Kids Korner: Planting up Sunflowers for Spring

Spring is the bright and vibrant prelude to Summer. The garden perks up and is painted with colour! It’s a time of new growth, new life and refreshment. We love Spring time!

Sunflowers are the perfect plants to put a smile on your face. With golden petals, and stems that tower over most parts of your garden, these are such cheerful additions to the garden. Create a little sunshine and happiness in the world – and your garden – and sow some sunny Spring sunflowers for a burst of colour.

Sunflower Day 2019

Life is a Garden – a lover of sunflowers – is an avid supporter of The Sunflower Fund and the amazing work they do. The fund’s biggest national campaign “Sunflower Day” will be celebrated on 20 September 2019, where the public are encouraged to show support for people fighting chronic blood conditions like Leukaemia and remember that “Hope begins with you!”

In honour of Sunflower Day this year, we will be demonstrating how to plant sunflowers in a box – these show stoppers are perfect pollinators, and if the seed head develops nicely, sunflower seeds can be harvested as a fun activity with the kids too!

Let’s start sowing some sunflowers!

What you will need:

• 1 x weather-treated photo frame
• 2 x  hooks
• Sunflower seeds
• Bonemeal/Superphosphate (do not use bonemeal if you have dogs)
• Wooden planter box (optional)
• Weed barrier cloth (if using a planter box)
• Glue (optional)
• Mini chalkboard
• Some chalk
• A tree with a nice straight branch

How to sow sunflowers

• Firstly, you need to decide whether or not you will be making a wooden box to sow your sunflowers in. If making up the wooden box from scratch, cut plastic sheeting or weed barrier cloth to fit snugly inside the box (parents, please do any and all cutting, hammering etc – we don’t want any unnecessary injuries to kiddies!)
• You are going to need good drainage for your sunflowers to grow tall! Cut holes in the bottom of this box (parents, you may want to jump in here too) and layer drainage stones to assist with drainage. Top the stones with a mixture of potting mix and bonemeal.
• Get your kiddies to poke holes in the soil for your sunflower seeds, showing them to space the seeds around 15cm apart. No matter where you sow your seeds, ensure that you use some bonemeal, compost and/or potting mix so that your plants grow strong and glow with colour.

• Once your kids have sown the sunflower seeds in the soil, cover them up with soil. Remember to give them a good watering.

• In time your sunflowers will start to grow! Now, it’s time to move your planter box on top of a wooden table, with the frame attached to the branch using the hooks.
• Get your little ones to write their names on the chalkboard and ask them to hold the chalkboard behind the frame, next to the sunflowers. Glue the chalkboard to the frame if you prefer. Then, have some fun, getting your kids to pose behind the frame for some nice pictures. A perfect opportunity to get the whole family involved!

Is your child a gardener?

Is your off-spring the type that accompanies you to lifestyle to buy plants? Do your nieces/nephews love to be in the garden? Are you raising gardeners? We would love for you to tag them on Instagram using the hashtags #raisinggardeners #lifestylehomegarden and #lifestylekidskorner

Have you read our Kids Korner post all about getting your kids into the garden? Read it |HERE|