I want to grow sunflowers this year. I'm in zone 14, I believe, in the Silicon Valley.

I saw something in Sunset about growing a hedge of them. They said you could just plant the seeds in staggered rows, in an area that gets sun, and to put out snail bait.

I'm wondering if it would be better to start them indoors, though that would be more work. And what about those snails? We have a lot in the area where I had planned to plant.

Any advice?

-- Lizzie (crow@well.com), March 14, 2000

Answers

I live waaaaay up in zone 4 or 5, and we plant them out every year, seeds straight into the ground. Just sprinkle the seeds in a row you've scraped out, and poof, you'll get a hedge. or a thick row, whatever. It looks really, really pretty though.

-- andrea (renhold@nbnet.nb.ca), March 15, 2000.

I don't grow sunflowers, but that advice sounds good to me. They are really easy to start from seed (just look under my birdfeeder some time) so you can probably plant them right where you want them to grow.

I don't use snail bait because of the dog and cats and raccoons and everything, so I don't know. I used to use snail traps, but the dog ate them all. Now I just squash 'em.

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), March 16, 2000.

Even farther up north in zone 3 (!) we do the same as Andrea. I just take a spoon, make a hole, drop in two seeds, refill. After all the holes are refilled I sprinkle the area with topsoil/peat/horse manure mixture (have heard that chicken manure is best tho) and then water if necessary.

-- Cathy (capdvm@sprint.ca), March 20, 2000.