Aubabe, It is true that sunflowers will deplete the soil of nutrients. Alfalfa is a member of the clover family which is know to replace nitrogen. Alfalfa has pretty purple flowers on it & attracts pollinating bees. You'll need to trim the flowers back before they set seed. Lay the cuttings out to dry and use them to make a rich tea fertilizer with, then compost them. You can plant your sunflowers right through the alfalfa (the cover will help retain soil moisture too) so you can replant in the same spot year after year. Alfalfa is perennial and lasts for about 6-8 years. You can go to any small town elevator and ask to buy a handful of alfalfa seed, after they're done teasing you about what you're going to do with it, they'll likely give it to you for free. One warning...Be sure you only plant the alfalfa where you really really want it. Once it is planted, it's impossible to pull out. At least it's pretty though! Good Luck!

MeMo

You have a lovely little garden! I hope you'll post again when you have the new beds producing!

Adorable garden.

Very Pretty Yard.

Thanks all!

Turns out I found a new place along the fence to grow the sunflowers. At least for this year, guess I'll have to try to find a new place next summer but for now, here goes...

I also bought some seeds to try hollyhock creme de cassis where the sunflowers were last year.

Oh good, here is this thread. I'm about to plant my sunflowers and was looking for it.

The new place I'm thinking of putting them is actually inside the holes of big cinder blocks along a fence. I filled the holes with soil last week.

Has anyone ever tried growing flowers out of cinder block holes? I've read it works, but never tried it myself.

I also have some alfalfa seeds I bought for sprouting (to eat) so I think I will try putting the alfalfa in the blocks in late summer after the sunflowers have grown.

Any thought on whether or not this will work?

And btw, I pre-soaked holyhock seeds for 24 hours, planted them in seed trays on Saturday and already they are sprouting! I can't wait for the whole garden to be in full bloom this year!

Oh and memo, if you happen to read this again - how do you make compost tea from the alfalfa cuttings once you have dried them? Do you just soak them in water?

Cute potager!

Sunflowers are pigs, but note that they are also allelopathic, which means that they will stunt the growth of other plants growing near them. Now don't panic... my experience has been that they are only mildly antisocial. I've planted many other things fairly close to sunflowers and not had a problem. Just to be on the safe side though, add an extra 6 inches or so to the distance from the sunflowers to the nearest other plant.

-Diggity

Hi,

I'm not MeMo, but here is a terrific instuctable on how to create your own liquid green fertilizer that I've found.

http://purecajunsunshine.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-make-free-fertilizer-from-weeds.html

Also, I have found that Cosmos do extremely well with sunflowers. Your garden is beautiful, thanks for sharing the photo.

Olyveoil...(O:
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