The Sunflowers

The sunflowers in my garden this year are off the hook.  They're all volunteers, I didn't plant a single one this year - obviously I didn't need to!  The light yellow, multi-branching ones are especially impressive - I counted no less than 36 blooms open on just one plant (and that's without counting the ones that were over or the buds yet to bloom).  It's incredible. 


Grandma Joy's pose says it all!


 

GG and Conan admire some of the more unusual sunflower types.  In addition to the standard yellow and orange, we also have a few ringed with dark red and one that makes a giant orange pom-pom of petals.

 

In the cold frame, the pepper plants are doing amazingly well, producing tons of peppers and generally looking happier and healthier than any other year's plants ever have. 

 

This is one of our new berries, the Aronia.  This is the first year it has fruited for us, and it pulled out all the stops.  The plant isn't very big, but it is absolutely covered with berries.  The berries are black and fairly firm, even when they are ripe (or at least, we think they are ripe).



The berries are tart and astringent eaten straight off the bush, but have a good flavor overall and are certainly abundant. With GG and Conan's help I picked 4 quarts of berries and made a little over 5 pints of delicious jelly.