Each summer a magical place rises up in our backyard.

It is a sunflower house.

In that house children of all ages find a special time in a special place building memories that will carry through their lifetime to be passed on to future generations.

It all starts with a cleared patch of earth in a rectangle shape... the size depends on what you envision in you mind. Ours is approximately 5' by 8', cut into the grass next to the large flower garden. It can be made right in the garden if you have room. We cleared only the outside edge of the rectangle of grass.....except for one small length on one short side which is the doorway......grass still remaining in the center.

In early summer.... plant Mammoth Grey Stripe sunflower seeds alternating with Heavenly Blue morning glory seeds in the outer edges of the rectangle... using a stick to make a trench about 2 inches deep. Cover all seeds lightly with earth and water well. Give seeds a drink of water daily. Soon you will see them sprout.

Once the sunflower stalks begin growing you will see the morning glory tendrils begin to wrap around those stalks. When the stalks get about five feet tall, take string and wrap it around the top of one stalk and connect it to another on the opposite side of the rectangle....lacing it back and forth and back and forth till there is a web of string netting forming the "roof". In a matter of days that netting will be filled with Heavenly Blue morning glory vines and soon the Mammoth sunflower heads will begin forming along with the wonderful blue flowers.

Children will find all sorts of uses for this magical place....all they need is the house and their imaginations.

You will enjoy it as much as they do.