Sunflower Houses

Ever heard of sunflower houses? Well neither did I until last year. We checked out the “Sunflower House”, by Eve Bunting at the library and after reading it we decided it was a must for the community garden. Each plot at the community garden is 20’x10’ so we decided to make two rooms four our house. We planted clover for the “carpet” and then all different kinds of sunflowers for our walls.

The reason we chose clover as our “carpet was because clover is a great cover crop. It is grown to help suppress weeds, prevent erosion and build healthier soil. Cover crops also add valuable organic matter and nutrients to the soil and are sometimes called "green manures". Clover also provides bees with good sources of pollen and nectar. We all want bees in the garden to pollinate and make a healthier garden.

There were a few details that we will change the next year we do it but all and all the sunflower house was a fun project for my kids and I. We should have let the clover grow and get established before we planted the sunflowers, it never came in nice and thick, but a year later it is a lush carpet of clover. ;) Also we had two furry friends that liked to visit the garden. (A baby raccoon and ground hog) They both liked to pull the sunflower branches down and eat our walls. Finally since we did not make real thick wall in the house the sunflowers seemed to fall over with the wind.

These are however me as an adult looking at the things I would change for next year. For the kids the sunflower house was a great escape, the perfect peak-a-boo spot, great place to watch without being watched and a wonderful spot for pictures. Sadly we won’t be doing it again this year at the garden, but I want to do another one at home so the boys can have a sunflower “fort” for the summer.