With the sadness and craziness going on in the human world right now, a walk through a natural area can give an important perspective on the resilience of life. We'd like to share a few scenes encountered on a walk around the Farmstead early this morning - today just happens to be the third day of spring. The image above is Carolina Anemone. Below, are Scrambled Eggs, and American Field Pansy, from left to right. All three of these little native wildflowers have come up from the old seed bank in the soil. A week ago, we didn't even know what any of these plants were, but have since learned to identify and appreciate them. These tough little guys survived the winter, and are now shooting up through the dormant thatch with a colorful exuberance for life. Probably thanks to these and some other native flowers, we're starting to see various kinds of butterflies around, including our first Monarch yesterday.
Last month, we posted on the newest iteration of our seed bomb experiment. After four weeks of intermittent cool rains and warm sun, the bombs are beginning to burst with life. Nearly all of the seed bombs encountered on this morning's walk have one if not many tiny sunflowers peaking out of them. Breaking one of these bombs apart, we found that the 1/4 tall sunflower plants already have roots going down about 2 inches into the soil. For those sunflower plants that make it to summertime, these roots will grow to be about 15 feet deep, pulling up moisture and nutrients from well below the parched surface of our sandy soil.
