A Birthday Gift For My Inner Child

Since writing the last post about the garden layout, I spent a playful morning in the garden. After hoeing a few rows, I decided what I wanted to do with the sampling of corn we brought back from Peru, and I decided to give my inner child a birthday gift.

I don't know if I remember more or less from childhood than the average person. But I do think I remember more of the feelings and ideas I had than events and actions. Perhaps one day I will attempt a chronology, like Stephen King wrote in his memoir On Writing, and be surprised by what I can recall.

In the meantime, a memory that comes easily is one of a fantasy: a circle of sunflowers that would form a private room. I remember, too, shying away from this idea years later when I realized the sunflowers would be full of bees—I don't know if that was my own realization or a critique from an adult with whom I shared my vision. (Adults tend to do that kind of thing.)

It occurred to me the other day what a simple and wonderful idea this is, and that there's no reason not to bring it to life.

Regarding the corn, I decided it was unlikely I would build up any of these varieties with only seven kernels to start with, let alone first have a trial year to see which one performed best here. Corn is pollinated by the wind, so it's difficult to grow just a few stalks and get good pollination; better to grow a block of it. Growing two types of corn even hundreds of feet apart will likely lead to the types mixing a bit.

So I pulled the four varieties of maíz with large kernels. In Peru, this type of corn was typically served as a side and presumably steamed or boiled, whereas some of the other types were prepared into crunchy puffed kernels or popped into popcorn.

I hoed a plot at the end of the lupine patch and planted the four corn varieties into a block. Around the outside of the block, I seeded some bush beans, and beside the block planted a winter squash start.

I wanted the patch to feel like Three Sisters—pole beans climb up the corn; squash hugs the base—but pole beans do quite well here and can easily outgrow corn, and squash would shade out bush beans if grown too close.

I laid a walking path of big river rocks alongside the Three Sisters variation so that it would lead right to the entrance of the sunflower circle.

With four types of sunflowers, some of them boasting to grow up to 14 feet, I sowed a big circle of seed. Around the outside of that one, I sowed another circle—this one of pole beans. For aromatic and mystical effect, I seeded some dill and fennel inside the circle, envisioning the secret garden it'd become the whole time.

Whether it was my inner child or my 33-year-old self that was so elated by this project, I couldn't tell you. Probably, it's the two meeting each other, barefoot in the dirt, surrounded by living things that will provide nourishment and joy, saying:

Hey girl. I see you. Isn't this fun?