Volunteers

This winter while we were spending so much time in NJ tending to my parents Shari put up a bird feeder as one way to keep us somewhat entertained.

The birds in the neighborhood thought they'd found the mother lode and I remember walking around the backyard after the snow had melted looking at all the scattered hulls they left on the ground.

A week or so ago, my mother mentioned that her sunflowers were over 7 feet tall. I asked her why they had planted sunflowers in the middle of the yard when they used to plant them along the edge of the lawn. "We didn't plant them," she said, "they just grew from the bird seed."  

When I was a kid we used to sit in the backyard eating watermelon and spitting the seeds onto the lawn, always hoping that the seeds would take and we'd get some watermelons growing. Of course, they never did.

Volunteers 7 feet high, though, are just as impressive as the 25 lb watermelon that never grew. Plus, we've got a head start on seeds for the winter.