Sunday, October 1

I would like to buy you sunflowers...

As mentioned previously, one of the most successful elements of our garden this year has to have been the sunflowers.

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I have sunflowers in my backyard that shine like diamonds when you squint your eyes - David Garza

In fact, it is without an ounce of exaggeration that I can say that several of these flowers grew to be literally as big as my head, as demonstrated here:


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But nothing lasts forever and the sunflowers have begun to die, and we decided it was time to decapitate them and cut down the flowers. At one point we had grand visions have harvesting the sunflower seeds and eating them, but it has quickly become apparent that we are not that patient, and unless we get a pet monkey that we can train to harvest and shuck the seeds, I think they will soon find themselves in the compost bin rather than allowing us to do our best Mulder impersonations.

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posted by D. @ 3:53 PM   1 comments

1 Comments:

At 9:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi there,
You may already be aware of this, but i read it on another blog and thought i'd better pass it along just in case. I ripped out all my sunflowers this weekend after they went over (literally - head first!) because the hulls can inhibit other plants. An herbalist friend said the roots may have a similar effect. A bit of googling later and i found these:

http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/2006/08/is-your-sunflower-inhibiting-you.html

and

"According to the National Gardening Association web site, "Hull-less sunflower seeds are preferred because black-oil sunflower seed hulls are allelopathic; they contain a chemical that inhibits seed germination in other plants. That's why plants don't grow where sunflower hulls touch the soil."

Additional Info at HomeAndGardenSite.com, and a scientific paper, Allelopathic potential of Helianthus annuus L. (sunflower) as natural herbicide"

So it sounds like it depends what kind of sunflowers they were, but i didn't want to take chances. Like you, mine were a hugely satifying addition to my garden, but i won't be composting their bodies this year. To the burn pile with them!

 

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