Sunflower Summer

The new country lay open before me: there were no fences in those days, and I could choose my own way over the grass uplands, trusting the pony to get me home again. Sometimes I followed the sunflower-bordered roads. Fuchs told me that the sunflowers were introduced into that country by the Mormons; that at the time of the persecution, when they left Missouri and struck out into the wilderness to find a place where they could worship God in their own way, the members of the first exploring party, crossing the plains to Utah, scattered sunflower seed as they went. The next summer, when the long trains of wagons came through with all the women and children, they had the sunflower trail to follow. I believe that botanists do not confirm Fuchs’s story, but insist that the sunflower was native to those plains. Nevertheless, that legend has stuck in my mind, and sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom.

A couple months ago I was walking in to my favorite grocery store (Macey’s) and saw these seeds. For years now I’ve wanted to plant giant sunflowers along my back fence – but like all things yard, I was at a loss as to where to start. It seemed all the sunflowers I saw in neighbors yards were  . . . not what I wanted. Last summer one of my neighbors had a fabulous sunflower patch. I know because Olivia and would walk by and see their giant heads peeking over the six foot fence. “Grey Stripes” she told me. I kept my eye out for seeds.

I never found them, but I found these. If they turn out like the packet promises (8-10 feet) I will be very pleased indeed.

I didn’t know how many seeds were in a packet – I guessed maybe five? So I bought six packets. When Olivia and I opened them to count – each packet averaged 30 seeds! 30×6=A LOT OF SUNFLOWERS!

Before we could plant we had to do our prep work: weed the back yard. Luckily weeding sand is a very easy task. Spread in Turkey Compost – I didn’t really know how to do this – I was warned if I didn’t get it mixed in right, stuff wouldn’t grow. But stuff wouldn’t grow without it (backyard=sand), so I did my best. Here’s hoping.

Then we planted about half our seeds (we have alot of seed!) along the back fence. Wish me luck that I have a beautiful fence of sunflowers this summer!