Gardening: sunflowers and deer
Self-tutoring about gardening: the tutor mentions a pleasant surprise.
Connecting with my post from Oct 18, 2024, I like growing sunflowers, and planted some last spring, as I typically do.
This year, however, a section has been removed from the surrounding fence, so deer can enter the yard at will. Several promising sunflowers whose blooms I eagerly anticipated got chomped – presumably by the deer – just before they opened. It was disappointing. I left the stalks alone, not expecting anything from them.
Yet, perhaps from the sunflowers’ point of view, said situation may not be deflating. Today I noticed that two of the stalks whose earlier flowers got munched by the deer have actually produced blooms – three one one, two on the other. I don’t see multiple blooms that often on a sunflower stalk, which adds to the novelty of the situation.
Apparently, a sunflower plant can continue living, and bloom later on, if a deer eats what would be its first bloom. Meanwhile, while visiting, the deer deposits droppings, which enrich the sunflower’s soil.
Therefore, it seems that, to the sunflower plant, the deer’s visit, even if the deer happens to eat a bloom from it, might constitute an advantage.
Source:
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.