As new residents living in Pocono Pines, we planned a flower bed along the house leading to the main entrance. By the month of May the flower bed housed many colorful plants. Weeks later the inevitable occurred --weeds! In the process of pulling out the unwanted weeds, there appeared yellow buds surrounding the roots. On closer examination it was interesting to observe that the "yellow buds" were kernels of corn, which I showed my husband. There were about 10 to 15 of these tiny plants in our flower bed. We pondered as to how they got there???
We provide feed for the deer in our back yard and, the squirrels enjoy the corn kernels as well. From our sun room we see the animals feed however, watching the squirrels, we noticed that they ate some of the corn, then took off to dig and hide some. Evidently, they were hoarding their food supply for the winter. It didn't take long to realize where the corn plants came from --the squirrels were the busy "little farmers.":
My husband and I come from Long Island, N. Y. We have never grown corn, we decided to let the plants take their course. We enjoyed watching the growth progress of the corn stalks from week to week. They grew about 6 feet tall.
In July, we had an"Open House" our guest wondered why we had corn growing in the flower bed. We informed them about the work of the squirrels.
In August, we saw the beginning of the ears of corn on some of the stalks. It is now the end of September, most of the stalks have three and four ears of corn which are quite large.
One of our neighbors who drove by our house many times saw the corn stalks, she thought we were farmers. We learned about this when she came to welcome us to Lake Naomi. She was amused to learn about the squirrels, and was amazed to see all the large ears of corn, growing on top of the mountain.
Watching the corn grow has been an interesting experience for us city people, which we enjoyed sharing with our friends and neighbors. Also we have other corn growing in other flower beds and back yard, these we pulled out before they had a chance to develop --we were not interested in farming corn.
When winter comes the squirrels will be at a great loss because the kernels have gone to fruition and others were pulled out --sorry to say.
However, we must thank the squirrels for providing us with a fascinating experience, i.e., watching the growth progress of the corn. Secondly, to thank the squirrels for providing us with the corn stalks, when dried were used outside as an ornamental decoration for the coming holidays. Watching nature and its wild life is a fascinating experience therefore, our greater thanks goes to the Creator of all this beauty surrounding us.