Best Sunflowers? NEW QUESTION post #9

[SarahFair]

Im starting to get an itch! MUST. PLANT. SOMETHING! lol

Ive ALWAYS wanted a sunflower screen. I have a perfect area all picked out

My neighbors are pretty close. Its to the point where I dont even want to go outside because, there they are! The people just give me the heebie-jeebies. So I would like a sunflower tall enough to block view but not so tall I have to go out and steak them all up.
I wanted to go ahead and start a seed tape project this week. What would be the best sunflowers for this area?
Could I plant 2 different kind to extend bloom time?


Im trying to think of a good way to kill the grass and get the soil ready. Its between two fences . My fence is 5 foot theirs is 4 foot. The area is only about 3 feet wide and 60 feet long so a mower wont fit down it. The grass has gotten really tall and, just, unattractive. My dad suggested some round up. He said in the past he has sprayed roundup and planted the next day. Sounds nice but that is A LOT of grass. I want to just smother it under newspapers and mulch and let it rot. I have a HUGE pile in the backyard but where does one get THAT much newspaper?

The soil out here is not pretty. ROCK hard clay in the middle of an old cow pasture. Thank the lord it has rained A LOT this year. We had that huge flood plus just days and days of rain throughout the months. 2009 was one of the wettest years! I was hoping that that would ease up the soil a bit and this spring it wouldnt be so hard to work. A couple of days ago I was reading about prepping soil and it says if worked wet you will have drainage problems for years to come. 5 out of the 10 days in the 10 day forcast is RAIN! I dont think the ground will ever dry out

So Im wodering if smothering it NOW wouldnt rot the grass and start drying out the ground slowly, but not so fast that it hardens.
How would that leave soil conditions?
Would the grass move back in and choke the sunflowers before they got the chance to gain some growth?

 

[bid]

Smothering the grass is a good idea, but like you say where do you get that much newspaper. Start collecting? Cardboard works good too as do old feed bags. I have reclaimed grassy areas by digging them out... 4- 6 inches down with a square shovel and just flip it over. 60 feet is a long way when you have a shovel in your hand! But if you only do 5 or 10 feet a day it's not as bad. Some is going to come back of course but not all of it. Cover and/or mulch and plant through the layers should work pretty good. You could always start sunflowers in a container and let them get a jump start on the grass before you transplant them.

I have only grown Russian Mammoth and black oil seed sunflowers (silly lovebird is too lazy to crack them open so I planted a few for the wild birds) so my experience in variety is very limited. But with 2 fences so close together staking probably wouldn't be all that critical or easy enough to just weave some jute, string etc in around them for a little added support. Good luck!

 

[digitS']

There are both annual and perennial grasses. You may have to deal with both and they both reproduce from seeds.

A perennial grass like quack grass puts out a lot of roots that can grow lots more plants if they are left in the soil. The good news is that these rhizome roots are quite shallow. A spading fork works well in loosening the soil without chopping up all the rhizomes. You can carefully rake the roots out of the loosened soil or just get down there with your gloves and remove them.

Sunflowers? Autumn Beauty is an inexpensive mix of branching sunflowers. There's a mix of colors. Razzmatazz may be a "better" mix but I got 'em mixed up some with the Autumn Beauty last year and wasn't sure of which was which . I'll try to do better this year . . .

If you like the looks of those 2 mixes, Ring of Fire may really be great for you. A single variety with some punch!

Sunrich Orange is real pretty and so is Sunbright. These are big flowers on a single stem. Bright and beautiful but, unlike the branching types, if you cut them to bring indoors - they're gone. The branching types will continue to come back.

This year, I'll try Indian Blanket.

Steve

Oh, and if your choice is a hybrid - they were probably bred for cut flowers and don't have pollen. That will probably mean that they won't have seeds either for your feathered friends.

 

[journey11]

I killed off a patch of quack grass last summer by putting down 6 mil black plastic in the hottest part of summer and it cooked it/deprived it of sunlight. Tilled it after it died and it never came back.

But being that this is winter and you probably can't get a tiller down the gap between your 2 fences, that probably wouldn't work for you.

Smothering it out (or Roundup like you dad suggested) would probably be your best bet. I go to the recycling center and get truckloads of newspaper for mulching. If you're lucky and you get there after the newspaper carrier has dropped off his unsold extras you might even find them neatly stacked and tied!

It takes A LOT of newspaper to smother out any grass that runs by the roots. Soak it in bundles then lay it down at least 1" thick. Then if it were me, to prepare it for growing anything in it, I would throw down lots of mulch REALLY deep, like a foot deep (it will break down over time, but initially you want to make sure it is deep enough to kill the grass). You'd put in a couple shovelfuls of garden dirt/compost only where you want a plant. Anything that comes up after that will be very easy to pull out. Keep it weeded out every once in a while, reapply mulch as needed and you shouldn't have any problems.

Being that this is between two fences though, unless you're fundamentally opposed to using the Roundup, it really would be the easiest way to handle it. Your neighbors might not like all that mulch touching their fence, I dunno. You ought to check with them before you spray any roundup either, make sure they don't have anything growing nearby that could be affected by the drift (my neighbors have always been good to check with me first before they spray along their pasture fence that borders me.)

I have found with sunflowers too, if you want them to keep blooming and send out lots of side branches, pick them often for bouquets!

 

[SarahFair]

I killed off a patch of quack grass last summer by putting down 6 mil black plastic in the hottest part of summer and it cooked it/deprived it of sunlight. Tilled it after it died and it never came back.

But being that this is winter and you probably can't get a tiller down the gap between your 2 fences, that probably wouldn't work for you.

Smothering it out (or Roundup like you dad suggested) would probably be your best bet. I go to the recycling center and get truckloads of newspaper for mulching. If you're lucky and you get there after the newspaper carrier has dropped off his unsold extras you might even find them neatly stacked and tied!

It takes A LOT of newspaper to smother out any grass that runs by the roots. Soak it in bundles then lay it down at least 1" thick. Then if it were me, to prepare it for growing anything in it, I would throw down lots of mulch REALLY deep, like a foot deep (it will break down over time, but initially you want to make sure it is deep enough to kill the grass). Anything that comes up after that will be very easy to pull out. Keep it weeded out every once in a while, reapply mulch as needed and you shouldn't have any problems.

Being that this is between two fences though, unless you're fundamentally opposed to using the Roundup, it really would be the easiest way to handle it. Your neighbors might not like all that mulch touching their fence, I dunno. You ought to check with them before you spray any roundup either, make sure they don't have anything growing nearby that could be affected by the drift (my neighbors have always been good to check with me first before they spray along their pasture fence that borders me.)

I have found with sunflowers too, if you want them to keep blooming and send out lots of side branches, pick them often for bouquets!

Noo my neighbors are renters. They dont grow anything and the grass that has been growing up against their fence (from the previous owners) has some what caused it to start bending outwards.

Will recycle centers give you paper? I can just drive up to the front office and say 'Hello, I need LOTS of paper!'? I guess sunday would be my best bet to get nice stacked papers?

 

[journey11]

Noo my neighbors are renters. They dont grow anything and the grass that has been growing up against their fence (from the previous owners) has some what caused it to start bending outwards.

Will recycle centers give you paper? I can just drive up to the front office and say 'Hello, I need LOTS of paper!'? I guess sunday would be my best bet to get nice stacked papers?

Renters...that explains it!

I get mine where you drop them off--they have big bins outside. We don't have curbside pickup here. You have to drop it off. I guess if you live where they do have pickup, you would have to go to the center and ask for them.

 

[Chantay]

SarahFair, my yard is also ROCK hard clay and in the middle of a cow pasture...I don't have a fence so I'm not your neighbor...LOL. Anyway, if there are any hotels in your town you can ask them for extra newspapers. Most hotels give out free USA Today newspapers to the guests and have lots of old ones left over.

 

[SarahFair]

SarahFair, my yard is also ROCK hard clay and in the middle of a cow pasture...I don't have a fence so I'm not your neighbor...LOL. Anyway, if there are any hotels in your town you can ask them for extra newspapers. Most hotels give out free USA Today newspapers to the guests and have lots of old ones left over.

Thanks!!

 

[SarahFair]

I was wondering....



Could I lay down a nice thick layer of newspaper, mulch it, then during planting season put a small layer of dirt down THEN plant the sunflowers.

Couldnt they just grow through the newspaper or would that make them weaker?

 

[journey11]

I'd make a hole through the paper where you plant them, so the roots can go down and out. Put some good stuff on that spot, like compost. Sunflowers, being tall and top heavy, will be weak and blow over easily if they don't have well anchored roots.