24 May, 2009
When I’d finished planting peas and the OH had finished weeding the broadbeans, we all moved to the front garden so the boys could plant their sunflower seeds. Each of them has two rows to plant and care for, with the Wee ‘Un choosing Elite as his variety while the Big Lad went for Little Dorrit.
The boys had enough seeds to fit 15 to a row, at six-inch spacings so they should get a good crop of sunflower seeds if all goes well. The Wee ‘Un wants to use his when making bread, while the Big Lad wants his for snacks in his school lunchbox. Ideally, the seeds would have gone in a couple of weeks ago but the long spell of heavy rain, sorry, light showers as the BBC weather forecasters would have us believe, has made all planting problematic.
The Big Lad marks one of his rows. This is the second of the two herb beds and is the one we were planting out on Friday. The bed behind the Big Lad has the longer established plants, plus one of the old apple trees. We also have herbs growing in vegetable patch, but it’s useful to have most of the herbs growing close to the house. We also have some herbs growing in pots in the sunporch.
B*gger of a ruler to get in their satchels!
you’ve got a good family there stoney – cheers!
Good to see them earning their keep
I’m getting a bit annoyed with the BBC’s inaccurate weather reporting as well. One of last week’s “light showers” left me drenched to, well, my smalls, and even my Labrador didn’t want to go out in it and she swims in the sea in January when it’s so cold that rock pools on the beach have turned to ice!
Last Thursday was typical, the BBC weather presenter vaguely waved a hand in the direction of Scotland, muttered something about light showers, and then went back to detailed outlook for the Bank Holiday weekend in London. What did we get on Friday? Heavy rain interspersed with occasional light showers.
We had a terrible wet forecast for today..and actually it was dry ( apart from a 10 min fine mist in the morning) ..humid and cloudy but dry…NOT continual showers as was predicted..
When will the BBC “get” that a lot of folk need accurate forcasts to get on with work outside?
Hmm..feel ranty now! perhaps I will visit the BBC weather website…..
Glad you got some stuff in the ground, anyway!
Hi, Mum showed me your post about growing sunflowers – how will you take the seeds out of the outer shell so that you can add them to your bread? We grew some last year but found it difficult to get the seeds out.
Put the seeds in a strong plastic bag, lay the bag on a hard surface and crunch the seeds with a heavy rolling pin. When you’re done, tip the seeds into a saucepan of cold water and the husks will float off. If there are any with hulls still attached, repeat. Drain the water off through a sieve, spread the kernels on a baking tray and roast at 140-150C for half an hour. Then eat.
I planted some sunflowers a couple of years ago hoping to get some seeds. Unfortunately I came downstairs one morning to find that a squirrel had made short work of them! Hope the boys have more luck with theirs!
We’ve been quite lucky this week – I got a load of weeding done. A good proportion of the grey cloud must have rained itself out on Stonehead before getting to us…
Little Dorrit is one of my favourite sunflowers – I’m growing them again this year. Hope they are a success for your sons