My Sunflower Field - Why Not?| Sarah Duke Photography

August 1, 2018

The first spring and summer in our new house was dawning on us. My friend had been showing me pictures of her amazing zinnia garden. It was the first time I learned the difference between "annual" and "perennial."

Official Definitions:

Annual- An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one year, and then dies.

Perennial- A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials.

My Definitions:

Annual- if you mess up its OKAY because they wont come back this year

Perennial- plant more seeds like this because its less you have to do next year

I remember thinking at work wow....how AWESOME would it be to grow giant, mammoth sunflowers? And then I started thinking about areas around our house. Our soil is very acidic because of all the pine trees. And from seed?

Its probably too hard I thought.

And then I just said why not?!

Sometimes you just gotta take a risk.

I have learned with gardening that you will invest a lot of sweat and time and have some misfortunes....and also rewards.

At the end of the summer, my tallest mammoth sunflower stretched over our house!!

What I learned for next year:

-Start the sunflowers sooner,

- More 7 dust pesticide earlier

-Start sunflower seeds directly in ground instead of pea pods

-Create better supports for them

I told my husband when I retire I am going to make the ENTIRE section of land beside our house a sunflower field because, "why not?" ..i will let you know how that goes when I'm retired :-p