.) We spent most of the day working outside trying to catch up on the garden and yard work.
One of the things we worked on this weekend was getting an area of the backyard ready to grow a sunflower house for the kids. I have been reading the book Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy and in it she describes how to grow a house made of sunflowers. I think this is just the neatest idea. What child (or adult for that matter!) wouldn’t love hiding out in a house made of sunflowers?
I am not following the book exactly- I’ve changed a few things but the basic idea is the same. The book tells you to make the house 6′ x 9′ and use three types of sunflowers. We decided to make our sunflower house 8′ x 8′ because it seemed to fit the yard better.
First we dug a trench 6 inches deep and mixed in composted manure with the soil from the trench. Then we laid down some straw to act as the floor of the house. I planted mammoth sunflowers every 2 feet and in between them I planted corn. I thought it might be kind of fun to have the corn growing as the walls of the house as well as the sunflowers.
When the corn and sunflowers get to be a few inches tall I will plant some morning glory seeds next to them and the morning glories can climb up them. Once the sunflowers reach their full height the book says to tie twine to the top of one sunflower and stretch it across the house to the opposite side flower. This will act as a trellis for the morning glories to grow across forming a roof.
Hopefully I will be able to keep slugs (and birds!) away from the emerging seeds. My nine year old son is already very excited about the idea of a sunflower hang out and can’t wait for them to start growing. In fact he had a blast today just lying in all the hay we put down! I really can’t wait to see how this little gardening experiment turns out.
I will definitely be posting updates on it as the summer goes by.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
That seems like such a wonderful project for kids.
Hurrah! Good for you and good for you for not following my directions to the letter. Gardens are about finding your wings and tapping into your creativity and intuition. I like the corn in the wall, but how about also thinking of planting scarlet runner beans or painted lady beans in the wall and to cover the roof? I’ve done that and it was great and attracted hummers. The blooms of the beans are edible too.
I’ll keep checking on your progress!
Sunflower blessings, [email protected]
Wow! I’m so excited that to see a comment from you Ms. Lovejoy! I am honored to see that you have visited my blog.
You know, I was actually thinking of growing a couple scarlet runner beans along with the morning glories as I already have some seed of them. I like the idea of them being part of the roof to attract hummers as we have a little one that visits our yard everyday. He loves to perch on our bean trellis!
OMG I just sent this to a friend…she is going to love this! Thank you so much. I only wish I had room in my garden to make this wonderful creation.
Laurie
Laurie- I’m glad you like it! We are really excited about our little sunflower house. I plan on posting updates on it as it grows and fills in.