Sunflowers...

If you came to Ian's celebration of life (aka funeral) you probably got a small bag of sunflowers to plant this spring in memory of Ian. If you didn't come to Ian's celebration of life and you want to join this tradition each spring in memory of Ian you can just go out and buy you some seeds. (I will have the extra bags from Ian's celebration of life at the shirt sale tomorrow.)

I have never planted a seed before in my life. I have especially never planted a sunflower seed and gave it tender love and care. Goodness gracious...I'll just be down right honest with you. If I even buy a flower to plant and grow as soon as I sit it out of my car it seems to die. NO JOKE!!! I am horrible at growing flowers. Wae's infamous words every year..."Did you buy all these flowers again? Are you at least going to TRY to keep them alive? How much did they cost?"

Back to the story about sunflowes...when it was time to plan the funeral I wanted sunflowers. In my opinion, sunflowers are such a "cheery" flower. I love them! We used sunflowers because I thought it could remind us all of Ian's happiness. We will all remember Ian's contagious grin when our sunflowers begin to bloom and it will once again remind us of what's important in life. I have had many people tell me about planting their sunflowers so I thought I'd let you all know (especially my Aunt Dottie) that we have planted our sunflowers. It is now time Aunt Dottie so you can start you a sunflower patch. : )





We planted our sunflowers a couple of days before Mother's Day. I love the idea of this being a Mother's Day tradition at our house. I took some pictures to give you some tips about planting your sunflowers. Some are genuine tips and some are just down right common sense which I obviously don't have much of. : )

Tip#1: Plow up the area where you want to plant your sunflowers. It can be big or small according to what size area you want.

Tip#2: Don't wear flip flops like I did. DUH...I was a mess.

Tip#3: You can plant seeds in a degradable pot and then when they sprout you can plant them in the bed where you wish to have them. I am using dwarf sunflowers in my little pots and I am planting them in this small bed in our backyard flower bed.


So...grap a rake, a shovel, and a hoe and get your sunflower area prepared. Grab your bag of seeds and plant them. You are supposed to plant them one inch deep six inches apart. We just threw them out there in our dirt and raked them in. This was all Wae's idea to do it this way and I just hope they work. If you know me well you know I wanted to use a ruler and place them exactly 1 inch deep and 6 inches apart. Wae wasn't going to be that patient. So...we did it his quick way. I was going to bend over 1 million times and plant each seed in the perfect spot. Didn't happen though. : ) Then you must water them. A lot I think...we put up a sprinkler and are hoping to see some sprouts soon. Problem is...we have a dog named Miley who just might be possessed and she digs EVERYTHING UP!!! Odds of her letting us grow some sunflowers are very slim. Most important tip...they are SUNflowers. They must be planted in an area that gets full sun. Have fun planting and send pics if your sunflower garden works. I sure hope ours does.

T-SHIRT SALE IS TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY AT COTTON STATES INSURANCE IN CENTRE, AL. THE ADDRESS IS 1450 WEST MAIN STREET. IT IS LOCATED IN THE PIGGLY WIGGLY SHOPPING CENTER. BESIDE THE OLD STARR'S BBQ. IT'S A SMALL BRICK BUILDING. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY DAY TO GET THE NEW TEAM IAN SHIRTS. SALE STARTS AT 9 AM AND ENDS AT 4 PM. LIMITED NUMBER OF SHIRTS THIS TIME. FIRST COME FIRST SERVE...NO PRE-ORDERS. THE SALE IS NOT TODAY IT IS TOMORROW ON WEDNESDAY : )HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.