Our sunflowers got us in trouble!
I have to cut down my beautiful sunflowers! We got an official notice stating that the flowers in the boulevard are overgrown and must be cut down to 0.92 meters (3 feet) by September 12th. The notice doesn’t say what will happen if we don’t do it, but I’m sure it will be a fine of some sort.
I guess it’s because we let the sunflowers grow as they wanted – all over the boulevard instead of just a thick line of sunflowers this year. We also have one that’s grown to about 14 feet in height!
I could see the complaint if we were a house on a corner and or if all our neighbors used their driveways, but we’re the second house from the corner and we are the only people out of 8 houses on our block that actually uses our driveway! We don’t use our car much since we live close to work so it’s not like seeing around the sunflowers as we back out is a daily issue and it’s not that hard to see around them anyway. Grrrr.
Sorry I’m so behind on my Green Thumb Sunday post. We had our family reunion over the last five days and I really didn’t have any time to get my blogging done. All the guests are gone now so I should get back to normal blogging again. I hope! I’m very tired though.
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
September 5th, 2007 at 3:54 am
I am so sorry to hear about your sunflowers they look beautiful. There is always someone complaining about something.
Sara from farmingfriends
September 5th, 2007 at 4:05 am
Are you serious? You have to cut down your plants for breaking a bylaw. That is nuts! They look absolutely wonderful! I have never grown the large variety but i love sun flowers.
Good luck, hope you can trim them nicely and not have them lose their beauty too much:)
September 5th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
We live in such a crowded world, regulations seem to grow with us. Its a shame. Sunflowers are so stunning.
September 6th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Wow…I never knew it was against the law to let your sunflowers run their course of growing. I grew some last year and they were at least 10 feet tall…but attracted way too many bees and wasps.
September 8th, 2007 at 6:46 am
these are nice flowers. and the oil out of it taste good too.
September 12th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
I am sorry to hear that you had to cut down your sunflowers. They were beautiful. I am planning on planting a sunflower garden in front of the end of our trailer, where my daughters room would be behind the garden. Taller ones where there is no window, short ones under the window and in front. She loves sunflowers. I am hoping that it will look good.
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
[...] beginning to get tall and were starting to hang out into the roadway. Remember last year I got a bylaw order to cut my sunflowers down to three feet? Well, they are about four feet tall right now, but look a lot tidier than they did [...]
October 7th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
[...] afternoon and into the evening we finally got around to cutting down / trimming our Sunflowers as per the notice that we received from the city last [...]
October 9th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
[...] – the story about how and why we had to cut down our sunflowers is here and [...]