Sunflowers

Ok, so I know that I have been slacking here lately on posting things to my blog. I'm sure you all think it's because I'm super busy and have so many different things to do that I just simply don't have the time to update my blog. Well, I wish that were the case. See, I don't really feel good about 90% of the time, and the 10% of the time I do feel good is spent doing more important things like cleaning and organizing my home, spending time with my husband, and going to the garden. I'm sad to say there were two weeks I wasn't able to go to the garden due to being ill. However, my husband and my brother both went and took pictures and have just been working their little hearts out on our little piece of land. Want to see our garden grow? Check out this slideshow:

The grasshopper epidemic of this summer has since died down. They have successfully eaten all our carrots, onions, bush beans, pole beans, corn, marigolds, most of our potatoes (though we did get a small crop and have one plant still standing), my brothers broccoli, his carrots, his corn, and most of the petals on the sunflowers. They have not eaten our zucchini, crookneck squash, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, my brother's cucumbers, his cherry tomatoes, our pumpkins, the horseradish, or the watermelons. Even though our garden (and all the others in the nearby vicinity) were hit hard by the grasshoppers, I am still amazed at how resilient some of our plants are. Case in point: the sunflowers. Let's talk about those for a minute.

The sunflower seeds we bought were Mammoth Gray Stripe Sunflowers. We purposely planted them as a trap crop, meaning that we would plant and grow them and use them to attract all the harmful insects and birds that would inevitably invade our garden. We had no intention of getting any other use out of them except for that. In essence, they were our designated sacrificial plants. We thought it would be cool if we could get some seeds out of them, but we wouldn't be upset if they were eaten, used, and abused by the bugs and animals and ended up dying all together.

And used they were. Once the swarm of locusts hit we were sure those poor sunflowers didn't stand a chance. Those wretch-ed pests just kept eating the leaves and hovering around the top of the plant where a flower was just ready to emerge. I will admit, it was a little heartbreaking to see such great plants be struck down by such vicious little beasts. One flower we lost all together, but the rest stood resolute in their places while grasshoppers feasted on their tender leaves.

Each week, as we drove out to the garden, our thoughts would turn toward the sunflowers and how we were sure this was the week we would find them all dead, their broken stems lying in the mud like small trees being cut down in a tiny forest. And each week we would be pleasantly surprised to not only see them still standing, but to see they had grown another foot as well. Those sunflowers just kept going! Finally, we saw a flower, but the grasshoppers had gotten to it before we even had a chance to take a picture and by the next week it was dead. Yet, still the sunflowers persevered.

Now, there are flowers popping up all over the place, and even some that have regrown their leaves and appear to be much stronger (if that's even possible) than the first ones hit. Some of the petals are still being eaten by the grasshoppers, but they still grow. The sunflowers still stand. They are still the bright spot in our garden.

I am just so amazed at how strong those sunflowers are. Sometimes I think about how it would be if I were a sunflower. Following the light of the sun all day I would absorb the rays and light as best I could. I would grow my roots strong and deep, and ration my water in times of drought. What would it be like to see the waves of locusts headed my way and not be able to move to a more sheltered location? Facing adversity under sheltered conditions takes some strength, but knowing what is coming, actually seeing the onslaught coming your way and facing it head on takes straight up courage. I know you're probably thinking that I'm being silly, that plants can't just pick up and move so they don't really have a choice. However, I think plants have the ability to fight. Our carrots, onions and sunflowers were all attacked by the same insect. The same swarm ate their way through most of our garden and the carrots, and onions were taken right out and didn't put up much of a fight. But those sunflowers did, and not only did they put up a fight, they continued to grow and found a way to cope with their circumstances.

The sunflower is my favorite flower and has been since I was a kid. Growing them in my garden this year has shown me a lot of different things about being strong through adversity, and still trying to thrive in even the worst of conditions. Next year I plan on planting a whole row of these flowers and see what sort of lessons they can teach me then.