I’ve truly enjoyed the sunflowers this year. I sowed seeds for ‘Van Gogh’s Fantasy’ mix from Sunflower Steve Seed Co along my back fence.
I marked where I sowed each seed with a popsicle stick so later I could go back and fill in any gaps where a seed didn’t germinate. I also secretly hoped that the popsicle sticks would keep a rabbit from eating all the seedlings.
The seeds weren’t cheap! If the rabbits had eaten all the seedlings it would have been like owning a fancy restaurant, serving your best food, and then watching as the customer ate it without regard to how special it was and worse, dashed out the door without paying.
Fortunately, from what I could tell, there wasn’t a single seedling eaten off by rabbits, or anything else.
There were a few spots where a seedling didn’t appear so I used some leftover seed to sow another seed in that spot.
Which is probably why in the midst of my row of faded, nodding sunflowers, I still have a few sunflowers that are standing tall.
Late bloomers.
‘Tis the season for late bloomers and I don’t mean just flowers. The big question people ask this time of year is whether or not it is too late to do plant-sow-move-dig-build. Name your project.
I’d love for the answer to be that now is the time you can do anything you want in your garden, but strictly speaking that’s not true. You can’t, for example, sow a sunflower seed today and expect it to grow and flower before the first frost. At least not here. Maybe you can where you don’t get frost…
But it is certainly an excellent time for many other garden projects. The days are cooler, the pace is slower, and there is still time for quite a bit of gardening.
So don’t look at the calendar and think that it’s all coming to an end, this gardening season. Instead look and see how much time there still is to enjoy the garden before frost, how much time there is to do a little planting-sowing-moving-digging-building. In cooler weather, too. In pansy weather! (Topic for another blog post.)
After all, there are still sunflowers standing tall.
I want to try sunflowers next year–the exclamation point stand tall (or lean tall) effect looks cool among lower-growing plants.
Yours look great with the Zinnias and the weathered wood of the fence.
Thanks! That fence needs to be replaced but I do like the patina….
Beautiful sunflowers. I didn’t plant any this year, although I do have a few volunteers around the yard from years past. But what is this “cooler weather” phenomenon you speak of? We’ll have 100+ degree days well into September but I eagerly await experiencing it. October, maybe?
Hopefully by October you’ll have some cooler days. I’ll send some!
Your sunflowers are lovely! We are a good month away from cooler weather, I look forward to it.
It was cool this morning, but am I ready for it? Maybe!