Sunflowers' start

It may still be March (it is), and we're still in winter (we are), and the yards are still covered in snow (they are), and I'm still over a month away from the first lawn-mowing of spring (I am).

But the sunflowers are on their way. Take a look ...



This is my wife's little greenhouse. It's a recycled plastic container that once took some tasty cookies home. Now it has earth inside instead of cookie crumbs. And when the lid is closed and placed on the south-facing kitchen windowsill, it works just like a greenhouse. The closed lid keeps the humidity in ... and the cat out.

She had attempted to grow sunflowers in the past, but those were planted in a bed at the base of the clothes pole, in easy range of marauding rabbits and lawnmowers. This year, the tentative plan is to plant them right under the kitchen window, where the rays of the afternoon sun bounce off the white side of the house and into the flower bed. (If the lawnmower doesn't get overly careless. We may have to put out stakes to cordon off the sunflower patch.)

Time will tell, but the location is the best we can come up with. And since she came up with the inspiration to start the plants inside, in March, they will already have a good head start by the time they outgrow the cookie container. This year, something big may come out of it.

Stay tuned for future updates. My wife just took a look at the picture (taken Thursday morning) and said the baby plants are already bigger, and there are more of them.