bean seedlings in the garden from last week's crop plant study.
My kids continue to be fascinated with the insects they find in our yard, but it was still a surprise to look out my window one day and find this crowd.
What were they gathered to see? One of them had tossed a grasshopper in the nest of a black widow, and they were watching to see what happened. I found myself fascinated and slightly horrified.
This event prompted a night-time black widow hunt with flashlight and bug spray in hand. After spraying 4 black widows I also found this beautiful creature under our deck. I haven't identified him yet, so he can continue to hang out unless I discover he poses a threat. Including the legs, he is about the size of a quarter.
My daughter brought this praying mantis home one afternoon. It was very aggressive and kept trying to attack us through the jar, making her very interesting to watch before releasing her into the next door field.
We have never had much success with growing corn either. It is fun to watch and I have been watching the school garden near our house that is just bursting with corn. They totally neglect their garden over the summer and it has beautiful stalks of corn and mine always end up looking like the little mini ears you see on the salad bar. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteI love all the nature study going on at your house. Great job.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Your corn looks a little scary there, but I remember when you planted a huge garden in our backyard in Santa Clara--your first one. You had all kinds of corn, not to mention lots of other crops, and especially a number of watermelons. I had never tried corn before that--I didn't know it could be done in the desert. You inspired me then and you inspire me now because you keep trying. We have to keep trying. One of these days, all the elements of the earth and sky will come together to create a most wondrous garden just for you and yours, and you will have such tremendous bounty, you won't know what to do with it besides give a bunch away, and bottle it, freeze it, dry it, etc.
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