Brown thumb needs advice for planting Sunflowers

[SaphirimalMei]

I have a garden area in my backyard with nothing in it.
I was looking to plant sunflowers to liven things up.
They grow wild here in Colorado, so I doubt they'd need much
maintenence which is perfect for me :D

Here's what I need advice on:
1) easy steps to prepare soil?
2) when to plant?
3) how much watering?
4) do sunflowers care if I weed or not? :p
5) how many seed packets per square foot?


Any info would be appreciated, TIA!

[young lioness]

I planted sunflowers this spring (first week of May). Now they are about as tall as I am and are just starting to bloom this week. I'll share the little that I know about them.

We didn't really do anything special to the soil. We just tilled it up, used a hoe to create a little row in the dirt, planted the seeds, and watered with Miracle Grow in the water when we were done.

I think my seed packages said to space the seeds 8-12" apart. I can see why...much closer than that and they would be climbing on each other and pulling each other down. (They get little climby tendril things that grab onto whatever is nearby.) I would think you could get at least 2 dozen sunflowers from one package of seeds...maybe even more.

I don't know how your climate is, so it's hard to give advice about watering. We haven't watered ours at all, so they only get rain water, but seem to be doing fine. I've weeded a couple of times, but it doesn't seem to matter. We have pumpkins growing near the sunflowers, and now the vines are too thick to weed there.

I also don't know what to say about planting. Mine have taken 2 1/2 months to start from seed, grow, and start blooming. I don't know how early/late your fall weather starts, so I don't know how quickly they will grow in your area, or if it's too late to start them.

Hope that helps.

Good luck :)

[SaphirimalMei]

I don't know how your climate is, so it's hard to give advice about watering Colorado is dry as all get out. But sunflowers grow wild here, so I imagine they'll be atleast a little bit forgiving of my absentmindedness :p Bummer that I may have missed the prime planting time for sunflowers. They usually bloom like crazy late summer/early fall here, so I just though I'd check.

Thanks for getting back with me :)

[MeTheGirlie]

And whatever you do - if you have a lawn service, make sure they know something's planted there....my lawn service whacked my sunflowers so I had a sunflower-less season this year!

grrrr..........

[SaphirimalMei]

That stinks!!! I'd be so mad!

Our "lawn service" is DH :D
But it would still be just like him to do something like that :p