Agriculture Report, Sunflowers!

Agriculture Report

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

What is an “Agriculture Report”? Well I was inspired by  @quiteayarnblog‘s ongoing series of posts titled “Agriculture Report” (and this title always cracks me up) that are actually updates of what is going on in her garden. I just had to adopt this same title for updates on what is going on in my garden/my “garden report“…

I know it is late in the season to be reporting on my garden but better late than never. My part of Colorado seems to have a short growing season and we’ve already had a freeze at night so my garden is done for the season but here is the story of what happened during the 2023 growing season.

THE PATIO GARDEN

In August I shared some photos from my patio garden where I was growing tomatoes, peppers, and herbs (I use Marigolds as natural pest control):

Well I ended up having a sort of decent harvest of tomatoes and for the first time I was able to grow FULL SIZE tomatoes instead of just cherry tomatoes. I also grew a couple Anaheim peppers. John even roasted one. I also grew a lot of basil and made pesto.

I felt like a FARMER (ha!) with my imaginarily large harvest (yes it was a little bit more than in the photo above, but not that much more). And as I mentioned John actually roasted the first large pepper I grew and added it to a salsa.

GIANT SUNFLOWER (YUP ONLY ONE)

In 2022 I grew bunch of sunflowers including a GIANT SUNFLOWER. I harvested the seeds from the giant sunflower with plans to plant as many as I could to have a mini field of giant sunflowers in 2023 (see post The Sunflowers!)

I felt so “rich” in giant sunflower seeds from this harvest I even shared some with friends.

So I planted a lot of these seeds (probably 1/2 the jar that was left from sharing with friends) and guess what:

I GOT ONE GIANT SUNFLOWER from all the seeds I planted:

And then when I went to harvest the seeds, I pull the head off the sunflower too soon and the seeds did not appear to be mature. I ended up putting the sunflower head in a paper bag upside after googling what to do when you screw up like I did, to let them mature more and dry out.

I don’t think it helped but I did go ahead and harvest what I had a couple weeks later:

So next year I’ll try and plant them and see what happens. I suspect nothing as the seeds are pretty thin and I do not think they will germinate. But I will try.

I might have to just start over again with some store bought giant sunflower seeds…

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

15 thoughts on “Agriculture Report”

  2. I’ve found that planting sunflowers from seed can be chancy because birds and critters get at the seeds before they sprout. I had success with putting netting over them just until they sprout. Then you’re fine and it’s up to them to grow!

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  4. I have hit and miss results with sunflowers too. I just assumed it was cos I forgot to water them. I’m always impressed when anyone can grow anything.

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  5. I’m impressed you got even one giant sunflower! Do you know what happened to the others? I hope your seeds germinate. I can’t grow sunflowers here because the critters find them too delicious. Once we build a greenhouse, I’ll try again.

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