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Posted by Jamie McIntosh May 26, 2008 |
Have you ever tried to grow a plant that’s touted as “easy to grow,” only to experience one failure after another? Sunflowers fall into that category for me. I live in the sunflower state for gosh sakes, so you’d think I could tend a small sunflower patch in my yard. Even my husband concurred: “They’re weeds where I grew up,” he claims.
The problem is that many things like to eat sunflowers. Birds pluck the seeds from the earth. Insects mow down tender stems. Squirrels run amok through giant seed heads. Birds return to finish what’s left.
Today, I devised a new way to control a predator that has plagued me in the past, the cutworm. I’ve used physical barriers to keep these caterpillars from wrapping around the young stems, but I haven’t liked the trashy appearance of straws, toilet paper rolls, or 10 penny nails littering my garden.
Standing on the shoulders of other gardening giants, I modified these barriers by inserting a thin piece of florist’s wire beside each seed. I cackled inwardly as I imagined the worms foiled in the night by these nearly invisible wires.
I was filled with mirth until about halfway through planting, when the laborious nature of placing a wire perfectly alongside each seed began to wear on me. As my fingers trembled, I began to feel great empathy for those artisans who create detailed paintings on a grain of rice. Beads of sweat dropped from my forehead into each seed hole, giving the sunflowers their first taste of moisture. Thoughts of 14-foot giants in my front yard stopping traffic compelled me to finish. Check back in 3 months, and I’ll let you know how it worked out.