Did you know sunflowers are technically a weed? They are! This got me to thinking (bear with me here for a minute). I work very hard to get grass to grow in my yard. I fertilize it and water it, I apply other things to keep the dandelion and crab grass down, but as soon as grass grows in my garden, I pull it up and treat it like a weed. It's not a weed, but I don't want it growing my my garden. I do want sunflowers to grow in my garden, so I plant and encourage them to grow. Every now and then I see sunflowers growing along the edge of a corn field. A farmer does not want sunflowers to grow in his cornfield. They are a weed to him because they are not supposed to be growing there; the corn is. So he sprays them or chops them down, no different than I would treat the grass that grows in my garden. Does this bother me? No, because I realize he is trying to grow corn and sunflowers could keep sunlight and nutrients from getting to the corn plants and I realize that corn is tastier to eat than my sunflowers.
This post was linked to:
Garden Party Tuesday, Bloomin' Tuesday and Fertilize Friday
18 comments:
I love.Love.LOVE sunflowers too. [And I also remember the way the Central IN farmers didn't. :)] Here in So. Fla. all the yards seem to strive for golf course perfection when somedays all I'd really love to see is a big corn or bean field out my front door! I was so excited when these pretty little yellow flowers (weeds!) sprouted up in the yard on one side of my house. I have spent weeks trying to figure out how to get them to grow ALL OVER my yard. The little bursts of sunshine on my grass make me happy...but it probably drives all my neighbors crazy. ;)
I have some sunflowers also Had the second largest at the state fair a few years ago 19 inches was beautiful The birds like them
Have fun with your sunflowers. Are you going to eat them?
Beautiful sunflowers! I planted some last year but forgot this year! Thanks for reminding me of how gorgeous they are. I will add them to the list for next year! =0)
You REALLY need to come visit us in North Dakota. I am surrounded by sunflower fields. They are done blooming now but during harvest I'll get out to take some photos for you!
Katie
We always used to have the prettiest sunflowers in my backyard when I was growing up, but they would only last about a week before the birds would get to them! I'll have to look into growing them next year, they never fail to brighten my day :)
I have always wanted to grow sunflowers, but I am afraid of the ferocious wind we can have out here and what that would do to the sunflowers as they grow taller and the heads get bigger. We have a couple of those "weeds" in our corn, but I like them, and Tall Guy hasn't grumbled about them yet. He's too busy looking for shatter cane and horseweeds.;-)
Ha, I always tell my husband that I wish the grass would grow as well in the yard as it does in my garden beds. ;)
I like sunflowers, but they do not grow very easily for me. Maybe I should try again next year.
Beautiful sunflowers! I laughed when you wrote about the lawn grass needing to stay in the 'lawn' and not in the flower beds, it's so true. I'm a farmer's daughter and most of what I grow in my garden my father called weeds, but I didn't plant my flowers in his cornfield, either. That would have resulted in some sparks flying!
(And I found a cornstalk in my flowerbed yesterday--I'm going to leave it there, it's really quite pretty!)
I guess a good definition of a weed is something growing where it doesn't belong! I've tried sunflowers in the past - but they didn't do well. Maybe it's time to try them again!
I love sunflowers too. I plant them with my Granddaughter now. There are a lot of weeds that I enjoy, growing not eating! lol! Jean
Beautiful! Our sunflower just started to open this weekend - exciting!! Next year i think we will plant them for real... even though they *are* weeds.
What a great idea to give flower seeds as wedding party favors! I never thought of sunflowers as weeds, but I guess I can see that. They are still really pretty, and I should try growing some myself next year.
aloha,
you have so many colorful sunflower blooms going on this week, a nice treat for me since we don't grow these in our back yard :)
thanks for sharing them with us. today i'm sharing an unusual orchid blooming from a friends yard.
Love your sunflowers! Such a great thing to grow with corn. Thanks for sharing! Paula from Idaho
http://bucketideasforgardening.blogspot.com/
Sunflowers are beautiful! I hope to plant some for next summer. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I love all my sunflowers- I especially like the ones that come up where I didn't plant them. :-) There's a field of corn we drive by where they've planted the edge in sunflowers-the whole 20-30 acres is ringed with them. Isn't that funny thinking about your farmer? I was guessing they were encouraging the bees for corn pollination. It sure is pretty, though.
I think about this all the time too... I also don't like that someone else tells me what a weed is... dandelions are pretty and interactive dag-gone-it!
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