For eight years the Lyles family has opened their family farm,

Alan and Susan Griswold accompany thier children (left to right) Eva, Abel and Ivy Grace through the corn maze on Saturday, September 23.

photo by David Chavez

off Picacho near I-10, to the
public to find their way through a huge corn maze. This year’s unexpected rainy weather is delaying the family’s maze preparation.

Mesilla Valley Corn Maze owner Anna

Lyles has been picking up the mess the August rains brought to her thirty-five acres. Lyles said they’ve been delayed in preparing for the maze opening.

“It put us behind by several weeks, instead of being able to cut the maze out when the corn was only knee high, it was such a sloppy mess,” said Lyles.

The corn grew to about six feet tall and made it more difficult to cut out the maze pattern. “So every time we chopped corn,” says Lyles “we actually had to pick it up and carry out.” She says the increased height makes the work way more difficult.

“When it gets really tall you have to carry it out, you have to run rooter tillers through, choppers, and then blades to smooth the paths, you never get them nice and smooth like you like to,” explained Lyles.

Lyles says when the land is soggy, it is nearly impossible to use a tractor. The twelve inches of rain in one month is surely catastrophic in a desert where farmers are used to eight inches a year.

“By the time the rains were over, we could walk in there without rubber boots on, the weeds were up at our waist,” says Lyles, “we’ve got nothing to do but to go in there and pull them out by hand and chop them up by whole and then haul them out of there.”

Aside from the high corn stalks and tomatoes that burst from too much water, Lyles said the chili and the pumpkin patches were also damaged.  “We’re scared to death,” Lyles said, “the rain has caused not only chili wilt and hundreds of acres of chili, but it’s giving us powdery mildew in the pumpkins, we’re using everything we can to help, to try and stop it, but there’s not going to be as many pumpkins this year as there have been in the past. Thankfully we have other farms that we have other pumpkins growing on.”

Lyles says there won’t be as many pumpkins this year, but some of the lively ones are looking good. She says “They’re still growing really well, they’re going to be nice-good sized pumpkins, matter of fact, I’ve got a couple that are well over a hundred pounds already.”

Lyles says despite the delay, their extra long work days will get the maze in working order. “We’ve been working from 6:30 in the morning until we can’t see anymore, trying to get things ready,” said Lyles, “But we’re gonna make it, it’s all coming together. It’s gonna happen and we’ll open the gates, gates will open next Saturday.”

Wednesday’s rain and hail did put the preparation behind schedule again, however Lyles said “If it doesn’t rain again we’ll be fine.”

The Mesilla Valley Corn Maze is set to be open from September 23rd until October 29th.

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