A taste of summer

It's August and traditionally the silly season in the press. So, let's have an equivalent here on the DevOff blog.

Many weeks ago, Julie sowed some giant sunflower seeds and presented all the DevOff staff with little plants to take away to grow as a bit of a competition. Not that we're a competitive lot - oh no!

Jane, Julie and Simon went for the pot cultivation method. I'm not sure they realised what intensive care they were dedicating themselves to - regular watering and feeding would be essential, even if they had chosen a big enough pot. Being a coarse gardener, I chose a spot in the middle of our field, dug a big hole, filled it with well-rotteded horse manure and planted the little beauty on top. Then I more or less forgot it for weeks.

The first bad news came from Simon, whose darling daughter loved his plant so much that she hugged it, breaking the stem. I don't think sunflowers benefit from having their growing point removed - exit Simon from the competition. I showed him a photograph of my plant around this time and he accused me, on the basis of the background flora, of having sent it to my friends Brian and Joy in Provence for cultivation. But no, it's been in Flintshire all the time.

Next a violent rainstorm took out Julie's pride and joy. It seemed harsh that she who had propagated all the plants should exit the competition, so I gave her a 50% share of mine. Then Jane reported that her plant had 5 flowers on it, although it was only about 3 feet high. She didn't seem impressed when I told her that plants are programmed to flower and produce seed when they realise they are soon going to die.

I didn't bother to water my sunflower, but the heavens did, copiously, throughout July. Now the weather is rather better, and as you can see below, it is capped by one splendid flower at a height exceeding my 8 feet reach. I claim victory for Julie and me!