Sunflower House

Every summer I have this list in my head (and sometimes on paper, you know I love my lists) of things I'd like to try with the girls.  A fun project on Pinterest that caught my eye, a favorite seasonal activity that we always look forward to, or maybe a fun adventure to go on.  This year we finally completed something that has been on my list for at least two summers now - a sunflower house.  Truthfully this is one of those projects that I have no idea why we didn't complete sooner.  It was really very simple to do and we've had so very much fun with it all summer long.  

We simply started with a few seed packets we found at the local feed store and an open area of yard.  We pulled out all the grass in the area we wanted to plant in and the girls went right to work planting their seeds.

We used some old stakes we had lying about to mark the area so that they didn't accidentally get mowed over when Daddy was mowing the yard.  Ask us how we new that would be necessary...ahem.  They may have worked a bit too well because Daddy was extra careful around our sunflowers and the girls and I did a lot of grass trimming with scissors this summer.  Surprisingly we all really enjoyed taking that extra step to ensure the safety of our beloved flowers. 

It's easy to see in this picture that we weren't necessarily planting our seeds very evenly as we went, but they still grew perfectly well.  Next year I do believe we'll make our planting track at least twice as wide giving ourselves a chance to make our "walls" a bit thicker and our hideout even more secretive.  All in all we're very pleased with our first attempt and have had so much fun with such a simple project.  The girls have loved watching their flowers grow into something so large and I have loved watching their enthusiasm for growing develop.

Now that summer is coming to a close we're watching some of our sunflower heads begin to droop and we're readying to move into the next stage of growing sunflowers...harvesting!  Who knew a little seed could provide so much lasting enjoyment.