Mimi Sue's Cottage

A home is much more than a house built of lumber, brick, or stone. A home is made of love, sacrifice, and respect. We are responsible for the homes we build. We must build wisely, for eternity is not a short voyage. There will be calm and wind, sunlight and shadows, joy and sorrow. But if we really try, our home can be a bit of heaven here on earth. Thomas S Monson







Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Sunflower Forest

Before we started to build our house, the lot it sits on was the vegetable garden of our next door neighbor. The lot's almost a half acre and Wayne had a wonderful garden on it every year. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago and his widow, (who's now 96), couldn't keep the garden going. So she decided to sell the property and we were able to buy it. Every now and again some swiss chard or leaf lettuce emerges from the soil in a strange spot and I always think of the beautiful garden that was grown here for so many years. One of the many things he grew was sunflowers. Every year, on the west side of our house, up comes a sunflower forest.
This year we had a lot of rain in May and June and the sunflowers really loved it. We must have 200 plants. All of them volunteers.The birds love our sunflowers. We see golden finches, wrens, sparrows, robins, doves, and about 20 quail each day.



Thank you Wayne for the sunflowers. It's been a wonderful gift.

15 comments:

Rachel Berry said...

Those Sunflower are gorgeous!! I love sunflowers they just make me feel happy when I see them. :)

Sue said...

The Sunflowers are wonderful....how nice you have them to remember your neighbor by...

Anne Fannie said...

What beautiful Sunflowers and what a touching post!

~Ann

Cheryl G. said...

What a sweet reason to have an abundance of Sunflowers! Lucky you!

Nana said...

That is so sweet. I love Sunflowers. One reason is because my dad loved to plant them. I still do and they are great.

Gayle said...

So THAT's where you got your sunflowers! Lovely that they're volunteers!

Nanette Merrill said...

Sunflowers are the main flower for my daughter's upcoming wedding. I love them too. And they are cheap!!!

Sue said...

Hi Mimi Sue, What a lovely post, and the sunflowers are beautiful, and this is such a great reminder of your dear neighbor.
Thank you for coming by and for leaving me such a sweet comment,I am so happy to put your name in the hat for Sats.drawing, good luck, and have a happy Labor Day weekend.
Sue

Aubrey said...

I love the sunflower forest--I was driving by the other day and thought your yard looks so good with all the windowboxes and flowerbeds filled in--I should come take close-up pics of them to copy them, since I tend to somehow still misjudge how tall everything will be and me beds look a little lopsided. :)

cindy-stitches-n-stuff.blogspot.com said...

Oh how lovely. I love sunflowers. That's what I like, landscaping that is allready there.

cindy@stitches

Kathleen Grace said...

What a wonderful surprise bonus! Lucky you:>) There is something so happy about a big bunch of sunflowers!

Just a bed of roses said...

Beautiful...Could be onions or wheat, like I get!

something funny...I noticed this huge row of the most gigantic sunflowers growing in the back yard...when I finally noticed my husband said "well you've been wanting a fence!"

somehow...he thought he was going to get away with a sunflower fence...not going to work with me!

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

Awww....that is so wonderful! You get little and big (sunflowers)reminders of your former neighbor! They're gorgeous and are there any other flowers that make people happy just to look them? I don't think so!

Manuela

Sweet Cottage Dreams said...

How sweet that his garden carries on in spirit. Such a sweet post! What a treat to have a little surprise pop up now and then.

hugs,
becky

Lallee said...

Oh how beautiful. What a nice way to be remembered on this earth. Wouldn't Earl be glad!