Sunflowers

Every summer my husband who loves to work on our garden lovingly starts the process of preparing the garden late April to May. He spends countless hours weeding, adding fresh soil and mulch to prepare the ground.

He grew up in India’s largest concrete jungle- Mumbai. Mumbai previously known as Bombay is one of the largest cities in India and the most populous of cities in that geography. People get creative when faced with constraints and so people who live in a crowded city like Mumbai appreciate every available space. My husband like all Mumbaiites had a small balcony where he could flex his green thumb. This was short-lived because the watering of potted plants was a source of inconvenience to those living in the apartment beneath us. Sadly those much loved plants had to be moved to the garden that was part of the large gated community we lived in.

When we moved to the US in the Suburbs of Garden State he took up gardening with much passion and zeal. He grows his tulips, daffodils with pride. He loves growing tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas amidst the same challenges from our herbivore friends. But the sunflowers are his passion.

He meticulously cleans the yard after a hard winter and prepares his planters. After sowing the sunflower seeds he takes utmost care to keep the planters inside our garage. The first sighting of the newly sprouted sunflower saplings in the starter planters inside our garage is such a joyous event in our household !! As the weather warms up it is time for these saplings to be transplanted to the garden. And finally on a weekend in June he would take these saplings and plant them in our yard. Here’s where our struggle always begin!!!

In come the villains of the gardening world to challenge him and mock him and his helplessness!! Yes you guessed right!! The rabbits and deer arrive all ready to feast on these newly minted saplings. He would watch with exasperation the healthy sunflower plants become meals for our herbivore backyard visitors. This has been happening each year for the past 10 years. Over the years this has become an annual ritual which I call the great Annual Sunflower Faceoff. Some years we have lost so badly to our backyard visitors that we have not had a single sunflower to show for. One may wonder why he does not put an end to all this by building a fence to keep them away but we have seen deers elegantly jump through fences and rabbits find a way to wriggle through tiny spaces. And above all I think he secretly enjoys the Faceoff with our backyard visitors and the challenge they throw out to to us each year.

Summer 2020 was special because we were blessed to enjoy a beautiful towering sunflower plant that yielded a majestic flower which somehow managed to escape our backyard visitors. This picture of rhe sunflower is one of the few things from 2020 that provided cheer to us as we like millions were trying to navigate the pandemic from the confines of our homes. People were grasping at straws for positivity and cheer. This sunflower to us will always represent a high point in a year when our world as knew it was turned on its head. Standing tall, bright and beautiful against the beautiful blue sky was a source of hope, and inspiration.

This year as my husband prepares for the annual ritual of the Great Sunflower Faceoff I have decided to not just be a mere spectator. This year this activity means more to me as I watch a country whose national flower is a sunflower being subject to an unprovoked attack. The sunflowers we hope to save from our backyard visitors will be a tribute to the countless people who are facing threats and dangers to their lives and yet have not given up their vision for the free country they deserve to be a part of. Stay tuned as I share with you all what this summer has in store for us as we prepare for the Great Sunflower Faceoff 2022 from my garden.