Now don't everyone get too excited, because I'm going very ambitious this year, which means I will most likely fall on my face. The big plan for the front yard this year? SUNFLOWERS! I don't know about you but I love sunflowers. Nothing turns a house into a cozy home faster than these giant monstrosities of awesomeness, which also tend to attract lots of birds. So my hope is that I'll be sitting on my porch feeling like Snow White all summer with a bluebird army to dress me and mop my floor (or was that Cinderella?). Anyways, here's the layout.
Closest to the white fence will be normal yellow snacking sunflowers.
In front of those will alternate between the Chianti Hybrid (a dark maroon) and a white variety called Coconut Ice Hybrid.
I've tried sunflowers before, and they didn't even get off the ground. Literally. I didn't stake them at all so those stupid giant heads shot up so fast on stalks too skinny to support them and they all fell over. So now to rectify mistake number one with try number two. And please, if you've planted sunflowers and know of another glaring noob mistake I'm about to make, please FOR THE SAKE OF THE BIRDIES, let me know. I got a bunch of 6' tall bamboo stakes with soft fabric ties to try to hold them up as they grow. I've also heard you can use old pantyhose to tie them. Don't use anything rigid like zip ties or old sandwich baggie twist ties because if the stalks grow in width and you forget to loosen them it will hurt the plants. So hopefully this week I'll work on digging out the ground and prepping it so I can get them planted and update this blog with a pretty picture of them starting to grow.
Those Chianti sunflowers look gorgeous! My mom is a huge sunflower fan, though she has never grown them. Our entire kitchen growing up was decorated in a sunflower motif (not so uncommon in our rural community, as it happens).
ReplyDeleteAnd, Snow White had birds... Cinderella had mice! Lol. I think...