Seven Circles of Corn

Someone on one of my gardening groups had posted a question about something called Corn Circles. I had never heard of this before and googled the term. Only found one article that mentioned the topic in a few sentances, in the middle of the article.

The article I found referred to corn circles or corn basins. The concept is that you raise a crater-like ring 18 to 36 inches across and plant the corn in the ridge of the ring.

It mentioned planting the "Three Sisters" - corn, beans and squash. The corn supports the beans, the beans feed the corn, and the squash provides ground cover to serve as a living mulch which keeps the moisture in the ground. The basin collects water when it rains or when you water.

You may know that corn needs to be planted somewhat en masse so the stalks can pollinate each other. In traditional row planting, the recommendation is usually to plant at least four rows to accomplish this. The premise with corn circles or corn basins, though, is that the circular configuration in an 18 to 36 inch circle provides the necessary proximity to achieve pollination.

So - I decided to give corn circles a try!

I created seven circles with 13 to 17 plantings each. I planted the corn with peas instead of beans and only planted one squash per circle since the squash spreads out so vigorously.

I will post updates and progress notes about this as summer progresses.