For some reason I wasn't able to add to the partial post above, so I'll add it here:
Another picture of these hybrid dwarf sunflowers, mostly gone by at this point:
Then there are the large sunflowers I've been growing in this raised metal bed on the hill behind my house:
This is from a couple years ago:
As much as I'll miss the sunflowers, I'm thinking of planting something else in this planter, something that will require less care, perhaps only watering during dry stretches. To grow tall sunflowers, I have to stretch netting around these tall posts to prevent deer from making a snack of the plants.
I've thought of planting chervil, because volunteer chervil plants thrive so well on my land. This clump of chervil (pictured below) in my back yard looks for all the world like a deliberately planted flowering bush, but it was spared, not planted. Apparently chervil is not a perennial, but it re-seeds itself readily. Wish I'd saved seeds from this plant earlier this year, but didn't think of it then. So maybe I'll buy seeds.
I've taken sprigs off it to use as a substitute for parsley, but since learning about chervil's evil twin, poison hemlock, I think I won't be doing this again, to avoid making a deadly mistake.
