Deborah Cooke: Author

I love sunflowers but have a hard time growing them. It seems that little creatures – birds and squirrels – eat all the seeds that I plant. Mr. C. finds this really funny – there are chickadees that actually follow me around the garden, pecking around until they eat what I’ve planted.

This year, I’ve decided on a new plan. I got some of those peat pellets with little plaster terrariums and planted the sunflower seeds in there. It means moving the flats around the house and trying to find somewhere sunny and warm for them – without evicting any of the other plants – which can be a challenge. But I’ve had early encouragement – there are already roots on most of the sunflower seeds. Mr. C. noted that the cheap sunflower seeds sprouted just as well as the expensive ones, but who can resist the glorious new sunflower hybrids even though they are comparatively expensive? I’m anxious to see the dark red ones bloom.

My idea is that the critters will be less likely to eat whole plants, but we’ll see. The bunnies have had a good nibble on my tulips already.

And of course I have to figure out where the heck I’m going to plant 60 or 70 sunflowers. The seeds are so small that I planted them all, never thinking that they’d all sprout. I was thinking that even fewer of them would survive, but maybe that needs to be reviewed. Hmm. I could be sharing these around and making the world a more sunflower-filled place!

What about you? Do you start seeds in the house ahead of time? Or do you sow directly into the garden? What do you plant?