WOW....What else can I say.....Jan

Incredible. What do you do with those trunks i mean stalks?

At the end of the season I usually uproot them, lay them on the ground, and split them in several spots so they rot faster. By the spring of following year, most are pretty much rotted and then I turn them over with the dirt. The negative to not removing them from the garden is that it may help spread diseases from one year to the next, such as sunflower downy mildew.