Sunflower House Can Be Natural Summer Shelter

Who needs a castle in Spain? A sunflower house right in the backyard can be a fine summer getaway.

This is how children’s gardening expert and naturalist Sharon Lovejoy recommends planting a sunflower house:

Pick a spot in full sun and welldrained soil. Decide on the size of the house. Lovejoy suggests a rectangle 6 feet by 9 feet.

Leaving an opening for the door, dig a trench several inches deep around the perimeter of the rectangle.

With each sunflower seed, plant a seed of morning glory; Lovejoy likes the variety Heavenly Blue. Follow directions on the seed package on how deep to plant the seeds and how far apart to space the sunflowers.

Cover the seeds with soil, then water them in.

As the sunflowers grow, the morning glories should begin to wind up the stalks.

Soon, you’ll have a bee-attracting spectacle of yellow and blue.

Once the sunflowers reach 4 to 5 feet tall, or as high as you want the roof to be, lace string loosely back and forth between the sunflower stems. The result will look like a spider web of string.

The morning glories should climb across the string, creating the roof for the house, illustrated in Lovejoy’s “Sunflower Houses: Garden Discoveries for Children of All Ages” (Interweave Press Inc., $19.95).

In some heavy or infertile soils, the morning glories may not get tall enough to make the roof. Try another annual vine, perhaps hyacinth bean or scarlet runner bean.

Although she first heard of sunflower houses designed to delight children, Sharon Lovejoy says people of all ages have read about and grown them.