What feeling can be sweeter than seeing productivity from something you've invested your time, resources, emotions and efforts in? That's exactly my feeling when I went to visit my farm today and saw these lovely crops. After over two months of planting, watering, weeding, applying fertilizer, I am glad to see that my maize plantation is doing great.
I could remember when I started the project on the maize farm, it wasn't a pleasant experience with the sun ray, and few weeks after the Maize germinated, I could remember the maize steam experience several challenges that could have hinders it grow and almost made me give up on it, but in the end my perseverance as paid off.
Some of the Challenges I had during the growing process of the maize are;
- Invasion of goat 🐐 into the farmland: and they ate almost all the newly growing flowers of the maize, I was so disappointed when this happened, but on the contrary, other than giving up, I kept on watering the steam, until some of it resurrected after consistent watering.
- Rodent attack on the farm land: After the scenario of the goat, the next challenges I faced was from rodent, who continually pull down most of the maize steam in their quest for food, and after seeking help on how to chase them of my farmland and found nor, I later concluded on poisoning some food items, which I then drop at different locations in the farm, and them eating this poisoned stuffs did the trick, as I no longer saw them nor did they attack the maize again.
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So as a homesteader whose major purpose of planting the maize and other crops I've in my mini garden was to be self sufficient in term of providing food items for my family and I, so I used the opportunity to harvest some of the maize which we later uses as an appetizer to fill out stomach before the actual food get ready.
Although while moving around the face I noticed that one of it as been open and feasted on, and I'm guessing that was done by birds, though I can't say for sure what really happened to this particular maize, since it was the only one among all that was form like that.
After my observation of the maize, I also check up on my other crops and plantation I had in the farm, like cassava, vegetables and the likes, and some were planted beside each other in my bid to make the good use of the farmland to multitask, though I think that process is being address as companion planting.
The cassava are doing exceedingly well, both in growth and development, and it'll definitely take more than four months before it can advance towards it harvestable stage, but for the vegetables, those one's are in perfect shape and I visit it almost every day to harvest few that'll be use as soup for our meal, the last crop I check on was the tomatoes steam while cross-checking the farm crops, it's also doing great and just needed few days for it to get ripe.
Lastly, I also did a little weeding and repaired the farm fence before leaving the farm. I expect all the maize stalks to have been ready for harvest in the next few weeks so I need them to be in the best condition.
I have invested a lot of resources, time and energy into this and can't wait to reap the fruits of my labour, because aside the fact that I also used the maize to participate in the maize Challenge by @felixxx , it's also an activity I engage on yearly to ease the amount I spend on food items and be able to meet the basic needs of my family.
