Sunflowers

Last year in the very early spring, in a fit of hope and optimism after a difficult and very long winter, I went to Home Depot and bought a dozen packages of sunflower seeds, all different kinds. I planted them everywhere on our almost acre of property. I planted them all around the house, in the rear of every flowerbed, in my vegetable garden, and along the back fence that separated our dog yard from the lower 40. For weeks, I walked around in happy anticipation of the glorious riot of happy sunflowers that would surround us all summer; bringing hope and happy visions to all. Well, I guess I brought a lot of hope and full bellies to a lot of birds because not one came up. Not one. For several days I walked around the property thinking maybe there was a scraggly stem coming up in some hidden corner. Telling myself that this really wasn’t a sign of gloom and doom to come, just a sign of hungry birds. Finally, one morning when I thought it was all over, I saw two tall stalks growing in front of the back fence. I didn’t need a whole field of sunflowers for optimism; I would be able to see these two tall sentries every time I walked out my back door. It was enough.

Two days later our gardeners cut down the “weeds” growing along the fence.

This year, along with my very ambitious vegetable garden, I planted just a few sunflower seeds. A couple of days I noted that one of the taller weeds had a golden flower head with a dark eye that follows the sun. I finally have my sunflower.

Lazy, Hazy Daze of Summer

It has been hot, hot, hot and I have been lazy. It is amazing how enervating this weather is. I have not even made cookies in weeks. The only constructive thing I have been steadily working on is my cotton summer sweater. Maybe it will be done before September. And I do have some incentive to finish it. I have a new pattern picked out to make my mom a cardigan for Christmas and I will not allow myself to buy the yarn until I finish the front and back of this sweater and only have the sleeves to knit.

Not one new pictures. Even the hummingbirds are lazy. I was spotting them a dozen times a day coming to my feeder, but since the Rose-O-Sharon in neighboring yards came into bloom, it must be easier to buzz around several big bushes than fly all the way up to my deck.

My garden is still doing great. The tomatoes are so big that they knocked over all the tomato cages! BG kindly pounded in some tall stakes and I tied up the cages and stray tomato stalks so now they are growing upright. While tying them up I found what I thought was a melon vine (my melons are quite healthy) which was growing up one of the tomatoes is actually a cucumber. So one of my cukes escaped the marauding hoards. I also have quite a few either beans or peas. I think beans. I actually picked my first cherry tomato yesterday. And I bought mason jars in anticipation of canning my tomato bounty.

I promise to take more pics today. I spotted several plants that looked interesting and camera worthy, but yesterday I was too lazy!

Hidden Treasure

We are in the middle of a delightful stretch of summer weather, hot, but not too hot, not too humid, sunny. Who could ask for anything more? When wandering around my yard last week, taking pictures of flowers, I came across this tiny perfect orange flower and immediately went inside to look it up. It is a scarlet pimpernel! How cool is that? The flowers are barely a quarter inch across and hidden between some big bushy decorative grasses. My theory on weeks is if it has a nice flower and does not completely take over a flower I planted deliberately, it stays.

Darn These Pictures!

Obviously I do not know how to manage my photos on this blog. The best picture I wansted to post got cut off. So here it is in its very own post. Sophie delicately smelling a hibiscus flower.

Garden Catch Up

I am including a few pictures of my garden and of Sophie, cousin to Ferdinand the bull.

After a week with a combination of rain/thunderstorms, feeling under the weather and stifling heat, I finally got outside yesterday morning. It was cloudy, but surprising cool and no threat of immediate rain. I weeded all my flowerbeds and planted the few last minute pots of annuals I had purchased. I will NOT walk through Home Depots Garden Center again, I will NOT. I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of my tiger lilies, planted this spring, are sending up flower spikes. I did not expect to see any flowers till next year. The best surprise is how lovely the portulacas are. I really bought them because I remember my dad planting them and I liked the fleshy leaves. Well, they are the loveliest little flowers. I looked them up and they are also called moss roses and I can see why. They are bright colored jewels of all different colors. They will be on my permanent list of annuals from now on.

I saved the vegetable garden for last. It was decimated by a marauding gang of ground hogs and their chipmunk flunkies. Then totally overgrown by a week of neglect and rain. I managed to clear out the front section and found rows of flat leaf parsley and cilantro. I planted a pot of each to give the little seedlings encouragement. I found half a dozen carrots that fought their way through the purslane and crab grass. I looked up purslane and it is a very healthy salad plant and it is quite tasty. I am thinking I should just abandon the garden to its whims. However, the tomatoes and hot peppers look like they will march up to the house and demand to make sauce out of me. You can see them in the picture on the far right) I guess that Miracle Grow was worth it.