Kids have always been patience challenged and modern kids are even more so. The biggest challenge for unplugging them to garden outdoors is projects that grow fast enough to keep them interested. Enter the sunflower!

This extraordinarily fast grower is a North American native of the Midwest. The tall branching plant does not produce large flowers, but they do mature into nutritious seed. That is why it’s been farmed by many Native American tribes along the Missouri River flood plains for aeons. Over time they selected seed from the biggest flowers to increase the size of each kernel they grew. With the advent of modern agriculture that same selection process continued. Scientific breeding of the Mammoth sunflower resulted in the fifteen foot tall plant that every kid and adult marvels at.

Growing Mammoths from seed is awesome. You can grow them in a big forest that kids play beneath, or use them to create an enclosure open in the middle like a fort. Because they are so cheap to grow, you can cultivate a whole gang of them to create a structural crop that defines space rather than just a single row.

There are so many opportunities to teach through sunflowers:

Stress the value of native plants and their relationship to Native Americans.
Fast germination lets kids see the result of their planting in just days.
Teach how to water generously with these thirsty fellows.
Demonstrate the importance of manure via soil improvement and mulch.

As the sunflowers mature point out how the terminal bud follows the sun. They are “photo-tropic”, which is an awareness of the sun’s position and will indicate this all day long. The final position of the flower is dictated by where it is the moment it opens, then it stays that way forever.

Over the late summer, watch the flowers pollinate then drop their petals to produce the dinner plate sized seed heads. When the seed is mature cut them off and lay flat in the sun to dry out. From these you can pick out the seeds and roast them together. Leave a few sunflowers unharvested for the birds to pick on and save a few of your dried heads to put out for winter birds many months later. And finally, like the Indians did, save a small bag of the largest seeds to plant next year.

Contact Kim Hummert with any help with growing Sunflowers, including any seeds or tools you may need.

HortiKids Staff Writer, Mo Gilmer

Beaks, like human lips are shapped to handle the type of food which is to be consumed. Consider your lips for example. They allow the mouth to stretch around a wide variety of food that you eat. From hot dogs to berries, your lips stretch to do their job and keep food from falling out of your mouth.

A bird's beak is somewhat different. When your children feed the birds, watch as the bird's beak, which is actually a part of the bird's skull and covered with a tough layer of skin, pick up a seed and "crunch" it! Seeds are bird's favorite food and kids love to feed the birds.

Give your kids a bird feeder and set it on a post or hang one from a tree and fill it with seed. The first bird you will notice that comes your way is a red cardinal. Get some strong binoculars and view its stout beak that is shaped like a cone. Blue jays have long, sharp and slightly curved beaks, and are able to eat just about any kind of seed.

Whatever bird you observe eating, take note of the shape of their beaks and you will then understand why they eat the food they do. Just be sure to keep plenty of seed on hand, because once you attract a bird, you are sure to attract many more!

Enjoy bird watching.

Kim Hummert