Friday, March 30, 2012

Sunflower Power


I have been sorting seeds these last weeks, getting several planted in small containers under fluorescent lamps. Today as I sorted through sunflower seeds, I was surprised and delighted as to how many I have collected through the years. Thinking this summer it will be awesome to have various colors and sizes throughout the property.

I plan to plant Russian, Mammoth Edible Pod, Mammoth Gray, Bicolored Mix Evening Sun, Magic Roundabout(the pedals are bright orange near the center and yellow tips), Goldfinger, Italian White, Velvet Queen (a chestnut red blossom), Summertime Mix (a wonderful mix, some with bicolors, reds, rust, orange, some with mixed colors).

As I was going through old photos recently, I happened upon a picture of my grandfather, Napoleon LaBonte. A very proud man, with an awesome garden everyday of his life. Here he is about 84 years old. He had the greenest thumb in all of Spalding, MI. In his younger days he grew acres of berries to sell to the local grocers and to the towns people to can.

This is me with a volunteer Mammoth from my bird feeder, I nurtured it all through the summer. The seed head measured out about 18 inches across. I used the dead stalk through the winter months to hang homemade suet cakes on for the birds. I finally worked it out of the ground a couple weeks ago. It was still pretty solid in the ground, pretty heavy as well. I felt like a pole vaulter carrying it while Ed snapped my picture holding it. I tried to load a picture here, somehow there was a glitch that kept it from loading.