Midsummer in Macheteville

It's June and in peak sunflower season at our house. We seem to have made our own hybrids unintentionally by favoring the seeds of the really tall plants. Most roadside sunflowers here are maybe 4 feet tall. A lot of these are 10-15 feet tall! This was the view out the back gate before that one storm beat a lot of them to the ground. These are not like the midwestern/northern sunflowers with the humongous flowers. I love those too!! Even more, actually. But those are not native down here and although they might grow if you work on them, we tried to favor the natives -- or whatever grows without much altered soil or extra water. See below our house from the street. (the back yard is much worse!)

The signs in the yard have helped keep complaints down, especially the latest one: WILDLIFE HABITAT. A lot of people would say, "Wildlife? Looks like a good place for snakes!" and my response would be "snakes count!" The other sign is for the city's Green Garden Award for having a space that's green in the eco sense of the word. It's all Mr. B's doing. He does 99.9% of the work. I take a few pictures, give some advice, and dart back behind the mosquito screen ASAP. Occasionally I get out the clippers and play Edward Scissorhands.

In a couple of weeks we will harvest seeds and take out the sunflowers for the year.

Good solstice everybody! And if this doesn't look like the middle of summer, I don't know what does. I have gotten stubborn and refuse to call it the first day of summer.