Goodbye Wild Sunflowers!

And hello tree collards, garlic chives, lavender, aloe, yerba mansa, and more!

 

 BEFORE

AFTER

Lesser Goldfinch giving me the stink-eye for pulling out his wild sunflowers!

 

 

 

Baby Praying Mantis were everywhere!

 So we saved all the sunflower branches and put them under
the fruit trees to disperse the little bitty praying mantis' all
throughout the yard.

The wild sunflowers served as shade all summer for my tree collards and garlic chives!

The yerba mansa was secretly taking over the garden bed
hidden by the towering sunflowers.

They also gave shelter to my busy little peanut-planting squirrels!
Everywhere we turn there are peanut plants popping up.
I'm so proud of my little squirrel-farmers!

A squirrel-farmer's day is never done!

 

The stalks on these wild sunflowers are huge!  Garlic chive blossoms
 in foreground show scale.

I missed out on seeing the greek oregano flower, these
are the remaining seed buds.

Quite a few baby lizards scurried out of the
garden bed once the chopping started.

The bees were so busy working in the garlic chive flowers,
I don't think they even noticed all the plant carnage
going on, they just worked around us :-)

The hummingbirds will miss the thin flower branches
to perch on with their tiny feet.

All photos taken by Peggy Thomas, in cooperation with the plants,
squirrels, birds, lizards and bugs in my yard here in Mesa, AZ.