When I first arrived at camp at the beginning of May and began working through the garden, I noticed some strange plants with large leaves. At the time I wasn’t sure what exactly what to make of the little guys. I thought they could be squash or pumpkin at first. After tilling through the garden a few times these plants kept on coming back, so I decided to let them grow in a section of the garden and figure out what they were. When the mystery plants started growing upwards instead of out, I knew that they had to be sunflowers. It turns out that last year’s fall staff ended up composting some sunflower heads, and not all of the seeds decomposed. When the compost was spread on the garden, the seeds were spread with it. With all the rain we’ve had this season, these sunflowers took off and grew faster than any I’ve seen before. At the time of writing this, many of the sunflowers measure up at about ten feet tall, and some of them may even keep growing a bit more before flowering! Walking through the sunflowers feels like pushing your way through a dense forest. It’s one of my personal favourite parts of the garden this year, and one of the best spots to slow down and take a breath at camp.
All the best,
Chasm