Growing & Harvesting Sunflowers

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we're going to talk about growing and harvesting sunflowers. Now sunflowers are probably one of the most traditional flowers that you can grow. They just remind you of your grandmother's garden and they're so easy to grow. So the trick with sunflowers is to start them by seed in the spring. Whenever the last frost or you can even start them into summer. And so you can start the seeds right into a paper towel and then get them to sprout just keep a wet paper towel, eventually they'll sprout you can put them right into the ground. Or you can put them just in little raised beds in the ground and raised areas and just water them real well and the seeds will come. And then they'll grow through the summer and then by late summer, they will turn to seed. So you'll know that the sunflowers are ready to harvest when the seeds are just barely when you tap in the plant, they just start to drop just a little bit, they start falling out of there. So then you can just pull all of the sunflowers seed off or I just throw them right into a paper bag and they'll dry and then the sunflowers will come right out. Now you can save those sunflowers and replant them for the next year or you can turn around and roast them and have your own sunflowers that you can use with your salads or you can enjoy with any other dish in the kitchen. But sunflowers are so easy to grow and so easy to harvest. Just make sure that you have good organic material, full hot sun all day and water them real, real well but make sure they dry out in between watering. And that way you will have a wonderful sunflower garden.