Reasons to Love Sunflowers

I love to garden! I love flowers and I love growing my own fruits and vegetables too! One of my favorite garden flowers is the sunflower. Sunflowers are an annual flower that I will always plant in my garden. I love their beautiful flowers, but there are other benefits too, that make them an indispensable part of my garden year after year.

Here are a few great reasons to plant sunflowers in your garden:

1. Easy to Grow
Sunflowers are very easy to grow! Their large seeds are easy to manage, and they sprout quickly. They can be sown directly into your garden and often come up as "volunteers" the following year. I feed wild birds during the winter when the ground is covered in snow and I usually have a few sunflowers sprout up the next spring. They are tough plants and once sprouted and grown, they don't need much extra attention.

2. Screens and Shade
Want to temporarily hide a spot in your yard? Plant a few rows of sunflowers in front of it. Do you want to provide a little shade during the summer? Sunflowers can really come in handy. This year, I planted tall sunflowers along one side of my duck and rabbit run. It not only disguises the boring chain link, but it provides some protection from the sun. As an added benefit, the plants are not harmful to animals who may happen to reach through and nibble the leaves.

3. Birds
Every year, I enjoy watching a variety of wild birds eating from my sunflower plants. They love the seeds! I've also harvested some of the seeds to add to my pet birds' diet.

4. Bugs
Sunflowers are well know for their ability to attract beneficial insects. Some beneficial insects are natural predators to garden pests, others are pollinators. More pollinators in your garden means more fruits and veggies!

5. Food
Those seeds are not just for the birds! Yum! Sunflower seeds are a tasty and nutritious snack! Some varieties of sunflower are grown especially for eating and produce extra large seeds. The whole plant is edible too, but I don't have any experience there. I think I need to do some experimenting...

6. Cut Flowers
Sunflowers make excellent cut flowers to enjoy indoors as well. Be aware that they will spill pollen, but just wipe it away with a damp cloth and don't put them over your nice linens. Do you have a friend who is having a bad day? Bring a sunflower bouquet to cheer them up! Sunflowers have got to be some of the most cheerful flowers out there! It's hard not to smile when you see their sunny blooms.

7. Variety
They come in quite an array of varieties. Some are super tall! Dwarf varieties are much shorter. They come in different colors as well: reds, oranges, yellows... Some have double petaled flowers. There are bushy ones and straight stalk types. With so many options it's not too difficult to find a place for them in your garden.

Do you love sunflowers in your garden? I'd love to hear about it!

Shared at these great blogs:
Garden Tuesday at Sidewalk Shoes
Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage
Down Home Blog Hop at Tilly's Nest
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Homeacre Hop at Black Fox Homestead
Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time
Farmgirl Friday at Dandelion House Homestead 
Creative Home and Garden Hop at Little Homestead on the Hill 
Clever Chicks Blog Hop at The Chicken Chick
Mostly Homemade Mondays at Homegrown and Healthy
The Backyard Farming Connection 

Thank you Little Homestead on the Hill!