Planting corn in hills, year two

This was tilled by a local garden group that will till new garden areas. This is an addition to our garden that was still in grass/sod/various weeds.

Last year we hilled our corn as is described in "Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden" by Gilbert Wilson in 1917. The book allows a Hidatsa woman to explain the way she gardened in her own way. Drawings are also included along with tons of valuable information.

If you're dealing with genetic drift in your corn, read the pages about how the Hidatsa women dealt with issue in their time.

Here is a close-up. I used a five-toothed cultivator rake thing/tool to break up dirt, then sorta raked it into the center, then tamped the top flat. When I get them all formed up (four was plenty at one go), then 7 or 8 kernels will be planted and watermelon and beans in the hill, too. Any squash or watermelon will help keep weeds down between the hills. It worked pretty nice last year, so we're doing it again. Hard to find a non-rain time to get out there and plant just now. But I'm not complaining! I can't bring myself to complain about rain at this point.
 
                    The second row is offset, though I don't know if you can see it. (More a Parcheesie arrangement rather than a checkerboard arrangement.)

I have sixteen hills prepared at 5 pm, and my energy is waning with a capital "wane."

I put big pieces of bark from The Giant Stump (When alive it was probably at least 100 years old. It's still about three stories high.) in between the hills to keep weeds down. Since this was in grass, there will be lots of grass sprouting. Hopefully we can some less than that.

I hope to put in another row of four hills in the open space on the left. All the light black patches are from me walking in the plot.