Harvesting Monster Sunflowers

Remember these beautiful, monster sunflowers? A few weeks ago, we harvested them.




A few of the heads we left outside for the birds.



One was used for roasting and snacking on and another was picked and used for bird seed.


(do you see how large that sunflower head is? That's 4 year old Buttercup behind it)

This was a fun growing project. Next spring we will be planting these again.

Monster Sunflowers

We have been growing MONSTER sunflowers! My niece has her own little garden and sunflowers were on her "to grow" list. She planted about 6-7 sunflowers and they have grown HUGE. The largest one is about 9 ft tall. I don't know the measurement of the flower heads themselves. I'll have to find a tape measure and find out later.




Here is a comparison shot of me and my niece standing next to the flowers.



I think these will go on our "to grow" list every year. It was fun seeing how large they got. The flowers are actually getting a bit shorter as the seeds are beginning to form. The flower heads are getting heavy and pulling the flowers over. I'll take some more photos later on as the seeds develop more.

My Little Seedlings: an update on my herbs

I've got an update on my herbs we planted a couple of weeks ago. We have some sprouting pots and some without anything. The decorations on the box are courtesy of my niece (who I should give a name on here so I don't keep calling her niece. Hmm, I'll have to think of one)



Here are a few close ups of the little seedlings.

lemon basil

garlic chives

Potting Shed Creations Herbs - Planting

Remember those herbs I said were coming? Well today is the day. A while back, I won a giveaway for a set of 6 herbs in these really cool pots made from rice hulls. I finally planted them. I was waiting for a day when my niece would be here. She loves planting.



The Rice Hull Gardens are from Potting Shed Creations. The pots are made from renewable grain husks, mostly rice hulls. They are 100% biodegradable, which can't be said about those plastic pots.


I received garlic chives, lemon basil, lavender, mint, parsley, and oregano. I do have to say that all of these herbs are ones we grow in the garden except for the mint. But I can never get these herbs in the winter unless we grow them inside or buy them from the store. This will be our first try growing herbs inside. With the cold winter that lasts forever, we have a small window for fresh herbs. The store bought packs are expensive and we never use it all which is a waste. I'm excited for fresh herbs all year long.

And in regards to mint, we can not find it in any of the stores around here. Which I find strange because there is a city here that grows gobs of the stuff. Where is it?



Inside you will find: seed packets (oh look, it's mint), a bag of soil, and directions. See that top? It's not really a top it's a saucer. Let's get planting.



I moistened the soil a bit and then had my niece scoop out some to save for the top. The saucer works well for this. The directions didn't tell us to put rocks in the bottom but I've always done this for irrigation. You can see a few in the pot if you look.



Next, we filled the pot with the rest of the soil.



Now for planting the seeds. Do you see how tiny the mint seeds are? Very small. I was surprised at how tiny they were.



Make sure you get them all in there.



A little spritz of water and were finished. I stored them all in the cardboard box the were shipped in and put them in the basement. They need a warm, dark place for sprouting. I just checked on them today and I saw a bit of sprouts from the garlic chives coming through the soil.

I'll try and post more pictures to let you see how they are coming along.

One herb they don't sell is thyme. Although I wish they would. I love that stuff.

Thank you Potting Shed Creations for the herbs.



*this is not a paid advertisement. Just my own opinion.

coming soon - herbs

I received a great herb set yesterday. I'll post some pictures soon.