Easter 2012

Earlier this year, at the end of February, John was busy designing a new garden plan. Because the corn and sunflowers did so well last year, he decided he would focus on just those two 'crops' this spring. Last year's corn circle proved to be a success, so this year he refined the design.

Then he set about working on an irrigation system.

He placed soaker hoses in a circular pattern.

Then he used elbow type joints to connect the hoses.

Unfortunately, the drip line system was not as effective as he'd hoped and leaks developed at the connector joints.

This was particularly true when he stepped the hoses up and over the short block wall to reach the raised planting bed.

He scrapped the drip lines and decided to use garden hoses with a four-way connector made specifically for this purpose.

This proved to be a success and soon the corn he'd planted began to sprout. This photo taken yesterday shows the progress.

And here you see the same corn circle with the sunflower plants growing in the planter next to the block wall.

Three weeks after planting the first corn circle, John planted a second one in order to stagger the growing process. Ultimately, there will be a total of three corn circles in the yard.

The following photos show the single soaker hose in the planter bed with sunflower plants growing on either side of it.

This year there will be more red sunflowers, as well as a section of mixed red and yellow.