The Harvest

This year I had to plan a garden that would do ok without everyday maintenance. So I picked a three sisters layout that included popcorn, gourds and pumpkins, and beans. There is a picture below of what the garden looked like in late summer....as our house guess Yolanda put it to me "Dr. Campbell, you've got a jungle out there!"

 Fortunately, the jungle was loaded down with popcorn and gourds! We had an incredible harvest this year, witnessed by the popcorn that is hanging up to dry in two houses! We also had a bunch of gourds and two medium sized pumpkins come out of the garden. I think our favorite so far are the "wooly bear gourds." They are the small, green, furry gourds that you can see in the pile of gourds on the kitchen table. We also planted some sunflowers because they are rumored to help the corn....though I think that the 9 foot corn stalks mostly crowded out the sunflowers. We did have a couple on the end of the garden where they could get sunlight, and they were pretty....especially the "big bird" variety.

All of the gourds and corn in this picture were grown in our garden.  In the background you can see the first of what is likely to be many jars of popcorn that will be made in the next few weeks (again, all grown in our garden :)  You can also see Lily's Halloween black cat!

 

Big bird is in our garden!

A box of shucked popcorn that I brought back from the JC....all home grown :)

"The Jungle"

A few ears of popcorn laid out in the JC