Smiling sunflowers for National Children’s Gardening week!

Grow your own smiling sunflower!

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Instructions

  1. Fill your small pots with compost.
  2. Plant a seed in each pot and give it a watering. Put your pot onto a window sill and water it once the seed sprouts so the compost stays damp.
  3. As your sunflower grows, tie the stem of the sunflower loosely to the bamboo cane with your garden string to support your plants.
  4. Once the frosty weather is over (usually mid-May), dig a hole in your garden for your sunflower. Ideally dig it next to a wall or fence that gets lots of sun.
  5. Squeeze your sunflower and the compost it’s growing in out of your pot, and plant it in the hole you’ve dug. Put a bamboo cane next to your sunflower, and give your sunflower a good watering.
  6. As your sunflower grows, make sure you tie the stem to the bamboo cane loosely with garden string. Try tying it using a ‘figure-of-eight’ knot as this will reduce any rubbing on the stem.
  7. When your sunflower appears, gently tease out the seed heads to make a fantastic sunny smiling face.
  8. Send us a picture !

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