I launched my big sweet corn challenge today.

Roy is an old chap across the road. 91 and still going strong for his age.
He has lived in the same house for 70 years and, apart from war years, had a
vege garden going. I pop over time to time and help him out & get some
gardening advice.

He is not so mobile now & had a garden surplus & aksed me if I could make
use of it. I thought sweet corn.

He has low rise raised gardens on a clay base. He uses chemicals, various
fertilisers & limes his soil. He has always forked over his soil and raked
it smooth before planting.

I also have raised gardens about 3 times higher than Roys on a sandy loam
base. I pack my gardens with organic material & use compost & manures and
occasionally use wood ash. I use mulches and try to disturb the soil as
little as possible.

Our gardens are quite different and so are our gardening styles.

Roy obviously knows his earth pretty well, I know what works for me at home.
He said I should prepare the planting bed for Sweet Corn as he does for his
various crops. I proposed minimal till and dibbling holes for the seed. I
respect his knowledge of the soil of course but also know what has worked
for me at home.

In the end we decided to split the garden in 1/2 and plant one side out his
methods and 1 1/2 my methods. The loser buys the winner a beer at the local
club we both belong to.

After throughly weeding today, I forked over 'his' 1/2 of the garden bed and
limed it. Next weekend I will rake and sow, as well as sowing 'my' 1/2 of
the bed using minimal tillage.

It'll be interesting to see how things go through the srping and summer.
Both sides of the bed will be treated alike from sowing onward, including
fertilising.

rob