Markham Farm

Corn is among the most difficult crops to grow on a small scale in the home garden. Put twenty seeds in the ground, five of them fail to sprout, and there is a good week's difference in germination time between the first and last to emerge. Thus, the early sprouters can sometimes shade out those that sprouted later, creating uneven maturity. On top of this, it is often a long-season crop; which can be a rather iffy proposition here in NH.

I solve this problem by planting out corn as seedlings. That is, I plant the corn indoors in soil blocks a couple of weeks before I would ordinarily plant it outside. This way, the non-germinating seeds aren't leaving a bare patch in the garden and I can match those seedlings I plant outside by height so that nothing will be inordinately shaded.

By doing this I end up with far superior results on a small scale than could be had by trying to scale-down the methods of industrial agriculture.

Deer can get into your mini farm and deal enormous destruction in a short time. Generally, we have good luck by sprinkling some commercial deer repellent along the tree line from whence deer enter. This works well if done before any planting and renewed about six weeks later.

But once the deer have started eating your crops, their allure is so strong that the repellent is nigh upon useless. That's where the electric fence comes in.

Deer jump high barriers with the greatest of ease in order to get to food. The trick is to do this cheaply, easily and effectively. Use portable stakes to string a single strange of electric fence about 3-1/2 - 4 feet off the ground.  Put some aluminum foil around the wire so that it splays out -- and coat it generously with peanut butter.

Mr. and Ms. Deer won't hurdle that barrier. Instead, they'll nuzzle right up and get zapped. And the zap leaves a powerful impression that will keep them away from whatever is inside the fence.