no, it's not a bedspring in the front yard! ;)

Hi Bettyann! Your SFG is beautiful. What's growing up out of the grass?

CC

sunflower garden.  many different varieties of sunflowers.  in another week i'll mulch all around - i've already thinned out to strongest in each spot (i used a ruler and planted a few seeds every 12 inches - can't seem to help myself with order - after using sfg style, i like things tidy.) 

I need a spot to put my sunflowers, too. I never thought of having them come up out of the lawn. Want your grass be really long by the time you put the mulch down? Will the mulch kill the grass?

Bettyann, Welcome to the Forum from California!

here's what i did with the sunflower garden section - i took a gallon of vinegar (white) and put it in the fertilizer/pesticide sprayer canister (bought it at aldi for this task) and sprayed it all over that area.  it killed the grass!  then i weedwhacked it down as low as i could.  then i took a measuring tape and marked off foot increments, and then each foot, i planted a couple sunflower seeds every 12 inches.  then when they sprouted, i nipped off the weakest looking seedlings (like sfg method,   )  and my plan is to HEAVILY mulch all around the seedlings next week - i had some sunflowers that didn't sprout - don't know if the birds got them or what, but i planted a few more seeds in the bare spots this week (those i did a random here and there method - mostly because my kids dumped all the remaining sunflower seeds into one pile so i have no idea what those are - the garden was supposed to range from 15 feet tall sunflowers down to 32" tall flowers - a row or two of each variety.).

fingers crossed it works - never did it before, but i thought it would be fun and my kids love sunflowers and we love seeing happy birds, so we figured it was worth a shot.

and i was hoping to minimize the view of the 'bedsprings' (aka my trellis' for my tomatoes, cukes/watermelon/canteloupe) from folks strolling/driving by my house.

long term plan is to put in more sfg beds in that space as well - it's 4 feet wide in prep for that   i thought it would help reduce the amount of work i will need to do next year because this is our first year gardening at this house.

hope that answered your questions.

bettyann wrote:fingers crossed it works - never did it before, but i thought it would be fun and my kids love sunflowers and we love seeing happy birds, so we figured it was worth a shot.

Bettyann, you should read about Emily Green's adventure with sunflower plants in this link:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2011/07/the-dry-garden-a-sunflower-or-two-or-200000.html

She lives in Southern California and is an writer for the Los Angeles Times newspaper.  She writes about how they may be natural weed killers:
"... that sunflowers may have alleopathic virtues –- that is to say, they may emit chemicals that suppress growth of plants near them. Agronomists are even exploring their potential to stand in for herbicides. So they may actually be serving as a natural alternative to weed killers."

I think your sunflower patch will be beautiful.  It will bring many smiles.

that article makes me feel that she is a kindred spirit.  <3 

i feel i need to mulch because where my house is, there are many rules about weeds and weed height.  grass that is not mowed can be considered a weed and fined if over 6 inches tall.  i already hav eput in a garden in my front yard in my first summer here so i don't want to draw even more attention to my 'antics'. . .  

the vinegar did do a really good job of killing off the top layer of grass - and made it so that we could easily differentiate between grass and sunflowers when they started seedling thru soil.  . . the grass did start coming back, so obviously vinegar is not a permanent destroyer of ph in soil (whew!)

bettyann wrote:sunflower garden.  many different varieties of sunflowers.  in another week i'll mulch all around - i've already thinned out to strongest in each spot (i used a ruler and planted a few seeds every 12 inches - can't seem to help myself with order - after using sfg style, i like things tidy.) 

Good for you, BettyAnn! 

Wish I could get away with putting beds in the front yard.  But then our students wouldn't have a place to park when we have a full house....