Without ever thinking much about it, we were mowing several acres of grass all summer, mainly because it was done that way before we inherited farm management. Being gardeners and growers of garden plants, we were more than happy to replace a grass lawn with anything, especially if we could plant more flowers.
The solution for most of these areas was as simple as moving some fences and let the cows and horses graze the same grass we had been mowing. But the area along the road to the house was not a place we wanted livestock roaming. So, that winter, I tilled the grass and let nature kill the unwanted grass. In early spring I used a seed drill to plant the area with a few pounds of cosmos seed. Cosmos was chosen for several reasons; the seed is inexpensive and gives a huge return for very little effort. It grows tall fast and forms a canopy, which inhibits weed growth. And best of all it blooms from spring until a killing frost ends it for the year. This patch of color can be seen for a long ways off; and the drive itself became a tunnel of color everyone enjoys. We get regular calls from neighbors searching for pink flowers for baby showers, weddings, etc. And because there is so much from so little seed, we can always say, help yourself to all you want.
Being familiar with cosmos, this was all well and good, but held few surprises. It wasn’t until the stand had been killed by frost that we discovered cosmos’s hidden treasure. The patch looked pretty bad, all dead and starting to blow down when I decided to mow it for winter. As I approached the stand on a tractor, a sudden burst of activity and color stopped me from cutting. If there was one, there were two hundred goldfinches fleeing what to them was a bountiful banquet. It turned out that they highly favor cosmos seed and there were several hundred pounds of it on the hoof.
It is true we love flowers for their own sake, but we have always felt birds are an important component of any garden. What we had here was the largest concentration of goldfinches any of us had ever seen. So now, after frost, those dead plants are not so unsightly. We adjust to the changing season and instead of looking for a wall of color, we look for a sudden burst of yellow as the finches dart to the safety of trees. The birds are every bit as exciting as the flowers; and we do enjoy sharing the farms bounty with the birds! While quietly contemplating this garden one realizes how given the chance, life will move in and find something of value, even if we did not see it without a little help from our friends, the goldfinches. I would never mow that patch until it is picked cleaned of seed, it just wouldn’t be neighborly. And we do love our little neighbors, the goldfinches.
