Build A Live Sunflower Playhouse

[Ghost in the Machine]

The Live Sunflower Playhouse

This is a great outdoor live playhouse that does not cost much! The walls are made of sunflower stalks. The roof is made of the Morning Glory Vine. All you need to grow your living playhouse is a bit of earth, a ruler, a shovel, a garden rake and some string. Leave the rest to Mother Nature.

Suggested seeds: Giant Greystripe for your sunflower seeds and Heavenly Blue for your Morning Glory seeds.

How to plant.

1. Find a place that gets a lot of sun and is 6'x6' or smaller if you want. You can make it square, round or rectangular.

2. Dig up the soil about 8 " deep on the perimeter of your 6'x 6' square . Leave grass in the middle. Remove weeds and break up big clumps. Rake the soil smooth.

3. Soak the Morning Glory seeds over night in warm water so they will sprout quickly. Do not soak the Sunflower seeds.

4. Make a 6' x 6' square trench 1/2 " deep . On one side make a 2' wide door . Do not plant seeds in your doorway.

5. Sow 2-3 sunflower seeds 12' apart and cover them 1/2 ". At the same time use your finger to make a circle around each spot and sow 4 Morning Glory seeds in the circle. Space the seeds evenly and cover them 1/2".

6.Soak the soil lightly with water. Check every day and keep evenly moist for the first four weeks. Then water just when the soil is dry.

7. When the Sunflowers are 2"-3" tall, thin them with scissors to leave just one at each spot Do not thin the Morning Glories.

8. When the Sunflowers are 5' -6' tall you will need 150" of string for the roof. Tie the string to the top of one of the stalks and lace it back and forth , again and again, across the square to create a network of string for the Morning Glories.

9. When the Morning Glory vines reach the string, it's time to train them to start their journey across the roof of the playhouse

HAVE FUN IN YOUR PLAYHOUSE THIS SUMMER!!

[ogneopasno]

1. One thing: Be careful when soaking the morning glory seeds; they are poisonous if ingested.

Make sure little kids don't eat them.

[Arugula Latte]

5. Also, Morning Glories can get way out of hand and spread like kudzu.

[gblady]

2. There is a wonderful book.....

about this entitled....

Sunflower Houses....by Sharon Lovejoy

Has lots of other fun gardening projects for kids of all ages!

[madokie]

3. We did this when the kids were young

They loved it. We also planted some morning glory seeds in among them and later in the summer they were really growing while the sunflower plants had already done all the growing they were going to be doing. The largest sunflower had a seed pod that was 23 inches across. They were some seeds we bought at the fair and they were supposed to grow into giants and that one sure was. I think that the kids out there playing in and around that little fort was some of what was responsible for their fast and robust growth also.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Cool.....I know just the person to pass that onto..he has 3 lil kids.

thanks.

[Tsiyu]

6. You know

I've heard white supremacists build those as well....okay, never mind.

WE've also done bean tipis. Arrange tall poles in a tipi shape, lash together at the top, plant pole beans or scarlett runner beans to climb the poles and cover the tipi.

Cheap fort.

[jwirr]

7. Will those seeds mature in Northern Minnesota?

[surrealAmerican]

8. Let me be the first to say...

..."This thread is useless without pictures." Seriously, do you have a picture?