Landscaping With Sunflowers

Cover a bare, sunny wall around your home, garage or shed by planting a stand, or grouping, of sunflowers in front of it. Cluster all one variety of sunflowers together or plant 6-foot-tall sunflowers in the back with shorter 3-to-4-foot varieties in front.

Plant a row or two parallel rows of sunflowers along a property line or around an area you want to keep private to create a temporary but green screen or hedge with tall sunflowers.

Line your driveway with 30-to-36-inch sunflower varieties to make a pleasing entry area leading to your house. Select different varieties that feature shades of yellow to red to add interest along the drive or use the same variety for a uniform look.

Plant a sunflower house by digging a U-shaped trench with dimensions of about 6-by-6 feet. Plant two or three seeds every foot around the trench of the tallest sunflowers you desire. Once the sunflowers (walls) are grown, children can play in the house all summer.

Grow tall sunflower varieties in the back of cottage gardens to bring the eye upward or mix shorter, knee-high varieties in with your other cottage garden plantings.

Line the perimeter of vegetable gardens with sunflowers to create a backdrop for your other plants; an added bonus is sunflowers attract pollinators and birds.

Fill an unused property area of lawn or field with a mass planting of a sunflower crop for a Mediterranean feel, which not only transforms the look of the property, but also provides a harvestable crop of sunflower seeds.