It’s July and the harvest for 2020 is underway. Some good, very good and not so good stuff is being learned about companion planting and staggered sweetcorn planting. Once again, the garden and nature have a few surprises this year. Here are a few Lessons Learned to share.
Not So Good
Lets start with the not so good. This year is my first year with the new garden beds. Four raised beds built to make my gardening life easier as my real life grows longer! My main focus for the north beds this year was a tomato and sweetcorn patch. I also wanted to see how other vegetables would grow in the raised beds in that location. So, I tried broccoli companion planted with peas, and cucumbers. And cauliflower companion planted in the sweetcorn.
Unfortunately the broccoli cultivar I used had a 75 day maturity and it never made a head before our high elevation radiant Colorado sun turned it off. I planted 8 broccoli plants in mid May and only got one head out of them. And, the plants grew like crazy and shaded the cucumbers, stunting their growth. Double ouch!
The same is true for the cauliflower. Grew like crazy but only one head out of 4 plants. But, it grew well in the corn patch and did not inhibit the growth of the sweetcorn.
And the peas were just sowed way to late. Probably 3 weeks later than they should have been. Again they did not get up and going before the heat spell of late May and early June did them in.
Lesson learned is to go with a early variety of broccoli/cauliflower and plant broccoli, cauliflower and peas earlier. And… hope for a no blizzard spring!
The Good
I tried staggered planting of sweetcorn in two of the north beds. A early, peak and late crop. The early and peak cultivars were a Northern Extra Sweet (67 day) and the late cultivar is a Golden Bantam (80 day). I started the early crop indoors in pots and transplanted them at 2 weeks age. I planted 4 hills, thinned to 4 plants each. So 16 total plants. I managed to make the first pick (age 72 days) of corn on July 21. And hope to continue harvesting the early crop for another week or so.
The peak crop, (10 hills), was direct sowed one week after the transplanted early crop. That should bring it to first harvest around the first week of August. The late crop (6 hills) was direct sowed 2 weeks after the peak crop and should mature in late August to early September.
Lesson learned on this is that my original plan seems to be working. Hopefully we will get a sweetcorn harvest to support 2 people, and a little to freeze/store, from 3rd week of July to first week of September. Jury is still out on the peak and late crop. But so far so good!
The Very Good
I like tomatoes and my south raised beds are getting more and more shaded by the trees each successive year. So getting a good tomato bed going in the north garden was the ultimate goal. I planted 10 (8 week old transplants) tomatoes in one of the new raised beds on May 21. Made first harvest of the early variety of Independence Day on July 7 and the others are starting to trickle in now. The plants look great. Significantly larger and healthier plants than my south raised bed tomatoes. I am looking for a good crop of tomatoes into September this year.
Lesson learned is to stay with a 8 week transplant, planted 3rd week of May. And plant with calcium to stave off the blossom end rot. I may plant fewer plants. The raised bed at 10 plants is pretty crowded. Eight plants may be better since they grow so well.
First Pick of the Sweetcorn, Just Enough for Two! 
A Typical Weekly July Harvest Hills of Sweetcorn Four North Raised Beds with Broccoli and Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Staggered Sweetcorn with Deer Netting over Broccoli and Tomato Beds
Companion planting is a good method to utilize more of your garden space. And staggering sweetcorn plantings can provide a regular supply of freshly harvested sweetcorn to enjoy from mid to late summer. But it may take a full growing season to understand what works well and what does not for a particular location. So, for me at least, gardening remains a learning process. Always something to take away and adjust next year. A continuing challenge to go along with the enjoyment!
