Crazy question for you gardeners

[Broken Arrow]

Anybody ever seen the movie, "Secret Window"? By Stephen King, starring Johnny Depp I think.

Anyways, in case you haven't, the point is that the killer would bury the bodies and than plant corn on top of it. Supposedly the corn would eat through the bodies very quickly, thereby destroy any evidence of said bodies. At least, that's how I understood it.

Anyways, since then, I've always eyed my neighbor rather suspiciously.

First, some context. I live in a suburb. As in, spec houses everywhere. Nothing fancy. Be lucky if we had some trees around, but it's mostly lawn.

One of my immediate neighbor has, for years, planted a small garden in the back. The size of it would be... I'd say something like 5 yards in length and width. Quite small.

He's grown a couple of things I can't make out. Looks like cabbage as well, but mostly corn.

Well, a couple of nights ago, the owner was actually out there, in the dark, at around 9 to 10pm, working on it. And in order to see in the dark, he had to set up a few, small light-alls (high powered lamps) in order to see.

That's how it got my attention, by the way, because it was the light was shining thorugh my window. Now, my question is, IS THIS NORMAL? Does anybody garden at night? Couldn't he wait until the morning?

[insert creepy music here]

[PrincessPerky]

I know nothing about that, but in my mind a dude trying to bury a body would want to avoind light, not wake a neighbor up with it.....

[Ima saver]

Yeah, I would be burying my bodies around 3 am!!

[BCHGRL]

I don't know where you live, but it is 90 degrees outside my house right now. I've decided that anything that needs to be accomplished outside can wait until after 7:00. Probably the case for this guy.

[andy'smama]

First thing that comes to mind is..... was he sober??? He sounds like my ex-neighbor after he's had a few to many.

[Broken Arrow]

Thanks gang. That does make me feel better, though it is still strange to see a tiny patch of corn sticking out in the middle of a development.

[rob62521]

He may have had problems with raccoons or other furry creatures getting into his corn. Maybe he was keeping watch.

My father-in-law (who lived in the country) would sit in a lawn chair with a rifle at night to kill the rodents who attacked his sweet corn.

[jodi]

My dad would leave a small portable radio playing in the corn field
Darn raccoons.

[Countrygal]

Its cooler at night and he could be ridding the corn of corn weevils or another pest,that come out to feed only at night

[Bookie]

Would it be out of line to ask the man why he gardens by moonlight? I'd be much too curious not to inquire.

.

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by Bookie

Would it be out of line to ask the man why he gardens by moonlight? I'd be much too curious not to inquire.

Oh sure, come up with the simple, obvious response, why don't you.

Actually, I thought of that at first, but then, I decided that I didn't want to risk becoming the next garden feed.

[TinyFish]

Actually, on GardenWeb there was a whole thread at one time about gardening at night. Some people had so much to do in the garden that they did some into the night, or they had to do it at night because they worked all day and into the evening. So it isn't THAT unusual. Night time is a good time to hunt for snails and people who fish sometimes go out at night to get worms for bait.

I suppose gardening at night is a tiny bit eccentric, but I guess suburbia is changing a lot if having a small vegetable plot is considered an odd thing. 99% of the reason I have a suburban house is so I can have gardens, Vegetable and ornamental! When I was growing up, not so long ago, vegetable gardens were very common in the neighborhood. One neighbor had quite a large one.

Oh, and on GardenWeb they will tell you that the correct place to bury bodies (like those of anyone who messes with your garden) is in the compost heap. Burying them under stands of mostly-grown corn would be bad for the corn!

-TinyFish

[rob62521]

Gosh, Tinyfish, I thought burying the bodies under corn would provide great fertilizer. Guess I am wrong! :-)

My husband has done his yardwork at night because he works during the day and because of bad weather had to wait to plant a bush or whatever.

[TinyFish]

I was thinking more of the issue of digging up the corn to plant people under it . Not to mention when the police dig up all your lovely corn acting on a tipoff from a concerned neighbor! Though I suppose you might also have a problem with too high a nitrogen content. So in the end, the best place is still the compost pile! As they say on GardenWeb...It All Leads Back To Compost.

[Bookie]

"Dust thou art, and to dust thou shall return."

[rob62521]

Originally Posted by TinyFish

I was thinking more of the issue of digging up the corn to plant people under it . Not to mention when the police dig up all your lovely corn acting on a tipoff from a concerned neighbor! Though I suppose you might also have a problem with too high a nitrogen content. So in the end, the best place is still the compost pile! As they say on GardenWeb...It All Leads Back To Compost.

Thanks for the clarification! Guess you are right!

[lexi_kaye]

Okay, there are actually certainly crops that you are to plant by the light of the moon, but that is the point, by the light of the moon, not big high powered lights waking up your neighbors. He sounds crazy to me! Yes, I might tinker a bit in the garden in the evening or perhaps even in the middle of the night if I couldn't sleep or the dog decided she wanted out, but I certainly am not setting up lights to do it. I would either not do it if the moon wasn't full enough or turn on my patio light and hope it shed enough light. If not, I wasn't meant to be doing that right now!

[PrincessPerky]

"by the light of the moon, by the light of a star, I would never walk, I would take a car"

sorry DR seuss been read one to many times!

[sarah4554]

Now I wonder what my neighbors are saying about me. I go outside and garden at night all the time. I don't sleep very much and sometimes I just can't finish everything during the day. One night I put spotlights on my shed and repainted it until like 2am.

Not crazy, not burying dead bodies, just can't sleep.

There is never anything on tv late at night and sometimes I think if I go outside I will expend enough energy so that I can go to sleep.

Good news I have NO corn.

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by sarah4554

Now I wonder what my neighbors are saying about me. I go outside and garden at night all the time. I don't sleep very much and sometimes I just can't finish everything during the day. One night I put spotlights on my shed and repainted it until like 2am.

[Cue in scary music]

It was a dark and omnious night. BA peeks nervously out his window, watching sarah4554 stab violently into the ground, mutilating the earth with an otherwise seemingly harmless garden hoe. The orgy of carnage went on, late into the night, as she continued her psychopathic rampage against Mother Earth by... um... painting the shed! The horror! What has that poor shed ever done to anyone? And yet, there it lies, in the dead of the night, drenched in stroke after stroke of bloody paint in eerie silence. Won't anyone think of the sheds?!"