You know about the autumn corn maze. But have you heard of the summer sunflower maze?
A few summers before Jake Gust, owner of the Gust Flower and Production Farm, began to cut the maze/trail into the sunflower patch of his farm. Today, his sunflower trail attracts a couple of thousands of people to the Monro and Adrian region every summer. He is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Everyday. This year’s season ends on August 31.
The farm is 11998 on the Rhodesiler motorway on Lake Otawa. The entrance is $ 5 per person and allows you to enter the sunflower trail, the sunflower cutting field and the verbena and the fields. For flowers, cut is an additional charge.
Gust Sunflower Trail
Farm Sunflower Trail/Labyrinth dates back to 2018.
“I started the maze because I thought people might like it. Corn labyrinths have been a long time ago and are popular in the fall season. Maybe people would like to walk around sunflowers?” Gūsys said.
Gust Flower and Production Farm 11998 The Rhodesiler Highway on Lake Ottawa is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Daily until August 31. Among his suggestions is the Sunflower Trail of More than Five Acres.
The trail began with small.
“I had only one breed and ½ acro. Now it is 20 varieties and five or six acres,” Gust said. He cut a random model into a flower field every year.
“Some use GPS. I don’t have a real model,” he said.
He later added props to the trail, such as an antique tractor and a giant cow on a trailer bought from the former Borchardt Brothers market in Blissfield. Visitors can also swing.
The sunflower trail has several props, including this cow from the former Borchardt Brothers market in Blissfield.
The sunflower trail is a popular place for photographers and families, Gust said.
“People just like to be in nature and walk in flowers. In the mornings we get a lot of families. They can see pollinators, bees and butterflies and take pictures,” Gust said.
This year, a new Scavenger hunt inside the trail is a new one.
“It’s for really young children under 5 years of age. They get a card and get a paper punch at the requisites (in the list). In the end they get popsicle. They are worried,” Gust said. “People like something a little different every year. Every year we try to make some changes.”
Other attractions of the gust farm
Gust Flower and Production Farm has more than three ares of cutting flowers. The price is $ 11.
“We supply a brick jar, scissors and water,” Gust said.
The farm has a pen goats.
The farm also has a pen at the goat and country store where the production of your choice and you choose. The proposals include the Strawberry You-Pick, even in August.
“This year it’s a new farm. It’s a blooming strawberry that now produces fruit. This morning I chose 30-40 blocks,”-August 18th. Gust said.
He also sells peaches, cantalpes, sweet corn and tomatoes. The arms will soon appear. Gust gets melons from Andy Stahlo, son of his mentor Tom Stahlo. Gust met Tom Stahl a year ago during the Dundee High School FFA program.
Gust Flower and Production Farm offers products, including a variety of strawberry plants, which in August. Produces fruit.
Sunflowers grow
2005 After graduating from Whiteford High School, Gust was a agricultural teacher for about 11 years. He also runs Whiteford’s FFA SCAND.
“My older years, I (also) went to Dundee (high school) to pick up agriculture and FFA,” Gust said.
After receiving the degree of agriculture at the University of Michigan, Gust taught in Hillsdale for three years before coming to whs.
For many years, agricultural agricultural agricultural teacher James has been growing sunflowers in his gust flower for many years and producing the farm in Lake Otawa.
“FFA started (Whiteford) in 2014. We have more than 100 (students) in high school, and approximately 50 grades each year. Each year at least two three to agriculture (fields) such as animal and plant science, greenhouse and landscape,” said Gust.
He and his wife Jessica have four children, 9, 7, 5 and 2 years old. When the school goes to summer, Gust and the children work on the farm. In the fall, a gust helps Dad’s business across the street from him. Gust brothers pumpkin farm There are 13639 Mulberry Road Ottawa Lake.
“They open on a working day. That’s when I close,” Gust said.
A gust
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A gust is self -taught in sunflower cultivation.
“It was a lot of reading online. I like to do it in the winter when you can’t be in the fields and dig the ground. The other best thing is to read different varieties and look at catalogs,” Gust said.
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He grows several times every summer to ensure summer full of sunflowers. The first crop usually occurs in mid -July. He will receive at least 250,000 flowering one summer.
“Sunflowers tend to bloom after 60-70 days. A good branching plant can have 10 to 20 blooms. We always have fresh sunflowers,” Gust said.
Gust said there are hundreds of sunflower diversity. It grows about 20 types.
“Staks, single, tall, short, fluffy balls, double flowers. All kinds of sunflowers,” Gust said. “We have a good climate (for sunflowers). They can (handle) drier outdoor conditions. They are a solid plant.”
– Contact Suzanne Nolan Wislol [email protected];
This article initially appeared at Monroe News: Walk among thousands of flowers, watch requisite Gust Farm Sunfat