Rewilding My Lot

To have received so many volunteer sunflowers in this first year here has been such a gift. They have colorfully provided food for birds and insects that I hadn’t planned and I’ve enjoyed watching all that.

Over time, each of the plants has been removed to make way for other projects and it’s time for the last one to go for this year — I am confident that there are plenty of seeds in the ground for others to grow next year!

This sunflower grew tall and strong in front of the house for months, but it has pretty much finished flowering so I’ve finally chopped it down.

I have found that ants are very fond of sunflower plants. I learned an important lesson one time when cutting another down. I thought I was being helpful in shaking the plant to release as many seeds as possible before chopping the stem, but ended up with a bunch of biting ants in my clothing as a result.

So, wiser this time, I chopped this one down with a long-handled tool and carried it quickly to the back garden. The next day it was chopped into pieces and added to the back of the wood pile.

And the remaining stem in the ground, which was seething with unhappy ants, can wait to be dug up another time.