Sunflowers

I have always loved sunflowers but only in the last few years have we grown many. They came to planted in my front garden and were stunning. I've planted them a couple of times in my garden bins. They make a pretty good dye but more importantly, they are fabulous for goats. Any part of the plant - the seeds, the flower, the leaves, the stems and the roots) are all good for goats. And the goats love them. You can't beat that.

Also, as it turns out, sunflowers make a pretty good wall. The one pictured above is about 6' tall so far. You may remember that I spent years trying to encourage a wildflower garden to grow over my septic drain field so no one would drive over it. That turned out to be a complete failure so we pivoted to a wall of sunflowers. They are nice to look at when they are small, nice to look at as they grow and stunning to behold in full bloom. They are even passable to look at once they have finished blooming. And we can mow the area over the winter between crops. What more could you ask for in a wall?

We got a pretty late start planting this spring - sunflowers as well as everything else. Only now are they starting to bloom. Just a few flowers here and there but the bumble bees seem pretty excited about them!

This year we used a whole bunch of different seeds so the sunflowers are tall and short, normal yellow but also red and mottled. So far they are just as beautiful as I hoped. I'll post another picture when they are in bloom.