Sunflowers

Last year we grew sunflowers along the side of our back deck. We have always wanted to grow them, but each time we planted the seed something would dig up them up. We blamed the squirrels and birds. We were smart last year and planted the seeds in a big planter in the house. We transplanted the little seedlings when they were a couple of weeks old. Some didn’t make it through the transplant process. A few were knocked over later on during a big rain storm. A couple were destroyed during a backyard game of kickball. Finally, by mid-summer we had a half a dozen sunflower plants with flowers.

We saved seeds from last year’s sunflowers in the hopes of growing a batch this year. Again we planted the little seeds in a planter. We set it out on the garden cart on the back deck to get some warmth from the sun. The next day we went out to water the planter. All of the seeds were dug up and dirt was all over the deck. We couldn’t believe that some little creature had the audacity to come next to the house, climb up the garden cart and dig up all of the seeds. The strange thing was that there were no empty sunflower shells to be found. We realized it must be a chipmunk that stashed them in his cheeks and brought them back home with him. Luckily, we found another small bag of sunflower seeds that we had saved. We were a little smarter with the second batch and kept the planter in the house. After only five days, the seeds began emerging from the soil.