Snowfall in Georgia

We woke up this morning to a rare sight in the west Atlanta area--snow! The fluffy flakes started swirling down around 10 am and soon the ground was velvety-white. We put out plenty of bird seed out in our feeders and dug out the outdoor water heater, so the bird bath wouldn't freeze. Birds need drinking water even in the cold.

I'm going to plant sunflowers this summer, so I'll have seeds to harvest and put away for next fall and winter. Once there were over 2,000 named varieties of these sunny flowers, thanks largely to Russian breeders, who recognized their potential as a source of both oil and food. Most of those heirloom varieties are gone now, unfortunately.

But 'Russian Mammoth,' sometimes sold as 'Russian Giant' or 'Russian Greystripe,' is still around, and that's what I'll plant when the weather warms up. This old variety bears bright yellow heads atop 9 to 12 foot stalks, and each enormous bloom is supposed to produce up to 5,000 seeds! You can cut the entire flowerhead when it matures and store it in a dark, dry place. Then just tie it outside to a tree branch when the natural food supplies start to disappear, and watch the birds fly in for a homestyle buffet!