Sunflowers - Yellow Around the Homestead

Summer is officially here. My food forest is in full swing now. Everything is growing so fast. We have been harvesting potatoes, tomatoes, ground cherries, blueberries, peaches, squashes, zucchinis, a few peppers and some herbs. It is a busy time on the homestead.

@knowledge-seeker has been hosting a Homestead Photography contest. This week's theme is Yellow Around The Homestead. You can find out more information about the contest with the link. This is my entry to the contest this week.

Veggies with Yellow Flowers

During the Summer, I have lots of yellow flowers & veggies around the homestead. Squash flowers and squash are yellow. Tomato flowers & some varieties of tomatoes are yellow. Cucumber flowers are yellow. Melon flowers are yellow. Tomatillo flowers are yellow. Ground cherries are yellow. Even my favorite marigold & calendula are yellow. (I know what you are thinking. If it continues like this, it is going to be a boring post. I promise it gets better)

Yellow Flowers

I plant lots of flowers to attract pollinators and provide them with nectar and pollen. Some flowers are annual and some are perennial. In my opinion, it's important to start your own flower seeds or only purchase from stores you trust. Often flowering plants purchased from big box stores contain insecticides that are bad for bees. Can't stress enough about how important bees are to our food supply. We rely on bees to pollinate a third of all the food we eat.

Sunflowers

However, to me, the most majestic yellow around my homestead is definitely the sunflowers. I plant lots and lots of sunflowers in my food forest for many reasons.

Attract and Feed Pollinators

The center of a sunflower, where the seeds develop, has thousands of tiny individual florets that contain nectar and pollen, which is a great food source for bees. I plant sunflowers to feed pollinators every year.

Attract Birds - Natural Pest Managers

Birds help manage pests, such as mosquitoes, certain beetles and some caterpillars. I use sunflowers to attract birds. Birds are my food forest natural pest managers and they love sunflower seeds. They always help with planting the next year's sunflowers by eating and pooping. Plus they are fun to watch. Don't give all the sunflower seeds to the birds. Save some of these delicious and healthy seeds for the humans and for next year's planting.

Improve Soil & Increase Water Holding Capacity

Sunflowers have long tap roots which can penetrate the ground deeper. This allows sunflowers to utilize nutrients and moisture at a deeper depths which other plants cannot reach with shallow root systems. I let my sunflowers die in place. Once they die, I cut the stem off a few inches above ground leaving the root systems in the soil. The decayed roots in the ground will increase the organic matter in the soil and will also slowly increase the water holding capacity.

Clean Up Contaminants in Soil

Sunflowers can absorb toxic heavy metal contaminants and poisonous chemicals in the soil. They are being used to clean up contaminated soil in the urban area leaving behind cleaner and healthier soil. They have also been used to clean up soil at Chernobyl and Fukushima. Sunflowers can draw the contaminants up from the soil and lock them into their stems, leaves and roots. Just don't compost or consume any part of the sunflowers if you are using them to clean up heavy metal contaminated soil.

Sunflowers are must haves in every garden or food forest in my opinion. Actually, you don't even have to have land to grow sunflowers. Pick a dwarf variety and grow them in pots on a patio. Sunflowers are not only useful and easy to grow, they are also beautiful to look at. With all of the benefits mentioned above. Why wouldn't you start growing sunflowers in your own garden.

All photos come from my food forest
Photo copyright: @thelaundrylady

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