Interlopers

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

(PS: how about those incredible graphics?)

The amazing flowerless sunflower

This sunflower is tall and strong.  At the time of these photos, taken last week, it was nearly my height (I am 5'7").  Today, it is easily 6 inches taller than me. 

However, one of this sunflower's most distinct features is that is completely lacks flowers!  What happened is that as it was growing, something was regularly chewing off the top (I suspect deer, based on the height of the chewing... and it is a little disturbing to imagine deer that close to my house, as this flower is growing alongside our back deck).  You can see in the picture above that the lower leaves and "branches" are still getting chewed on.  Below is a closer version:

I do, however, have some hope that the sunflower is perhaps outgrowing its predators.  Because it does look like there may be some flowers trying to blossom at the very top.

Is that a flower, or just wishful thinking?

I have not tried to grow a lot of ornamental, non-edible plants... but the feeling that I can't save them from deer is just as frustrating as when it was my vegetables!  (and I guess technically sunflowers do provide an edible product, even if that is not why we planted them)

They're ba-ack...

A neighbor told me he saw a deer in our yard the other evening, and again this morning.  This is a problem.

And it has been a problem for the past few years.  Our backyard has served as an amazing salad bar/dinner destination for the local deer, rabbit and groundhog population at great cost to us.  Well, at least great emotional cost.  Last year we had eighteen ears of beautiful golden yellow corn growing - ready to be picked in less than a week.  And then one morning I came out to find utter devastation.  Something - something BIG - had literally hacked them all in half, ate all the corn and then had the nerve to leave the scraps all over our yard.

Cleaning up the mess left by the monster that ravaged our corn crop?  It was nothing short of heartbreaking.