Thursday, October 20, 2011

30 - 18: Sunflowers

Greetings -
Sorry, tiny spiders, and other wispy beings that had been napping cozily in between the sunflower seeds still outdoors on chilly but tough little heads.

This morning was harvest time for the five stalks out by the fireplace. The much larger specimens out in the actual garden dropped their bounty weeks ago. I had no warning and, judging from the empty husks on the ground, the rodents/birds must have eaten their fill. Sigh and oh well. They were grown to be consumed and consumed they were. Some days we have no voice in what happens to our plans. Plan anyway! And plant anyway!

And plant any way. This year we grew garden goodies in real garden, Hansel egg plant in flower bed, sage and basil here and there. Experimented with peppers/tomatoes in some spots where they did not thrive. Sorry, plants. Even now, with frosts all around, one brave pepper is sporting lots of potential blossoms. It's finally hoping to do the growing-produce it was bred and planted to do. Sorry, pepper. Seeded lettuces in large flower pots lorded over by magnificent giant huge red coleus. I thought that the color combos would be fun, plus harvesting salad greens from patio would be fun. No fun. Lettuces didn't have a chance.

What thrived? Basils of several kinds, sunflowers, Swiss Chard, cauliflower, tomatoes. Even the green beans produced well. They just didn't know that I still don't love green beans and thus somewhat ignored their filling plants. Sorry, green beans.

I'd hoped to harvest the huge lovely sunflowers that backed the garden. Sigh. One day the heads were full of plump goodness and soon afterward the ground was covered with empty husks. Why and how? I do not know. Should I have cut the heads off earlier and left them to dry somewhere "safe"? Will have to ask around.

And now the Brussel Sprouts are finally sprouting. It was our first time playing with these guys, and reports all around spoke of no sprouts or late sprouts. I was comforted to know that it wasn't just me as novice sprout gardener. Now the stalks are sporting a number of teeny lumps and clumps, so we shall see. I have the courage to attempt them next year.

Ahhh. On to next year.......
Thanks, sunflowers!
May your day be seeded with sunshine.
- Sue

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