September 3, 2025 by Born To Organize

Sunflowers: It was the Squirrel’s all Along

American humorist Erma Bombeck once quipped that when she wanted her children to take their vitamins, she threw them on the floor and commanded, “Don’t touch those.” She always made me smile.

In recent years, I’ve loosely applied this approach to planting sunflowers. (This year’s “self-seeded sunflower gallery picutred below).

It’s not the seed’s fault that they are tasty morsels before they hit the ground. Over the years, I’ve planted seeds “three to a hill” as the packet recommends, only to have them dug up the following day. I’ve started seeds indoors, but end up with leggy transplants. I bought domes to cover my plantings a few years ago, and that seemed to work, but again, the plants weren’t as sturdy.

Last year, I bought a pair of tender seedlings from a local farm stand. One creased, folded, and closed up shop almost immediately. The other eventually succumbed as well.

Then a wonderful thing happened. On the other side of the planting bed, a small sunflower plant appeared. Then another one. I couldn’t believe my luck. I didn’t plant them, yet there they were, tall and proud and happy in the sun.

I checked on them every day, welcomed the bees with whispered tones in case my neighbors were within earshot, and enjoyed those golden flowers reaching toward the sun. As the flowers faded and the seeds formed, our neighborhood squirrels knew what to do.

In this scenario, the squirrels are Bombeck (dropping the seeds), and they’re also the kids on the floor (scrabbling to pick them up). Since they can’t eat all of them (did you ever hide the last cookie from a sibling?), they happily bury a few on the spot. Your’s truly becomes the “middle manager” nodding in agreement while sipping a bevy and checking social media every ten minutes while those squirrels get to work.

The “squirrel of life” is complete.

March 17, 2024 by Born To Organize

A New Gardening Season

We spent an hour at a local garden center this morning, filling our cart with various lovelies. After checkout, we stopped at a Burmese restaurant for lunch before returning home.

Almaden Nursery: Having a moment with the resident cat

I unloaded the car, placing each plant in an approximate location for its new home. We’ve planted several new perennials, and by we, I mean Mike. He’s happy to dig the necessary holes and repair the irrigation along the way.

I’m most excited about the peach, lime, and red carnations, not just because they’re named after pies. I’ve never grown them before. There is nothing quite like the promise of a new gardening season.

I asked Mike to remove an overgrown salvia to restore balance to the front garden’s planting scheme. The shrub grew taller and broader than expected, and even after heavy pruning, it seemed out of place.

We planted three purple African Daisies along the front path and have yet to plant the lamb’s ear and yarrow, both needing full sun. I have a spot for them in the back garden. I’ll take pictures soon.

While Mike dug holes in the front garden, I dug up several self-sown nepetas, aka catnip, for our neighbors. After last year’s heavy rains, I had a bumper crop of catnip. It’s nice to share it with fellow cat lovers and the cats that love them.

cat and nepeta — Tessa enjoying the nepeta

Elsewhere in the garden, the freesias continue producing fragrant clusters in abundance. I’ve been bringing bunches of them indoors.

A couple of weekends ago, I placed netting around the edges of the planter box to support the emerging sweet peas. Today, I spotted the first sign of color.

The unexpected winter crop of mammoth sunflowers towers over the curb garden, but the flowers are fading, leaving behind a bird and squirrel smorgasbord. I will cut the stocks down to a meter or so, leaving them in place to support the crop of sweet peas moving in that direction.

I tucked a dozen gladiola bulbs in the space between all that growing. They should emerge sometime in June.

This week’s forecast is warm and dry, with a chance of rain on Friday. I hope that comes to pass, as it would be an excellent way to settle the garden.

Meanwhile, we have foraging birds and squirrels taking advantage of the abundance of seeds.

When I’m indoors looking out the window, the birds and squirrels strike delightful poses, but my camera phone can’t quite capture them. This afternoon, I looked up and spotted a squirrel dead center in the garden, standing up and appearing to look right at me. I’m sharing the photo even though it could be sharper.

Here’s another shot from the sideyard of a well-fed California Grey.

This pair of mourning doves spent an afternoon out back, but they’ve relocated to parts unknown. I don’t miss that mournful cooing, but I love watching them. Ana’s hummingbirds are enjoying the fountain along with an assortment of small songbirds.

This is my time of year!

“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.” – Minnie Aumonier

September 14, 2023 by Born To Organize

Summer Winds Down

The certainty of shorter days and cooler nights is upon us, though our daytime temps remain warm. An uptick in squirrel activity tells me that autumn is coming. California gray squirrels live in trees, and although they don’t hibernate, they build up winter stores for the cooler months.

I harvested several sunflower seed heads and left them on our deck, but getting photos proved elusive. I finally captured a couple of shots last week, one of a squirrel on the sunflower stalk and later in a tree across the street with a mouthful.

This weekend, I spotted another squirrel at the base of the curb garden and managed a few shots. By Sunday night, most of the sunflower stalks had been bent in half, stripped of their seeds, and left for this gardener to clean up.

California gray squirrel eating sunflower seeds

I envy the squirrel’s agility and energy as they hurl themselves from tree branch to roof, then to the back of a narrow bench or railing. This year, I’m counting on them to plant next summer’s sunflower crop. Goodness knows they’ve had their fill.

In other garden news, a few late-season gladiolas popped up through the lavender along the deck. One of my alstroemeria protested its move from pot to pot, eventually throwing in the towel. I took advantage of the real estate and transplanted three or four succulents needing space to expand their roots.

The rock wall is awash with white anemones that have grown quite tall this year, thanks to a good soaking rain this past winter.

They look pretty in glass jars as well.

Anemones, salvia, and nepeta in glass jars.

The first bulb catalogs arrived in the post last week, full of spring promise. Planning a more cohesive planting this fall will be fun; it’s just weeks away. I might try one or two new varieties, but after 27 years of digging in my garden, I’m a realist. It’s too hot for cool-season bulbs, and tulips are like chocolate for squirrels. It’s best to skip the disappointment and plant what works.

Nothing compares to the anticipation of spring.

August 22, 2023 by Born To Organize

Worrying and Gardening

Worrying about things out of my control never stops me from worrying about things that are out of my control. Ha! The sense of relief, when it passes, is palpable, and I understand that worry comes from fear. Still, it’s wasted energy and time better spent doing other things.

Southern California, home to family and friends, spent the weekend on hurricane watch, followed by threats of flash flooding and mudslides. My 22-year-old son lives in Southern California; however, he left for the weekend to attend a concert with friends in Las Vegas, where, you guessed it, they also had flash flooding. Now back in SoCal, all is well. The storms passed without any fatalities, and we were all relieved. It’s uncommon for hurricanes to land on our west coast shores. Hurricane Hilary is our state’s first tropical storm in over eighty years.

We welcomed the storm remnants here in San Jose on Monday. It lowered temperatures and produced an air-cleansing rain. I added support to the sunflowers late in the day to ease the battering of the wind. It won’t be long until they all go to seed, but I’m glad they remain standing for now.

In other garden news, our second attempt at growing tomato plants has been successful. We planted them in the front curb garden. I pulled the sad-looking remains of the tomato plants in the back garden—that last promising tomato providing a meal for a nocturnal visitor.

I watched a large opossum amble across the garden at dawn this morning and regretted leaving my camera phone indoors. We often see them along the fence line after dark, but it’s been years since one showed up in the garden.

Saturday, I spotted a tiny, green praying mantis on a bright pink Cosmo as I waited for Mike to back out the car.

I snapped a few shots, and a bee came to gather pollen. Neither of them seemed to mind the other. Two hours later, I rechecked the flowers, and the mantis remained there. The next day an orange butterfly joined the gathering, along with more bees. It’s a popular plant.

The bottom left pics show a brown mantis right side up, then hanging upside down. I wish I could do that.

I plan to add a page to my blog documenting the wildlife that visits the garden. Recording things appeals to my organizing side, and it’s a way to stay connected to the garden on these hot, dry days. The first day of autumn is one month away.

I’m looking forward to the seasonal change.

August 7, 2023 by Born To Organize

Sake and Sunflowers: In a Vase On Monday

Cutting sunflowers for a vase was outside my plans. These lovely flowers attract birds, bees, and onlookers, and their presence is uplifting. I want the sunflowers to go to seed so I can offer them to neighborhood squirrels. Offer is a euphemism for “they’ll help themselves while I try to get photos.”

The flower pictured below, however, escaped from the bunch and gently curved across the sidewalk. I propped it up, and it fell again. The message couldn’t be any clearer.

Today’s vase is a sake vessel known as a Shuki. Mike acquired it before we met nearly thirty years ago, and I assumed it had sentimental properties. When I asked him about it this morning, he said, “I have no idea where I got it.” So much for sentimentality, eh, and now I have another container for cut flowers.

Along with the small sunflower, I’ve added burgundy-colored foliage from our Chinese Fringe plant Loropetalum chinense and a few cuttings from a Nandina Nandina domestica. The fern in the back grows prolifically from a plant that once thrived on my nightstand. It moved from container to container over the years but now lives in the soil along the back fence. I’ve had it for 35 years.

Thanks to “the Cathys,” who inspires this weekly challenge to cut and display flowers from one’s garden in a vase on Monday. IAVOM

July 20, 2023 by Born To Organize

News from the Garden

I planted Mammoth sunflower seeds in mid-May, and thanks to the squirrel-proofing domes, most of the seeds germinated.

Imagine my surprise when a second stand of sunflowers self-seeded, apparently immune to pilfering squirrels. The sunflowers I didn’t plant are over five feet tall, blooming in orange, yellow, and red. The Mammoth variety is heading skyward, but they have a way to go before reaching the promised height. Next year I’ll plant them sooner.

Another fun surprise has been the emergence of more California poppies Eschscholzia californica. The latest batch have an hombre-like coloring, with most of them growing up through dry gravel. Since they’re native to California, they adapt to a number of climates and water needs.

The assorted coleus Plectranthus scutellarioides are doing well on our deck, and one of the plants just flowered.

The leaf motif panel behind the planter box is a happy accident. I had a pair of these panels in the back garden under the neighboring pine tree. The heavy pruning of the pine tree last November damaged the support structure, separating the panels. I leaned them against the fence during the winter months; then, we moved one of them to this spot. It fits beautifully.

When my son moved in to his condo a few years ago, the homeowner left her patio plants behind. I inherited three healthy jade plants pictured behind the rocking chair. Lucky me!

The tomatoes have been ho-hum with just a few cherry tomatoes on offer. The plants were healthy, well staked, watered, mulched, with a bit of garden compost for good measure. They get full sun, a mild breeze and still not much going on. The strawberry plants were a complete bust. I’m too embarrassed to show you.

Check out our Bougainvillea! The vine grew slowly until July, but has grown exponentially in the last few weeks. This beauty nearly covers our bedroom window, providing much-appreciated shade. A variety of succulents grow below.

The California gray squirrel pictured below is feasting on seeds from the Acer palmatum, commonly known as Japanese maple, just outside the window. Moments later he jumped from the tree to the roof, upsetting the wind chimes and startling everyone including the cats.

One of my fairy gardens is deep undercover beneath this beautiful hydrangea. The miniature garden stays cool and sheltered all day. The pinks and blues of the Hydrangea macrophylla are slowing fading to pale green, but they’ve lasted for weeks in this gorgeous state. A few lingering, brightly colored nasturtiums wrap around the base of the fountain.

Thank you for joining me for my informal garden tour. There’s always more to see, and how I wish I could invite you over for tea and a chat on our deck.

In the meantime, I hope you are coping with the excessive heat or heavy flooding, too much or too little rain, wildfires, and all the other challenges nature is throwing our way.

September 23, 2014 by Born To Organize

Two Flowers Standing

One by one, the sunflowers faded. There are now two flowers standing.

Salvia flanked by two sunflowers

They look spent, but as long as the birds and squirrels keep coming, I don’t have the heart to pull them out. It’s been nice seeing the Salvia in all its glory after a summer spent in the sunflower’s shadow. The Salvia continues to bloom into late October. The bees and hummingbirds love the velvety purple flowers. Salvia thrives in dry conditions, making it the perfect drought tolerant plant.

Salvia leucantha (Mexican bush sage)

I wasn’t sure if the tiny finches were still coming to eat sunflower leaves, but then I spotted one from the kitchen window.

Goldfinch takes a bite

I’ve got my eye on you

Squirrels are still climbing the trellis, looking for what remains of the seeds. They aren’t staying as long, so I’m guessing what’s left are empty seed shells. I’ll give it one more week.

Checking out the seed supply

I love his perfectly aligned tail

There is a lot to do this time of year, but it’s work I enjoy.

Our Japanese Maple (Acer) is dropping a few leaves out back, but the Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis) is still green. When it does turn, its glorious and one of the reasons we planted it nearly twenty years ago.

Over the weekend I pulled out the last of the tomatoes. I left several tomatoes behind to go to seed in place. I hope to repeat my luck next year: an all-volunteer crop of delicious heirloom Roma tomatoes.

The last of the tomatoes for the season, emptied box with basil in the corner, the drooping plant as it ends the season, a wheelbarrow full of plants, some kind of infestation just started at the base of the tomato plants

The basil is hanging in there and still making into a few meals each week. It looks lonely in the otherwise bare planting bed.

Basil hanging in there, all alone in the box

Meanwhile, on the other side of the vegetable garden, the ‘pumpkin plant that ate New York’ is taking over. The leaves are as long as my arm now, with several small fruits at the soil line. Though the leaves, stems and flowers all looked like pumpkins, the fruit is a dark green. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Late-season, over-the-top, self-supporting pumpkin plant

Japanese anemones (hupehensis var. japonica) dominate the rock wall and frankly, grow like weeds. I’ve tried to thin them but they come back stronger than ever. They’re a lovely sea of white flowers and the last to bloom before winter.

Last week I picked up some flowering bulbs, a little wiser than I was in previous years. I’ll share more about that later in the week.

I hope your week is going well.

Japanese anemones (hupehensis var. japonica)

Japanese anemones up close

September 1, 2014 by Born To Organize

In a Vase on Monday: Sunflowers Last Call

My sunflowers are going fast. Staying true to their DNA, sunflowers grow from seed to seed in about 90 days. I planted mine in mid-May so I’m on borrowed time.

The shortest of the sunflowers bloomed the longest, making them the perfect flower for today’s In a Vase on Monday. Cathy at Rambling in the Garden features flowers and a prop in a vase each Monday year round. Impressive! She encourages others to participate as well. Come join Words and Herbs and Creating my own Garden in the Hesperides, and others. It’s fun.

Sunflowers in a vase on Monday

Easy Arranger

Check out my new gadget. It’s called an Easy Arranger™. It’s a wire form in the shape of a flower, made in China, assembled in the United States, sold in Canada and now holding up sunflowers harvested in San Jose. My easy arranger should consider applying for a frequent flyer card. I bought two of them in the beautiful gift shop at Butchart Gardens on holiday last month. The malleable form molds over the top of your vase lending support to cut flowers. Pretty nifty, eh?

Easy arranger in action

Saving Seeds

I’ve been gathering seeds from each of the seed heads so I’ll have plenty to plant next year. I’m going to package a few and give them away at Christmas as well. I wish I could share with my readers around the world, but shipping seeds outside of the US is a no-no.

As an aside, so is shipping millipedes, but apparently a crate marked ‘toys’ arrived in San Francisco this week with foot-long millipedes illegally shipped from Germany. No thanks!

Assorted sunflower seeds and seed heads

Making quick work of delicious sunflower seeds

The Long View

The photo below is the long view, taken from my back door looking out on the space where we read. Although close shots are generally more interesting, I find that I’m often curious about the scenery just out of view.

My Garden: The Long View Dear Reader, I wish you were here! This is the view outside my back door. You take two steps down and you land on this patio. Just beyond is our browning grass, born from necessity in our continued drought. The white flowering plant is an Anemone. They’re usually more prolific, but again, the drought. The lovely window painting is at eye level when you’re seated, painted by the talented Whitney Pintello. I wish you could come join me for a cold drink, a hot tea and a chat. Cheers, Alys

Does this interest you, too?

I’m trying to mix it up a little at Gardening Nirvana, hoping to add some zest to the mix. Does the idea of the long view interest you or are you shrugging your shoulders and wondering “what is she thinking?”

Please leave me a comment, below, or take the quick poll.

August 26, 2014 by Born To Organize

Top Ten Reasons to Grow Sunflowers

Sunflowers are a delight in any garden. They do most of their growing up, not out and they don’t require a lot of fuss. They can grow from a seed to as tall as 25 feet (average is six feet) in just ninety days. What’s not to love?

Here are my top ten reasons to grow sunflowers:

1. They’re easy to grow once they germinate. I’ve solved my squirrel-digging problem by covering them with screen savers until the seedlings take root.

Sunflower seeds undercover

2. Sunflowers are bee magnets. We need all the bees we can get. You can read more about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) here.

Bees grace the garden

Bee in flight

3. Mood enhancers. It’s nearly impossible to stroll past a strong, lemon-yellow flower and not smile.

Joy in every bloom

4. Sunflowers are tall. Growing a flower you can look up to is always fun when you’re 5’10” (177 cm).

Six foot sunflowers

5. Bird watching. Lesser Goldfinches like to eat sunflower leaves. They start low on the plant and move up, so apparently the more established leaves are the delicacy. After a few meals, the leaves look like lace.

Lesser Goldfinch and a well-nibbled sunflower leaf

6. Grow your own privacy screen. What’s not to like about a flowering fence/privacy screen to keep things cozy on the front deck?

Grow a summer privacy screen in no time

7. Self-healing. I came home a month ago and found one of the flower heads in my driveway, ‘harvested’ before its time. The plant generated several new flowers half way down the stalk of the plant. That was a nice surprise.

Sunflowers get a second life

8. Free entertainment outside your kitchen window. I parked my camera on the kitchen counter this weekend, ready for my seed-eating guests. Squirrel antics make me smile.

squirrel snacking on sunflowers front deck

The real reason we grow sunflowers

9. Plenty of seeds to share. Each flower head produces hundreds of seeds, leaving plenty for harvesting and roasting, planting and sharing with the birds and squirrels.

May I offer you some seeds?

10. Planting sunflowers gave me an excuse to publish a top-ten list.

Vintage Postage Give-away

Don’t forget to make your requests. My Vintage Postage Give-away ends this Sunday, August 31st, 2014. You can read all the details here.

On the form below please request your first, second and third country of choice. Include your full name and mailing address. That’s it. Click on the list of postage stamp countries to see what’s available:

List of postage stamp countries

Vintage postage issued mid-1937 to mid-1938.

What can you do with a bunch of old postage stamps?

Use them to make mixed-media art
Make a birthday card for someone special
Laminate them in strips and use them for bookmarks
Add them to a scrapbook page
Give them to a child and make up a story to go with them
Celebrate history
Take part in this gardening nirvana blogging adventure.

Please send your request via the contact form, below. I would love it if you joined in the fun.

Go back

Your message has been sent

July 17, 2014 by Born To Organize

Smiling Sunflowers

Incoming bee

Okay, technically sunflowers don’t smile. The effect is pretty much the same, though. When I look out my window they’re waving in the breeze, nodding their sunny flower heads and vibrating with bees. Maybe I’m the one smiling, but either way it’s contagious.

Bees move between the sunflowers and the pumpkin vines

The tallest of the sunflowers is my height: 5’10” or 177 cm. It was the first on the scene. I planted a variety of sunflowers this year, so each one is a bit different. One of the flowers just reaches my knee.

Brothers and sisters

Knee high sunflower

Yesterday I gently untangled a few overzealous pumpkin vines, redirecting them back towards the deck. As soon as the sunflowers go to seed, they’ll be overrun by squirrels. I don’t want my furry visitors trampling the pumpkins in their quest. Sunflower stems are sturdy enough to support the heavy seeds. They are not, however meant to withstand the added weight of a squirrel running up and down at snack time.

A little history:

Sunflower (Helianthus annus) is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence (flowering head). The sunflower is named after its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. It has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of flowers. The heads consist of many individual flowers which mature into seeds, often in the hundreds, on a receptacle base. From the Americas, sunflower seeds were brought to Europe in the 16th century, where, along with sunflower oil, they became a widespread cooking ingredient. Leaves of the sunflower can be used as cattle feed, while the stems contain a fibre which may be used in paper production. – Wikipedia

Sunflower bud, about a week before it bloomed

Ready to meet the world

Bronze-centered flower

Here’s a story that will leave you smiling like a sunflower:

The Fukushima Sunflower project is now following the lead of Chernobyl, and fields of sunflowers are bursting into bloom across this contaminated area of Japan. Volunteers, farmers, and officials planted the flowers so that they can absorb the radiation that leaked into the soil from the region’s damaged nuclear power plant. There are concerns that the contamination is mainly in the topsoil and that the roots of the flowers are too deep to absorb it. Time will tell whether this project will be a success.

Officials are hoping that the local economy will benefit as much from the project as the environment. They are hoping tourists will come back to the region to admire the sunflower fields. Due to this magnificent flower’s ability to assist in getting rid of nuclear waste, it has become the international symbol of nuclear disarmament.

I’m smiling. How about you?