I garden in southern New Hampshire, on the north side of a ridge overlooking the Merrimack River valley. All of this location information is important because each element contributes to the microclimate of my vegetable plot. By the USGA map I am in zone 5b. That means I can usually expect the temperature to stay above negative ten degrees on the coldest day of the winter. It also indicates when the first and last frost will occur. But within zone 5b there are differences based on sun exposure, altitude and exposure to prevailing winds. After many years of gardening here I have become accustomed to the environmental conditions although now I have found that the climate has been changing incrementally over the last ten or twenty years. All of this has to do with planting corn. In Middlesex County MA where I grew up, it is common practice to plant corn on Patriots Day (April 19). But here in NH the soil is still too cold to plant corn, so I have been dealing with that by starting the corn seedlings inside and then setting them out when the temperatures warm in a few weeks. This works well for me because I only grow a few plants. Farmers who grow acres of corn couldn’t use this method of speeding up spring. First I soak the seeds in a damp paper towel for a few days until they start to germinate. The first sign is the emergence of the future root from the seed.
I poke holes in the potting soil to gently place the corn seedlings into. They are fragile at this stage. If the radicle (future root) were to break the seed most likely would die. Now I just keep the pots in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks and then plant them out into the garden in mid May.
Witch Grass
Witch grass can be a gardener’s nightmare. It can invade cultivated soil quickly and crowd out the plants the gardener is interested in growing. It may be dug out with a moderate amount of effort but the problem is that if just once piece of a stolen is left in the soil, it will soon give rise to a whole new patch of witch grass.
New Hampshire Gardening 