Here is a photo of the nest boxes, two rows of winter squash, and the edge of the sweet corn field.
The nest boxes have been busy all spring. The Peterson box in the foreground has already fledged 5 Eastern blue birds. While the parents raise the young in the refuge of the apple trees another pair is building a second nest.
The NABS box is the background contains a tree swallow nest with 7 hatchlings. Blue birds are very charming but tree swallows have personality too. They are such acrobatic flyers. They really put on an air show as they pluck bugs from mid air to feed 7 hungry beaks.
Obviously the winter squash still have some growing to do. Now that all the seeds are sown all we need to do is give them plenty of space and time to do their thing. As the summer grows on we will show you just how exciting winter squash really are.
The sweet corn is all planted too. Since the first stand was delayed a few weeks we had to rapidly adjust our production schedule. Usually we plant eight stands and harvest late July through mid September. This year we consolidated three stands; two early stands and one late stand were rolled into mid season stands. As a result we will have only five stands but each harvest will be larger.
The added bonus is we wont have to fight late season earworm pressure. Organic control techniques just cant quite keep up with the intense pressure of the last few seasons.
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