I went out to water my sunflowers this afternoon and found that 4 of them were merely stumps. The other day, one of them was broken off. I assumed it must have been the wind. But now 4 in a row were mowed down at about the same level and they were the ones closest to our neighbor's yard with the low fence. And someone ate most of the plants. I suspect varmints!
A quick trip to the hardware store later, and I put up shields for the remaining 6 sunflower plants. The plan was to grow these sunflowers to flowering stage and let the birds harvest the seeds. I grew these suckers from seeds, so I am not pleased at seeing them chomped less than a week after getting them planted in the ground. The possible culprits are:
a. squirrels
b. raccoons
c. rats (ewwwwww...)
d. possums
e. gophers (but there are no mounds, and don't they eat the roots?)
f. Wilhemina bunny who disappeared from next door months ago.
I know we don't have deer in the city...
Which do you think it is?
If it's rats, the aluminum screening may not deter them. They can just climb inside and chomp away. Stay tuned for the answer to this mystery.
These are my seaside daisies that I got from the Strybing Arboretum plant sale.
My red elderberry, which I bought at the same plant sale, has some red berries on it.
The toyon also has berries starting to grow. These are a few of my native plants. Maybe the sunflowers are getting chomped because they are not native?
The cotoneaster, which has been there since before we owned the house, has tons of flowers on it. I've never seen it flowering like this before. The flowers have a slight fragrance, which is sort of pleasant. It's loving having the Monterey pines gone. It will be covered with red berries in the winter.
Here's a shot of our panoramic view from the top of the yard. It's a little hazy today, so you can't see the Pacific Ocean in the right hand corner. Click on the image to see a larger version.
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