Monday 28 August 2017

Sunflowers

Where the chickens were kept over winter was pretty poached ground. 

When I moved the chickens I didn't want the docks and nettles to take over so I set about growing some crops to compost later on and move the fertility of that patch into the compost and then onto my garden. 
One of those crops was sunflowers, now to get the best from them I was supposed to harvested them semi mature and compost them. 

Well they grew so well down there I've just let them flower and they look amazing! These guys like chicken manure that's for sure! 

Even though it means less compost for next year, who wouldn't want to bring armfuls of these beautiful flowers back to the house! We've got hundreds of plants growing down there and each is wanting to flower. 

I think the house is going to be very pretty for the next few days! 

What's your favourite flower to grow to cut for the house?

11 comments:

  1. When you said what your plan was I thought I'd never be able to chop them down before they flower :-)

    I've never had a cutting garden before but used to pick lots of flowers- roses, alchemilla, herbs- from my old garden. I went to a friends flower plot on their allotment yesterday and have decided I'm growing dahlias, zinnias and moluccella next year. It was amazing! And the whole plot was covered in bees.

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  2. Let them mature, and seed, and your chickens will love you for it. Hang a sunflower head upside down and let them peck away at the seeds. That way they're being fed whilst they're amusing themselves ;)

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  3. I recently wrote about our new cut flower bed on my blog and it has been a great success. I grew a dark red cosmos which looks great in the house. They are easy to grow from seed. I bought some sunflower seeds which the packet said 3-4' high which I thought might be good for a large display but they have ended up 8' tall. They look impressive on the vegetable plot though.

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  4. This year on the allotment, I have bee-friendly varieties of dahlias, zinnias (fireworks mix), fancy tall poppies, cornflowers & larkspur which are all really easy from seed & make long lasting cut flowers. For cutting, I grow pollen free (sterile) sunflowers which last longer in the house & don't don't drop messy pollen everywhere (for the bees I grow other types).

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  5. We have a field of Sunflowers in front of the house this year. They've finished now, and soon will be harvested, but what a sight!

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  6. i love flowers that are edible like nasturtiums, bee balm is to die for,chammomile, anise, and sage flowers as well as, of course sunflowers. the birds love pecking out the seeds!

    sending love! your friend,
    kymber

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  7. I cut penny sized Daisies for the house but there are lots of perennials and wildflowers around the gardens, especially Foxgloves.

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  8. I was pleased with my cut flower beds they have been so prolific, producing far too many flowers to bring indoors, I have been giving bunches away, this year it was Lily's Dahlia's, Gladioli and sweet peas

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  9. I'm pretty partial to my dahlias but I love sunflowers too. And they always bring in loads of pollinators to the garden which is a bonus.

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