Sunflower Forest 2013

The sunflower forest is blooming, and once again it filling our back yard with canary yellow blooms and scratchy plant walls.  (Check out last year's forest here.)  Bees, beetles, flies, and butterflies are going to work, and the birds are waiting on the perimeter to catch the seeds when they mature.  In addition to the sunflowers, we have a nice row of zinnias.  I love zinnias; they're easy to grow, are attractive to many butterflies and other insects, come in every color, and look nice in a vase.  Sunflower blooms and the critters they attract make the commencement of summer much more enjoyable.

You can see the effects of a dry winter even after several good rains in April on this year's forest.  This summer is starting out (and hopefully continues) a bit cooler than last year which is also a factor in the size of our forest.  The plants are quite a bit shorter and a little less monstrous than last year's forest, but there is still have some growing time left.

June 1st 2013

May 26th, 2012

Last year, I found lots of fun sunflower faces in our forest, and this year I turned the camera on the mutants!  It's fun to think of all the varieties of tomato, apple, and flowers that arose from mutants.  Some of the sunflower mutants remind me of the muppets; crazy arms, and hair going everywhere.