Sunshine Story: Sunflower Shenanigans - July 14, 2021
(Note: When I use actual numbers, I am referring to plants. [For the most part. But not always.] For example, “1.” When I write out the numbers, I’m referring to other things. For example, “one.” If you are a math-phobe, you’ll understand. If you are a math-lover or an English teacher, your head may explode. I apologize in advance. 😊)
*****
Says my husband, “Shall I get out my boots and shovel?”
He wasn’t implying that what I was saying was a whole lot of horsepoop. Rather, it was time to transplant another forest of sunflowers.
How did this come about? A very lovely young woman I know passed away with covid-nineteen early this Spring. She was only twenty-eight years old. To honour her, I bought 28 packages of sunflower seeds and gave them away to folks who had gardens. I asked the receivers to plant a few sunflowers for her and to share these seeds with other.
Me, I bought a couple of packages of 50. I know how useless I am at gardening. So if I planted 100, I reckoned I might see 3 or 4 come to life. You roll your eyes, but my sister-in-law Colleen knows that plants shriek in horror when I walk by.
OK, now where to plant? Laur and I had four flower boxes on top of our patio and two veggie boxes on the patio floor. OK, 1 seed each in the top boxes. 2 seeds each in the bottom boxes. I didn’t think any would come up. That’s 8 seeds by my math.
Our garden box in the back yard of Jubilee Place – our retirement home? 8 down both long sides and 4 down both short sides. That’s 24. Let’s see – 8 plus 24 – that equals 32. Only (100 minus 32) 68 more to go. Except that in the meantime I bought another package of about 50.
We have three garden boxes at our church. One for us, and two where the produce we grow is given to the residents at the seniors’ apartment building on the grounds of Grace Mennonite. 3 times 24? 72! So, 72 plus 32 equals 104 seeds planted.
I still had some left over, so I planted some in the gardens we set up at Tom’s and Julie’s (son and daughter-in-law.) And I have most of a package left for next year.
And just like I predicted, not all of them sprouted. But the ones that did, came up like TREES! Not all at once and not in all of the gardens, but enough to cause a wee gardening crisis. The sunflowers in our retirement home garden – because they were getting full sun – were blocking the sun from our vegetable plants. Plus it was hard to see the wee forest of tomatoes for these trees!
I wrote my adorable son-in-law Neal and asked if he could take some sunflowers. And yes, he could. They had a small empty flower bed beside their patio. His jaw dropped and nearly his cup of coffee too when I arrived with 9 of the sunflowers I had pulled from our senior’s garden. He was expecting plants about twelve inches tall. These were easily three to four feet – taller than Jasper anyway. Good think Neal is Buddhist-like. Om…
Laur had his shovel, I had my boots, and we dug deep holes for our Helianthus annuus. Their Latin name – I wanted to “class” things up. I watered. We dumped them in. And we ran off before Neal could change his mind…
Mid-planting, I warned Neal that they would initially droop due to shock but most would recover. 8 of 9 of them quickly came back to life. One of them now has three heads! They should call that one Granny Jan.
A week passed and the 4 sunflowers I planted for our top patio boxes were beginning to look like they might ambush some of the seniors strolling by… And another 2 in our backyard garden box were starting to look menacing… 6 more to transplant!
“Oh Neal?” A mother-in-law can be a life sentence. I definitely am one. He figured we could plant a few around a tree in the back yard, though there were some tulip bulbs there … (Sigh!)
No worries mate! Laur, Jasper, and I arrived with 5 more gigantic sunflowers – I kept 1 for us. This time daughter Anna was there to oversee the process. She is very used to our shenanigans. Here is what you need to know. Anna truly doesn’t care about what happens on the grounds of their property. This is a good thing. Laur dug the holes, Jasper collected the tulip bulbs, I watered, and together we plunked the sunflowers into their new home.
On this day, rather than running away, Laur and I treated Anna, child M, M’s friend S, and Jasper to ice cream at the Serendipity Ice Cream Shop. M and S didn’t want their picture shared. This is why, in the ice cream shop pic, you’ll see two sunflower faces. 😊 After enjoying dirt and worms – OK, that’s the name of a chocolate sundae with added chocolate and gummy worms – not our gardening mishaps – Jasper entertained us with a “post-sugar high” dance. You can see it here if you have internet. https://www.facebook.com/jan.carrie.steven/videos/993913544482121
After that, Anna took M and S back to her place. We dropped Jasper off at his house. And went to check out our church gardens. There has not been a whole a lot of activity there – the veggie plants are mostly shaded. But now some of the veggies are starting to pop – AND so are some of the sunflowers!!!
I have run out of new takers. It’s like having an unspayed female cat – the number of kittens quickly exceeds the number of homes. But this isn’t my first rodeo. (Not a great mix of metaphors, I know. Imagine lassoing a cat! Or spaying a sunflower!) There is always a way.
The corner house on Jasper’s street has a number of sunflowers on its property. And the owners have planted a sunflower garden on what we think might be city property that is beside their house. It’s just a pile of dirt and I think the home owners are making a statement.
Maybe I can just sneak a few in. There is thing called “Guerrilla gardening” which is “the act of gardening on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites or areas that are not being cared for.”
Me, a guerrilla!? Who knew!? But I expect, if arrested, the one work detail they won’t put me on is gardening. 😊
*****
Says my husband, “Shall I get out my boots and shovel?”
He wasn’t implying that what I was saying was a whole lot of horsepoop. Rather, it was time to transplant another forest of sunflowers.
How did this come about? A very lovely young woman I know passed away with covid-nineteen early this Spring. She was only twenty-eight years old. To honour her, I bought 28 packages of sunflower seeds and gave them away to folks who had gardens. I asked the receivers to plant a few sunflowers for her and to share these seeds with other.
Me, I bought a couple of packages of 50. I know how useless I am at gardening. So if I planted 100, I reckoned I might see 3 or 4 come to life. You roll your eyes, but my sister-in-law Colleen knows that plants shriek in horror when I walk by.
OK, now where to plant? Laur and I had four flower boxes on top of our patio and two veggie boxes on the patio floor. OK, 1 seed each in the top boxes. 2 seeds each in the bottom boxes. I didn’t think any would come up. That’s 8 seeds by my math.
Our garden box in the back yard of Jubilee Place – our retirement home? 8 down both long sides and 4 down both short sides. That’s 24. Let’s see – 8 plus 24 – that equals 32. Only (100 minus 32) 68 more to go. Except that in the meantime I bought another package of about 50.
We have three garden boxes at our church. One for us, and two where the produce we grow is given to the residents at the seniors’ apartment building on the grounds of Grace Mennonite. 3 times 24? 72! So, 72 plus 32 equals 104 seeds planted.
I still had some left over, so I planted some in the gardens we set up at Tom’s and Julie’s (son and daughter-in-law.) And I have most of a package left for next year.
And just like I predicted, not all of them sprouted. But the ones that did, came up like TREES! Not all at once and not in all of the gardens, but enough to cause a wee gardening crisis. The sunflowers in our retirement home garden – because they were getting full sun – were blocking the sun from our vegetable plants. Plus it was hard to see the wee forest of tomatoes for these trees!
I wrote my adorable son-in-law Neal and asked if he could take some sunflowers. And yes, he could. They had a small empty flower bed beside their patio. His jaw dropped and nearly his cup of coffee too when I arrived with 9 of the sunflowers I had pulled from our senior’s garden. He was expecting plants about twelve inches tall. These were easily three to four feet – taller than Jasper anyway. Good think Neal is Buddhist-like. Om…
Laur had his shovel, I had my boots, and we dug deep holes for our Helianthus annuus. Their Latin name – I wanted to “class” things up. I watered. We dumped them in. And we ran off before Neal could change his mind…
Mid-planting, I warned Neal that they would initially droop due to shock but most would recover. 8 of 9 of them quickly came back to life. One of them now has three heads! They should call that one Granny Jan.
A week passed and the 4 sunflowers I planted for our top patio boxes were beginning to look like they might ambush some of the seniors strolling by… And another 2 in our backyard garden box were starting to look menacing… 6 more to transplant!
“Oh Neal?” A mother-in-law can be a life sentence. I definitely am one. He figured we could plant a few around a tree in the back yard, though there were some tulip bulbs there … (Sigh!)
No worries mate! Laur, Jasper, and I arrived with 5 more gigantic sunflowers – I kept 1 for us. This time daughter Anna was there to oversee the process. She is very used to our shenanigans. Here is what you need to know. Anna truly doesn’t care about what happens on the grounds of their property. This is a good thing. Laur dug the holes, Jasper collected the tulip bulbs, I watered, and together we plunked the sunflowers into their new home.
On this day, rather than running away, Laur and I treated Anna, child M, M’s friend S, and Jasper to ice cream at the Serendipity Ice Cream Shop. M and S didn’t want their picture shared. This is why, in the ice cream shop pic, you’ll see two sunflower faces. 😊 After enjoying dirt and worms – OK, that’s the name of a chocolate sundae with added chocolate and gummy worms – not our gardening mishaps – Jasper entertained us with a “post-sugar high” dance. You can see it here if you have internet. https://www.facebook.com/jan.carrie.steven/videos/993913544482121
After that, Anna took M and S back to her place. We dropped Jasper off at his house. And went to check out our church gardens. There has not been a whole a lot of activity there – the veggie plants are mostly shaded. But now some of the veggies are starting to pop – AND so are some of the sunflowers!!!
I have run out of new takers. It’s like having an unspayed female cat – the number of kittens quickly exceeds the number of homes. But this isn’t my first rodeo. (Not a great mix of metaphors, I know. Imagine lassoing a cat! Or spaying a sunflower!) There is always a way.
The corner house on Jasper’s street has a number of sunflowers on its property. And the owners have planted a sunflower garden on what we think might be city property that is beside their house. It’s just a pile of dirt and I think the home owners are making a statement.
Maybe I can just sneak a few in. There is thing called “Guerrilla gardening” which is “the act of gardening on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites or areas that are not being cared for.”
Me, a guerrilla!? Who knew!? But I expect, if arrested, the one work detail they won’t put me on is gardening. 😊