Sunflowers Seeds for you and the Birds

Everybody loves giant sunflowers! Grown just to look at, or for seeds for you or the neighborhood birds, sunflowers are easy to grow, even for the beginning gardener.

I plant sunflowers directly in the garden a couple of weeks before the last frost. Because young sunflower seedlings transplant so well, they can also be started indoors very early in the spring and set out in the garden around the time of your last frost.

If you had a crop in the garden last year, look around for some early “volunteers”—those plants sprouting from dropped seeds. Scoop them up with a trowel, set them where you want them, and water them.

Sunflowers should be grown where they won’t shade shorter crops in need of full sunlight. The north side of the garden is an excellent place for them. Plant them in your corn rows or in back of them.

Late in the summer, when the seed heads begin to mature and bend toward the ground, you’ll have to protect them from birds.

The best material to wrap around the heads is the plastic mesh that onion bags are made of. Don’t cover them too early. Wait until you see the first bird poking at them. Birds are reluctant to stick their beaks through the mesh. Of course, if you’re growing sunflowers for the birds, just relax and watch them. It always amuses me to see how birds will perch on top of the head and peck at the seeds while they are almost upside down. They just dig in, hold onfor dear life, and eat away.

When harvesting sunflowers for your own use, cut the seed heads with about a foot of stem still attached, and hang them in an airy place where birds and mice can’t get to them. Once the heads are dry (in 2 to 3 weeks) you can remove the seeds by rubbing them off with a stiff brush, or by rubbing two heads together. There’s no need to remove the seeds until you need them.

Jan and I save some whole heads for winter birdfeed. We hang a head from a tree limb. Trouble is it lasts only a day and a half. The bluejays will eat the head clean unless we woo them away with some whole corn. That gives the cardinals a chance to enjoy the sunflowers for a while.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Sunflowers Seeds for you and the Birds

• Tough nuts to crack!
• Plant a Tree or Climber for Wildlife
• Simple Garden Projects: Birdbaths and Fountain
• A Dozen Tactics for the Truly Lazy Gardening
• A Dozen Garden Pests Tactics for the Truly Lazy Green Gardeners
• Help with Wildlife
• Outdoor Eating
• Beginnings and the Seed part 3
• Three problems affecting buds and flowers
• Get Rid of Garden Plants Bugs and Diseases part 2