Saving Sunflowers

Throughout Friday evening and night we had a terrible storm. Lashing winds with torrential rain and even a tornado, which touched down, speeding along Rte 55, ripping off branches from trees and dumping them along the roadside. Our power went out a few times and eventually I gave up, going to bed with a battery lamp, and lay reading until I nodded off.
The next morning I bounced out of bed, happy that the gales had swept elsewhere and left the hill in silence. The rain had also departed, and the sun was dodging between clouds trying to shine down as they slowly crawled across the sky and disappeared. I opened the front door to let Kota and Rosie Lee out for some fresh air, they were tired of having been cooped up for over 24 hours, desperate to explore around the house, oblivious of how wet their legs were getting from the long grass. I looked out and nearly burst into tears as my eyes fell upon the tragic scene before me. My beloved sunflowers, no longer proud and erect, were now lying flat on the ground, faces downwards like fallen soldiers.

This was my glorious wall of blooms only a couple of days before the storm.

And here they were, stretched out upon the ground, having been defeated by the night's storm.
I was distraught and didn't know what to do first. I did cancel my bike ride with Steve and Marc and then had to see what nearby stores would be open this early in the morning. It was after 7am and I needed supplies fast. Luckily the Co-op Farm Store in Marshall opened at 7:30am so I hurtled over there. Within 30 minutes I was back home with four 4ft metal posts and a large ball of green garden twine.
The next 3 hours were hard hot work. I tried hammering the posts into the ground but they would only go down about 5" so then I had to stack heavy rocks against the base of each post, leaning them in towards the building so they would hopefully hold the weight of the plants. The sunflowers were far heavier than I'd expected and I initially tried to pick up one at a time while pulling the twine taught against them as I made my way along the wall. That didn't work, once they all toppled towards me and nearly fell down, and then on the second attempt the twine broke and I had to start from square one again.
I stood, perspiration dripping from my nose and tears pricking at my eyes, and thought hard. This wasn't going to beat me, although another pair of hands would have been wonderful. I would have to stand them up one or two at a time. So I tied twine around one plant as I walked it upright and then kept it standing tall by tying off on the post. And then on to the next plant.

I worked my way slowly along the wall, focusing on one thick stem at a time. Each stalk was also protected from the twine by small patches of a t-shirt that I had cut up as bandages, and then loosely tied on the stalks. This protected them from the twine cutting in, although those sunflowers are pretty rough themselves. the stalks and the leaves are very abrasive, I had a few cuts on my arms and hands by the time I was finished and a large rash on my wrist.
I continued to work along the wall, hammering in posts, stacking boulders and cutting lengths of twine and t-shirt. By the time I was done I was almost completely drenched. The sun was beating down, increasing the humidity levels to nearly 100%, my shirt and capris were soaked. But my precious golden flowers were saved. It had taken me most of the morning but they were finally standing up straight again, albeit looking a little bedraggled and forlorn. I had been amazed that I'd only lost 3 small plants, their stalks had been snapped by the winds, but the rest had been yanked from the ground, then toppled, exposing a shallow root ball that I was able to shove back into the earth and press down with my boots. I guess those shallow roots saved the stalks from snapping.

A thorough watering just to make sure their roots would grip the soil again was the last task of Operation Saving Sunflowers. A few heads had been broken off but nearly all were intact. When I'd finished replanting them their bright yellow petals had been drooping down over their faces but by the end of the afternoon they were lifting upwards again, and it looked pretty certain that they would survive their ordeal.

This photo is from my spare bedroom. It makes me feel warm inside seeing my 'natural screen' looking healthy again. The flowers and leaves had lost their limp look and were looking strong once more. I've loved watching them climb up past the windows, reminding me of Jack and the Beanstalk, and although they likely won't gain any more height, I'm so grateful that they're still going to keep blooming for the rest of the season.

I took some more photos 4 days after I'd set the giant plants up against the wall again. Still not as upright as they'd originally been but there haven't been any more casualties. The few heads that didn't survive have already become food for some of the wildlife around the house, small spaces in the circular heads where the seeds once were. But the other flowers are recovering and enjoying the sunshine, the bumblebees buzzing from one golden globe to the next. 'Buzziness' as usual at the front of Meadow House.