A lot of work went into our first-ever corn maze adventure in 2008. First, we attended corn maze- building courses and visited lots of other mazes throughout Ontario and the States.

Then we began the corn maze process! We chose high heat unit corn that grows tall and stays green well into the growing season. To optimize its growth we applied fertilizers as required (only to shudder when we received the bill!).

We planted the corn last May using a 30" row planter. The corn was planted twice- the second planting being at a right angle to the first, which produced a 15" grid pattern. Sound like a lot of work? Well, you're right!

Using graph paper to represent the corn grid, we drew the design for our corn maze theme ("Temple of the Sun"). When the corn was at the 8 leaf stage in mid-July, we used three people to mark the rows and then hoe them out with a sharp hoe. Each person walked 10 km that day, and one week later we had to re-hoe the corn that was missed or regrew!

There were other things to look after too, such as cleaning out stones from the paths, and discouraging the racoons from climbing and eating the cobs (they caused a lot of damage). After more hoeing, we used a backpack sprayer which applied a herbicide to prevent the growth of any new weeds.

The result was a 3.7-acre corn maze with about 3 kilometres of trails, and corn as high as twelve feet in some places. And after all that hard work, our fantastic-looking corn maze proved to be a great success! We now look forward to coming up with a great new corn maze theme every year!

"Temple of the Sun", 2008

"Blast Off From Cape Cornaveral", 2009