This past fall, my friend Jill gave me some sunflower seeds she saved from her garden. As she filled the little bags with seeds I stopped her and said, “That’s more then I could even dream of planting.” At this point I had no idea when or where I would be able to plant them.
Once we were back in Yuma, Arizona, I realized there would be time to grow my sunflowers before we would be relocating again. I decided to plant them right out our door in front of a brick wall I’ve always thought was rather ugly. Having a wall of sunflowers there will be beautiful!
To prepare the soil, I raked over the area to pick up the dead palm tree branches and other debris. For the past 3 years, I’ve been dumping my old potting soil in this back corner so it was somewhat like a compost pile I guess. I raked this over the area I intended to plant as well. Then I grabbed what was left of my bag of Amend, probably about 3/4 of the bag, and poured that over the area as well. Next I gently dug over the area to loosen everything up and mix the potting soil and amend into the sand. Not much, but better than nothing I figure! All I know is that water drains right through the sand, so I’m hoping the added soil and amend will help to retain moisture between waterings.
9 day later I was feeling a bit anxious about my little seeds. Did I plant them too deep? Did I let them dry out too much? Did the birds get to them after all? I imagine my neighbors thought I was crazy as I knelt over my little square of dirt examining and searching desperately for sprouts.
FINALLY, on day 11 they started to emerge from the soil. Being a teaching day for me, I gave them a good dose of water and then spent the rest of the day in my studio teaching until after dark. After dinner, I grabbed a flashlight and went outside to count my sprouts. LOL! Now I know the neighbors think I must be a crazy women. There were 13 sprouts the first night, 21 the next morning. Then it was 31, 42, 51, and at most recent count there were 60. I’m content now and will wait until I’m sure all have sprouted before I count again! HAHA.
