The hunger for soil under the fingernails in spring’s first warm days does crazy things to the mind. Each year I mentally plot out my garden with the intention of rotating crops.
This time I wondered if I put in two mounds of squash could I plant sunflowers around them? My idea was that the squash would use the sturdy sunflower stems as a trellis of sorts. That should work, right?
Welllllll. It didn’t. By time the sunflowers were thick enough to be of support, the squash had run amok between the tomatoes. Meanwhile the sunflowers, free of responsibility, took on a Jack and the Beanstalk demeanor.
They grew, and grew, and grew. I haven’t measured, but some of them have to be at least 11 feet high. Even the bees have to wear oxygen masks to sniff the pollen at that altitude. J
In the backyard, where I didn’t plant sunflowers but the chipmunks did, the plants have shorter stalks but huge sunflower heads. Huge!
I just shrug and enjoy the way nature does what she does. There’s something about a sunflower that demands happiness…sort of like banjo music.
Tall, huge, irresponsible sunflowers? The best part of my day.
My Dad used to delight in telling me that EVERY time you tried to control nature. . . . you lost! It was the one thing you could count on, he taught me. It IS the best part of my day too.
Oh my gosh, Claudia. He was a brilliant man. Is that where you got your smarts?