Sunflower Sumer

This was the year of Winter Sowing.
A new and ancient method of seed starting.
New for me
ancient for the planet.

In late December,
on the solstice if you want to celebarte the suns’ journey,
recycled milk jugs and deeper potting pots
with good drainage holes
are filled with about 4″ of seed starting soil.
Then a packet of seeds is scattered over the top,
carefully marked for much later identification…
or not so carefully in my case…
and sprinkled with water
and covered with a plastic lid
or in my case a ziplock back with ventilation holes.
(Pro tip: A soldering iron saved time, and strain on my hands, in the making of all those holes.)

And then the fun part…
put those jugs outside and walk away.

Mother Nature does the rest.

The beauty and the wonder
of my new studio
is that it was plunked right smack in the middle of my garden.

So, of course,
Maggie and I inspected all those pots each day on our walks.
I was a bit skeptical
but not Maggie.
Joyous trust is her superpower.

We had, per usual,
exceeded our enthusiasm
and of the initial 100 pots sown in the winter
there was about an 85% success rate.

And among those
the sunflowers were
simply the best.
Encircling the tomato plants
lining the Ruth Stout Garden
they made this
one to remember
the Sunflower Summer.