Sunflowers

A few weeks ago I received an email from an associate at Keep Denton Beautiful about The Great Sunflower Project. This is a project designed for research into learning more about bees and where and when they are at work pollinating our gardens. To help with this research, this project sent out sunflower seeds.

Whether your garden contains vegetables, fuit trees, flowers, or even herbs, many of these plants must be pollinated before a fruit forms. And as the headlines for the last year have made clear, bees are under threat.

Very little is known about bee activity in home and community gardens and their surrounding environments, but they are a crucial link in the survival of native habitats and local produce, not to mention our beautiful urban gardens. Our local pollinator populations require our understanding & protection, and to answer that call this project was created to learn more about our local pollinators.

The seeds are for Helianthus annus. The flower grows to about 3-4 inches across on 3-foot tall plants.

I didn't really have a place set up for these seeds so I took the cinder blocks that I had in the corner of the house and set up a small garden against the back wall of the house. I've been getting prepared for an organic backyard farm and this is a perfect first step.

I planted the seeds and while I was at it, I also planted a tomato, jalapeno, and a bell pepper. Then in the holes of the cinder blocks I planted some alyssum, basil that was growing from seeds from last year's plant, and marigold.

I'm quite pleased with it. I'm looking forward to that first seedling coming up and am hoping for a bumper crop of bees to visit my little farm.

A walk around the block.

My exercise these days comes in the form of walking around my block a couple of times a few mornings a week. I leave my cell phone at home and just walk. I think about the day and mostly I think about my neighbor's yards. Most look like every other yard , but some have their own personality. There's the house that has a couple of wicker chairs and a table set right between to hold that morning cup of coffee. Everyone now and then the owner forgets to take the cup inside and I wonder if she got so caught up in the beautiful morning that she's running late for work!

I always look for treasures on the side of the road as I walk. One morning I came home with three pinecones that are now in my front planter. Another day I found a pillow?! I brought it home and washed it right away and it now graces my bed. I've picked up flower seeds and pecans. I found a dead dragonfly and brought it home to pin into a picture frame.

Another walk took me by the abandoned house that has wild honeysuckle growing through bushes and trees at the fence line. As I walked by, the scent of it lightened my step and my spirit.