Sunflowers are easy and fun to grow. Since they grow very quickly, children enjoy watching them grow and the large seeds are easy for small fingers to handle. And if you buy a good eating variety, when it goes to seed you can teach the kids to roast the sunflower seeds for a healthy snack!

• Plant in full sun, where they will not shade other plants, or plant shade-lovers around them.
• Plant the seeds 1 inch deep and about 6 inches apart.
• When the seedlings come up, thin them to about 18 inches apart.
• Water well after planting and keep fairly moist, but not soggy, until the seeds sprout.

Sunflower seedlings will come up in one or two weeks. They will start out slowly, then speed up their growth rate. Children can be responsible for watering them, weeding around them and adding mulch around the plants.

Harvesting of sunflower heads is quick and easy but you may need a ladder or stepstool. Watch the birds; when they start going after the seed heads, cover the heads with cheesecloth to protect the seeds. The seed heads will be ready to harvest when their backs are brown and dry and no traces of green remain.

Cut off the heads with a foot or two of stalk. Hang them upside down in a dry and airy place. When the seeds are dried, rub them off with your hand and store them in an airtight container. Don't wash them, as this could cause them to mold.

To roast sunflower seeds, place a single layer of raw dehulled kernels in a shallow pan. Roast in a 300 degree F oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until brown and crisp. Stir occasionally. Remove from the oven. One teaspoon of melted margarine may be added if preferred for each cup of seeds, stirring to evenly coat. Place the seeds on absorbent paper. Salt to taste. Store in tightly covered container.

For salted in-the-shell seeds, cover unhulled seeds with salted water in the amount of 2 quarts of water to ¼ to ½ cup salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Drain and dry on absorbent paper. Seeds can also be soaked overnight instead of boiled. Then proceed as for roasted kernels above.

Orange County Farm Supply will be holding an organic gardening workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 7th.

This is the time to plant warm-season annual and perennial flowers outdoors either by seeds or transplants.  If you weren't able to take advantage of fall planting, fill all beds and pots with warm-season flowers now.

Continue to feed container-grown flowers with liquid fertilizer for growth and bloom.

Fertilize cool-season flower beds with a granulated fertilizer if you see a slowdown of growth or flowering.  Water it in well afterward.  Deadhead flowers to keep them blooming.

Though nurseries are filled with cool-season flowers such as primroses, calendulas, nemesia, and violas, wise gardeners remember that these are the flowers that should have been planted in fall.

Planted now, for the most part cool-season flowers will give only a short season of bloom — especially inland.  The height of their bloom season is April, though in coastal gardens some will last through May. 

Stock, snapdragons, calendulas, and Iceland poppies are not the best choices to plant right  now.  Heat or disease knocks them down fast. 

Pansies, polyanthus primroses, cyclamen, and violas  can be popped into blank spots, but don't fill whole beds.  Polyanthus primroses and small-flowered cyclamen will bloom through June in cool coastal gardens, however, and can be kept alive to bloom another year.  And newer varieties of small-flowered pansies are floriferous and heat tolerant. They may last into August.

If you're filling whole beds, prepare the ground thoroughly and choose mainly warm-season flowers. 

Good choices among annual flowers to plant now from pony paks, for color in sunny spots all summer long, include ageratum, marigolds, cosmos, sweet alyssum, verbena, salvia,  petunias, and nierembergia. 

An incredible amount of perennials can be put in now, including  achillea, agapanthus, perennial alyssum, campanulas, candytuft, carnations, columbine, coreopsis,  coral bells, daylilies, delphiniums, dusty miller, dianthus, marguerites, gaillardia, geum, penstemon,  perennial forget-me-nots, Pride of Madeira, statice, and Shasta daisies. 

Many of these perennials and  annuals make great cut-flowers as well, including cosmos, carnations, columbine, coreopsis, coral bells, daylilies, delphiniums, and Shasta daisies.  In semi-shade put in transplants of begonias, lobelia,  impatiens, coleus, and fuchsias.