Guess my pictures of the sunset at my beach didn't win picture of the month. No problem, I don't give up so easy. So here are my Dwarf Sunflowers - And this time I took their pictures during the night, (which I doubt if anyone else would have done).
@Simple Gardening Eric and Fendi, these Dwarf Sunflowers are very effective at attracting bees. Flowers are as big as the regular sunflower, but the plant is never taller then 24 inches. So a smaller size of roots (eating up less resources from the soil - Thus you can pack more of these in a given area. Therefore more flowers for the same amount of land. Plant these around your vegetable bed to attract the bees. And a few marigolds in the bed, to keep harmful insects away, (marigolds will not drive away the bees, only harmful insects). But sunflowers will attract bees and other beneficial pollinators. Dwarf Sunflowers grew very well in containers too. So you can place them on the border of your vegetable bed, (on top of the cinder blocks). Or put some soil in that cavity and start growing sunflowers and marigolds in there. This way the main resources of your soil of the vegetable bed wouldn't be depleted by these flowers, (every grain of soil will be devoted for your vegetable output).
Those look really cool! We will have to see about doing some of those! Do they produce seeds that can be harvested for food?
If you plant enough, I think they can be harvested for food too... But I have never really heard of people consuming Dwarf Sunflower seeds, (as such seeds are always needed for growing new plants, as Dwarf Sunflowers are prized for their ornamental appeal). If you are looking to harvest sunflower seeds for food. Then you should be planting those giant mammoth sunflowers, (Russian type). They attract bees also, and are unbelievably large. So you can plant them near the fence of your property.
