In The Garden


One fine day, after the wild March wind and before the gentle April rain, a little seed sat on a sunny window ledge. The seed wore a black and white stripy jacket, smooth as linen.


Alfred was at a loose end. He had been exploring in the kitchen cupboards. He had played the pots and pans loudly with a wooden spoon. He had been climbing to the top of the piano. He had made a tent with the clothes horse and a blanket. He had hidden his shoes in the coal bucket. What ever next?


Standing on a chair, Alfred could reach the wide window ledge in the kitchen, and he gazed out of the window with his chin resting on his hands. He had a feeling that there was something that he had to do. The little seed sat there under his nose.


After a while, in the quietness and the sunshine, Alfred thought that he could hear singing. ‘Zum zum zum! Tra la la, zum zi zum, zum zi zum!’ ………Alfred looked all around, but he couldn’t see anyone. Then he looked down and saw the seed……….and the singing began again, ‘Tra la la, Zum Zieeeeeee.…….!’ Alfred had spun the seed with his finger. When it stopped spinning he picked it up, and looked at it closely. ‘Alfredo! Will you plant me?’ it asked……….and already clutched in Alfred’s hand as he ran out through the door, the seed called out, ‘…..don’t forget the trowel......¡Hurra!’


And so with the seed and the trowel, off went Alfred. Over the lawn, through the primroses, along the path between the vegetable patch and the strawberry patch, and down to the end of the garden. No one else came here, except to dump hedge clippings, and grass cuttings, and dead flowers onto the compost heap.


Alfred looked up at the tall tall trees on one side, and he looked over at the wooden fence on the other side. The sun was behind him, and his shadow pointed to a place at the foot of the garden wall. Alfred put the seed carefully on a dock leaf and started to dig. It was hard work getting out the thick grass, but soon Alfred had cleared some earth. He dug it over and smoothed it out, stopping sometimes to watch the worms and other creatures that he found. After this he fetched the seed, made a little hole, put the seed inside and gently covered it over with soil. Just then, the sky darkened and it began to rain. So it was that the seed was watered for the first time, and the seed began to grow.


Alfred came every day. He waited, and he watched. Sometimes he would sit very quietly on his special mossy stone. He would listen to the birds whistling and the insects buzzing. Once he saw two shrews come out from under a tree root, and dance around together between the clumps of daisies. Sometimes he would sing for the seed. He would make up tunes and sing about everything. The seed put one little root down into the darkness and one little shoot up towards the light.


Soon the baby plant appeared through the surface of the earth, which made Alfred very happy. Now it grew and grew. Below, the roots were spreading out, absorbing water and nourishing minerals. Above, the leaves were appearing, absorbing sunlight and molecules from the air. On sunny days Alfred would bring the watering can and water the plant, so that it didn’t get too dry. On rainy days he would wear his boots and take the slugs and snails away, so they wouldn’t eat it. On windy days he would pull his shirt up over his head, and let the wind blow him all around the garden.


And all around, spring passed and summer came. The stem reached higher and higher, and the leaves spread themselves out like a satin dress. Alfred’s companion grew up over his head, past the top of the wall, and still kept on growing. Then one day, when Alfred looked up, amongst the leaves and the blue sky and the white clouds, he saw a small spiky round bud.


The bud got fatter and fatter, until one hot mid-summers day when the flower began to open. Petal by petal it opened, and turned its golden face to the sun. Alfred thought it was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen.


Sometimes the petals were like flickering flames in the breeze. Sometimes they were quite still as if floating in a clear pool. The sunflower would tell stories about Spain, the country that it came from. ‘Ah! España!........Once upon a time, in the fields of flowers………’ the stories would begin, and they always had happy endings. ‘If it is not happy, then it is not really the end……..’ said the sunflower, ‘……..that is what the stories are for……..para hacer una conclusión feliz.’


Each day the sunflower followed the sun across the sky, like a little shining cog in the giant clock of the world. And each day Alfred followed the sunflower with his blue eyes. They travelled far over the garden, and away across the wide world to the south. People who passed by along the backstreet on the other side of the wall would look up and smile at the sunflower, as you do to an old friend.


Time moved on, and summer was nearly gone. The petals of the sunflower began to wither and darken. Its head bent down, looking back towards the earth. At first Alfred wondered what was happening. When he realised that the flower was dying, the tears welled up in his eyes. He sat in the grass and cried, ‘Oh what can I do?’ …….But before long he remembered what the sunflower had told him about happiness. So he pulled a big handkerchief out of his pocket and blew his nose. Then he listened, in case he might hear the end of the story. And very soon he thought he could hear something. It sounded like many small voices calling his name.


‘Alfredo! Alfredo! Alfredo!’ they called, ‘Look at us! Look at us..!’ Alfred rose, and standing on tip-toe, he looked up at the heavy head of the flower. The voices came again, ‘Alfredo, what are we? ¿Qué es nosotros?’ No longer did the flower shine like the sun, but he could see patterns made of little bumps, spiralling around and around in the shadows. There was something familiar about these little bumps…..something that Alfred had seen somewhere before.....something like a smile in the darkness…..a smile full of wonderful secrets.


‘What are they?’ Alfred thought, then suddenly he answered himself; ‘…..Seeds!.....Lots and lots of seeds!’ Alfred danced around the mossy stone; ‘Hundreds and hundreds of seeds!’ he sang to the tall tall trees. The face of the flower had become a treasure chest. Alfred stretched up again to gaze into it. ‘Hello seeds!’ he said. ‘¡Hola Alfredo!’ said the seeds, ‘Are you strong?’ ‘I think so’, replied Alfred. ‘Well, let’s find out…..’ said the seeds, ‘…..Alfredo take hold of the stem! Alfredo pull us out!’


Alfred wasn’t sure if he could. ‘It’s time to go! It’s time to go…!’ called the seeds. So Alfred wrapped his hands around the stem and held on tight. ‘Let’s go! Let’s go! Vayamos! Vayamos!’ chorused the seeds. Alfred gave a great heave, and a great ‘ROAR!’ Soil flew into the air and Alfred rolled over backwards with the sunflower, and lay there laughing.


‘Well done good friend! Magnífico!’ chuckled the seeds. Alfred turned over in the grass, ‘What shall we do now?’ he asked. ‘Well, Alfredo…..’ said the seeds, ‘…..soon the weather will be cold. We need to be kept dry until the winter is over and it is warm again…..’ ‘Oh,’ said Alfred. He thought for a while, and decided what to do. With the help of a sharp stone he broke off the seed head. He laid the rest of the plant on the compost heap. Then, glowing like the sun, he carried his trophy home……..As the blue butterflies flew away, and the leaves were changing to autumn colours, and the creatures of the wood were making their winter burrows.


Later in the year, when the seed head had dried, Alfred loosened and shook out the seeds. ‘Gracias, gracias!’ they softly whispered as they fell. Alfred found an old brown cup at the back of a shelf on the dresser. He put the seeds into it and left it there on the window ledge. The sunflower looked like an abandoned honey comb. Alfred ran his fingers over the papery shells that had once been in bud, and then held flowers, and then seeds, and now were empty. Alfred felt very grateful.


Alfred took the sunflower back down to the end of the garden. He put it, like a crown, on top of the compost heap. The long stem resting beneath, with it’s dangly roots, was like a wise old hand holding a wand. That night Alfred smiled in his sleep as he dreamed about fields of sunflowers.


One fine night, after the last October harvest and before the storm clouds of November, a cup full of seeds rested on a moon lit window-ledge. The seeds wore black and white stripy jackets, smooth as linen.





Note: Alfred was very lucky that his sunflower was not eaten by slugs and snails. I think that there was a good gardener who was always keeping an eye on things and helping him out. If you want to grow sun flowers, the best thing to do is to start them off in pots which you can keep somewhere indoors where there is plenty of light, or outside with slug protection. Copper tape (that you can get from garden shops) around the pot is useful – slugs and snails will not crawl over it. Bigger pots are better because the roots like to spread out. If the pot is big enough the plant can stay in it. If they need to be transplanted into another container, or into the ground, take them out gently and keep the root ball as undisturbed and earthy as possible. You could also compost the hole when you are re-planting them.


If you plant the sunflowers out there are various things that you can put around them to keep the slugs away:
     Salt
     Soot
     Ashes
     Crushed up egg shells
     Chopped up gorse or thistles or both
     Eaten out grapefruit halves, open end down [the slugs eat the pith and stay hiding under there ’till morning, when you can take them away].


You can also get collars which you put around the plant and press a little way into the ground. - These come up 20-30 cm and curve over outwards at the top in a shape that stops the slugs crawling in. And you can use a combination of these methods.


Slug pellets are not such a good option because they poison the slugs and snails and they stay poisonous. If other creatures eat the pellets or the poisoned slug/snail, they will be poisoned too. Shrews, hedgehogs, toads and some types of bird are all natural predators of slugs and snails. They are part of a healthy garden and help us to protect the plants.


Good luck!
Buena suerte!
Bon chance! (there are fields of sunflowers in France too)