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Comment by sliverstorm | Hacker News Reader

corn is an awful crop

I've only been gardening a season but I've already come to the same conclusion. The corn stalks were the divas of the bed, wilting days before anything else and underproducing. Especially compared to the squash plants.

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Oh dear, corn is an exceptionally terrible garden crop - a high-producing stalk gives you 2-3 ears at maximum, saps the nitrogen in the soil, and requires a ton of space. You'd need to plant a huge volume of it to get any sort of decent harvest. It's a shame, since fresh sweet corn is delicious, but it's something where I'd rather just buy some from a guy who grew a quarter acre of it as a hobby crop.

If there is ever an apocolypse leaving me dependent on personal agriculture, I’m planting nothing but squash. Until then keep it away from my backyard.

I would rethink your post-apocalyptic single-crop garden if I were you. Diversify, diversify, diversify.

If you're in the US and starting with squash, then the logical option would be:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture)

I've found companion planting beneficial, but have had terrible luck with the corn aspect of 3-sisters. It seems best suited for warmer US zones (6+), where corn can go in the ground well before beans. Otherwise, the beans will quickly overtake the corn.

I always have some tomato cages ready as backup, because even if the corn is big enough to support the beans, a gust of wind can blow it all over.

Also, deer eat corn shoots. Damn you, deer. Damn you.

I didn't care much for squash until I discovered spaghetti squash. I'll usually find space for at least one plant now.

I love spaghetti squash! Sadly, you rarely see it in the UK. In fact, you rarely see any squash except butternut here, which i'm not a fan of.

There's a farm somewhere south of London which does pick-your-own pattypans, and apparently at harvest time is overrun with South Africans, who evidently feel very strongly about them.

I've never heard of pattypans, they look absolutely delightful! I may have to experiment with them in the garden next year.

I loved butternut squash until we grew it and generated 98248928 squashes.

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