A Sunflower House

Ever since I discovered the book Sunflower Houses by Sharon Lovejoy (link to follow), I've wanted to plant one of these for Promise. I don't know why it took me so long, but today we finally planted our sunflower house.

First Promise helped me roll the old wagon wheel rim out to the chosen spot. This rim is not quite 5 feet in diameter and we use it whenever we want a perfect circle. Yes, that's right. I cheat. ha ha :P

We then gathered rocks and set them around the rim. I had 16 Mammoth sunflowers that came up from seed so we used 16 rocks. She sat inside the rim and we decided it wasn't big enough. She's 10 after all with legs to her armpits. We moved the rocks out 15 inches from the rim and spaced them 12 inches apart. This left us enough room for about a 2 foot wide doorway in front. We removed the rim and she sat inside the circle of rocks. This time there was enough room to fit the both of us comfortably. Using an old trowel that threatened to break in half, I set to work digging a hole where each rock sat. We then planted a mammoth sunflower seedling in each hole.

We added a second row of shorter sunflowers, the Moulin Rouge, to the front. We put 5 on each side of the doorway in a row 12 inches away from the Mammoth and about 15 inches apart. I had more than 10 of these sprout but I was afraid if I went too far back with them the Mammoth would block their sunlight. You can see the placement of these in the next photo. Since they were about half the size of the mammoth sprouts Promise decided we should leave a rock next to them so she wouldn't step on them.


For the third row we used the 2 packs of petunias I was given for Mothers Day from Gail at Whitcombs Nursery when we bought our apple trees. There were 4 to a pack. One was labeled purple and the other had no tag. I dug four holes on each side of the door and planted purple, mystery, purple, mystery. I'm hoping these will help fill in the lower sunflower stalk area for some additional screening and privacy. When this all grows in I'm going to have to send her a picture with a thank you note.

Promise then lined the doorway with rocks outlining the path inside and quickly came with her little watering can to water it all. The top end of the pathway points to the line of mammoth sunflowers.

I'm still thinking I could go out and transplant some of my daisies over there for additional fill, but maybe not today. ;) We had a great time together planting and we can't wait for it to grow in. I'll post an update pic later in the summer so you can all see it.

Get the book that inspired it all, here!