Sunflower Challenge

[Ceres]

http://www.juniorlandcarechallenge.com.au/Sunflower/sunflower_splash.html

For those of you who don't mind competitions sponsored by Yates..


Yates and Junior Landcare are encouraging you to don your gardening gloves and grow giant sunflowers this summer!
Yates will be sending free sunflower seeds to all children who register for the challenge. Not only is this a fun outdoors activity for but it is a great way for you to learn about sustainability, the environment and gardening.
You can grow your sunflowers at home or at school and you will need to care for their plants during the hot summer weather.
Register now to take part in Australia’s biggest sunflower challenge and you could be in with a chance to win some fantastic prizes!

[Belinda]

Oh yes, that's what I got on here to post yesterday and forgot. We are registered - Their Dad wanted to do it with them, they love sunflowers

[GreenGully]

oh this sounds great :) Do you want to do this as a team ceres or should we register separately?

[Ceres]

I've just registered D so J might like his own registration.

[mummy2boys]

Sounds like fun. I've registered each of mine separately. Hopefully it'll go better than last year's attempt at sunflowers...............

[Morph]

Ooh, thank you! Just registered both children. They love sunflowers. The biggest one last year was one DD1 adopted & gave love, hugs & kisses to daily.

[Belinda]

That is so cute, Morph!

[HeartBaby]

I'm starting a garden for the boy, so this is perfect! Friends of ours sell giant sunflowers, so I might grab some seeds from him too and have sunflowers everywhere!

[paddockdweller]

Something inside me just can't sign up to a Yates database but I do love the idea.

Could we do this on NL inline with the Yates one?

I already have seeds and are happy to wait till the last week of Oct to plant them.

[Kris]

We've registered. They are one of our children's favourite plants :D They are already fantasising about the photos they can take!

[Ceres]

I know what you mean Padockdweller! But yeah of course join in, we can all post pics of our progress here!

[paddockdweller]

Cool Ceres, hopng you'd say that.

Someone will have to post what instructions the project kit has as well as the height measuring rules but other than that tell me when to plant "the seeds" and we're in.

[paddockdweller]

So it's November - have all received your little packages from evil yates yet? :lol

[GreenGully]

Nope :(

[paddockdweller]

Bummer

[Ceres]

Nope here either. But some popped up in the garden from the chook food anyway.

[paddockdweller]

I have some in the garden already too but have the pots all awaiting for the girls competition effort, guess they'll have to wait a bit longer and keep planting zinneas.

[mummy2boys]

Not yet here either.

[Ceres]

I just emailed them. Don't hold your breath waiting for a response.

[paddockdweller]

Did I mention yates is evil? :lol

[Morph]

None here yet either but it's only the 2nd. We're going to plant some soon anyway.

[Ceres]

Ha, I got a response.


Apologies for the delay, Yates posted the seeds out on the 29th of
October so there is a slight delay. You should receive the seeds this
week.

[Morph]

Seeds came today! Yay! Girls looking forward to planting them. Just wondering where....

[GreenGully]

Ours came today too.

[Ceres]

That's good news. I must check the letter box and see if ours are here too.

[Belinda]

Yes, our arrived today too!

[mummy2boys]

Ours too.

[paddockdweller]

Oh yay - then I'll plant ours this week

I've now used the pots I had planned on using Im in the same boat as you Morph - the question is where??

[Ceres]

Planted ours today. DS planted them in the new garden bed (the "children's garden") with some tomatoes and bush peas and I think a couple of random beetroots made their way in as well. I'm just a bit excited that he has finally taken somewhat of an interest in gardening.

[Ceres]

..and they're getting their third watering for the day. I think DS likes his new watering can. :lol

[GreenGully]

:lol go him!

[Jo-Ma]

Typically, I've lost ours!!!! Well I remember putting them on the hallway table when they arrived and now they are gone.

[Ceres]

As it happens I have several extra packets of sunflowers (kept forgetting that I already had them and buying more) so I can bring you some on Wednesday if you like?

[Jo-Ma]

Oh that would be very nice. Thanks. You could also tell me how to go about planting them too!

[Ceres]

They're not too fussy, bung them in the soil essentially. :lol

[cgull]

:D

[Ceres]

Our have popped their little heads above the soil already.

[HeartBaby]

Ours are up too!

[Morph]

Ours are still in their packets. :oops Dang whipper snipper broke, so did the rotary hoe, as did the ride-on mower, and my neck went bung too. So all that means I've still not cultivated the patch for the sunflowers & sweetcorn maze. :( Glad the spring weather is extended...

[Belinda]

Ours are still in their packets. :oops Dang whipper snipper broke, so did the rotary hoe, as did the ride-on mower, and my neck went bung too. So all that means I've still not cultivated the patch for the sunflowers & sweetcorn maze. :( Glad the spring weather is extended...

You're not the only one, Morph!

[mummy2boys]

Nope. Definitely not the only one..........

[Ceres]

Snails ate ALL of DS's sunflower seedlings.. I need to plant some more out. Thank goodness we had a spare packet of seeds.

[mummy2boys]

Still haven't planted ours!

Ceres, we have a big bag of sunflower seeds for the birds (now bird!) so LMK if you (or anyone else) want any.

[HeartBaby]

A few of ours got washed away in the big storm last week, along with some of our new lawn. The others are starting to look good :)

[Ceres]

Round 2 of sunflower seeds are popping up now. Let's hope the snails don't get to them this time.

[mummy2boys]

Still haven't planted ours.........

[mummy2boys]

I finally planted some sunflower seeds the other week and they're growing. They were from the birds' bag of seeds though as I couldn't find the Yates ones. I've since found them and planted them a couple of days ago and NOTHING.

[Jo-Ma]

I never did get ours planted. I lost them, found them again, and lost them again. When will I ever get organised!!

[Morph]

Mine got planted last week. Well, not the Yates ones, some other ones I had (Russian Giants). Planted them in the corn maze & they're now about 4 cms high. Yay!

[GreenGully]

Ours are doing pretty well in pots, especially considering I haven't fed them anything!

[mummy2boys]

Jo-Ma, I'll give you some next time I see you if you like.

[Jo-Ma]

Cool, thanks. Along with the moths, aloe vera plant....... We've got a nice little list going here.

[HeartBaby]

Ours are doing reasonably, I guess. We have one about my height, the others are smaller... I did expect them to be bigger to be honest, but there hasn't actually been a lot of hot weather at the moment. The biggest one is about to flower :)

[mummy2boys]

I'd better MAKE a list lest I forget something lol.

[HeartBaby]

We have a flower!! Woo :D

[mummy2boys]

Well, we have some plants with leaves and they are not dead :eager

Is it necessary to thin them out? Someone said I should.

[Ceres]

The packets always say to thin them out, and I think they'll grow taller with a bit of space between them. Large seeds like that I plant singly so there's no need to thin them out. Lazy gardening as always!

[mummy2boys]

I had a 2yr old helper. Some of them are kind of clumpy :) But some are not, so I'm going to leave them.

[Ceres]

How's everyone's sunflowers going? DS's largest one is taller than him now, and it has a few heads forming.

[Belinda]

Ours were eventually planted but they were all mixed in with others that we had and I have no idea which were which! But they are growing beautifully and we have lovely bright chirpy flowers. My neighbour actually complained we planted them in the wrong spot this year, because last year she could see them from her kitchen window and this year she can't :)

[mummy2boys]

I have some that appear not to be dead. They're tiny though, definitely not kid-height.

[paddockdweller]

Baby goats + sunflower patch = disaster

Oh well maybe next year

[Ceres]

Not such a disaster for the baby goats apparently! Do you have them for milk or meat?

[paddockdweller]

Both - Girls are for milk boys are for meat
Farmerboy has a serious cheesemaking hobby - it's just plain awful :lol

[HeartBaby]

Ours grew to be just at my height (165 cm) and had quite large heads. We are now munching on roasted seeds because I harvested them on the weekend :)

[Ceres]

Fantastic! Ours are just about to flower now. I usually just give the heads to the chooks. It's like an IQ test, see how long it takes them to work out that there's yummy stuff in there.

[HeartBaby]

Hehe..

If I save some of the seeds, can I plant them next year, or do I have to do something to prepare them. The ones I planted are a bit bigger than the seeds I got back?

[Morph]

Seed size relates to how well watered & fed they were during growth. The genetics are still the same though so yes, you can keep some to plant next year.