Greetings friends! It's another new week. Today I visited my Garden; the maize I planted in the Uncompleted Building and the beans at the backyard. It would surprise you to know how the big the cobs of my maize has formed. They are now 3 months old.The grains have matured in which others have started drying. I planted them in the 3 rooms and the hall. The maizes at the hall has really suffered due the compact nature of the soil so at it young state they didn't get enough air to breath. Another factor could the variation of the fertility contents since the maizes in the other 3 rooms thrived very well.
Funny enough at the time I sown the grains in the soil when it rained the first time, the drought set in. That was the time many people's maizes scorched in the sun. For others, they had to cut their juvenile maizes and replant the grains. For me, I fetched water down from the river side in buckets to water till the natural rain started again. So, many people around the area were very surprised the kind of method I used to sustain my maizes. Here we are seeing the best cobs the maizes have formed. I've decided to harvest some in their raw stage so that I can cook for the family before they get dried on their plants. The looked very green and well formed to the tips. For the few ones, one plant has about 3 cobs formed, while others have 2 each on the plant.
I haven't worked so much in the farm. The only work I did was to weed around the maize only ones, unlike others farms that they have to week 2 or 3 times before they would harvest.
I didn't encounter so much challenges, the only challenge I encountered lately was during the time the weaver birds were vandalizing the grains in the cobs when they saw that the grains and their water contents are sweet. They began by destroying the hask on the cobs to get the grains. Many of the grains were eaten. I had to construct a scare crow in the garden to scare them. But this didn't work. I became fed up and quit. So lately they stop eating when they found out that the grains in the cobs were becoming harder. When I did my investigation about the reason why these birds were eating the maize, I found out that they were in groups having their colony of nests weaved closed to my garden. Secondly, there were no maize garden around which they could also depend. I was the only one having matured maizes. I decided to destroy all their nests when I found this, but the had constructed them on certain tree in the next fenced house.
From my maize garden, I visited the beans in the backyard. They have beared very nice fruits looking green and elongated. This variety creeps on the ground that's why the plants have covered the surface of the ground. Few things that you have to know about beans; they can fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil since they are leguminous crops. So wherever beans are grown the soils become fertile for the next season crops like maize, yam or any other crops that you will intend to grow. Sometimes, inter cropping of other crops can be done. It's similar growing maizes as the main crop and after the first weeding you plant Groundnuts beneath them. The Groundnut would fix nitrogen which is a source of plant protein that initiate fast growth. Many parts of the raw beans in their green state can consumed of which many people don't know. The leaves can be used for making stew; they are very nutritious for the body since they contain cellulose for energy. The fruits too can be harvested in their raw state for stew. And when they are left to dry, the fruits are used for making stew and soups. But for these beans I want them to dry and harvest the seeds to be grown for the next season, maybe in the large scale farming.
After my visits to these farms, I found some mushrooms growing at the other side of my garden, I spotted them to check if they are the edible ones. Yes, they are the edible ones but they are small in sizes and they are only 2 stalks so I decided to leave them and get back home.
My rounds today has been so exciting to the extent that I wouldn't want to tend to other works. I think I'll end here with much greetings!