Growing Vegetables

I wanted to grow corn between two rows of tomato vines to provide partial shade for vines and tomatoes. A little shade on toma­toes during hottest summer will pro­duce bigger, juicier, mild-flavored fruits and, at the same time, reduce the problem of sun-scald. I traced in the dirt a two-foot diameter circle. Nine young corn plants were placed about eight inches apart, were then set in the soil around the cir­cumference.

That’s nine corn stalks in approximately two square feet of soil, without crowding, evenly spaced, and in a geometric arrange­ment that contributes to excellent polli­nation.The corn plant is the only grain crop to have  separate male and female flowering parts . The tassel is male and the ear is the female structures of the plant. The flowering stage in corn  is the most critical period in the development of a corn plant from the standpoint of grain yield. Using the circle planting technique, 100 corn stalks received optimal spacing in soil only two feet wide by 32 feet long. If you had planted a single straight row there would have been only 48 stalks. And single straight rows of corn rarely polli­nate evenly. Each stalk planted in the circu­lar arrangement, however, produced two plump, fully-pollinated, filled out ears of corn!

This same method works well on cucum­bers, too. Fall cucumbers that mature in autumn’s cooler weath­er are more perfectly formed, but to get fall cucumbers it is necessary to plant during the hot summer days. Get­ting the vines established is the challenge.

The key is to get a thick ground cover of vines quickly to keep the soil cool and moist. The top leaves will also shade the under leaves and fruits. The circle tech­nique produces the desired ground cover in less than half the time that regular hill or row planting does.

Plant cucumber seeds four inches apart around each circle (18 seeds per each six foot circle). Lay out ring beds one foot apart. Don’t thin out healthy plants, but do remove any unhealthy ones. In a very short time, the vines will have attained over a foot of vine growth; that is sufficient to give a com­plete ground cover. Vines will overlap as they continue growing, producing an even thicker protection. When the first frost arrives the double-thick vines protects the fruits be­neath from early frost damage.
Further Reading:

• Planting Corn | The Best Home Improvement Info - Cucumbers grow on vines that spread 6 to 8 feet if allowed to trail on the ground. In small gardens they can be trained to climb a fence and often produce better-shaped fruit than trailing plants.

• Planting Corn - When planting corn in rows, sow the seeds 3 to 4 inches apart. The green seeds produce cucumbers with many male flowers, and one of these seeds is planted with every five or six female seeds; the combination ensures pollination of a …