go clean the house.. and leave these to winter over ... and by spring.. they will crack easily ...

sheesh.. cleaning the garden on 9/2 .. crikey ... lol ...

ken

ps: those of us who dont clean the garden in fall .. simply declare it all 'winter interest' ... lol ... its a much more relaxing mind set ... or.. come spring.. you plant a couple morning glory seed around it.. and declare it a trellis ... so many options other than cleaning.. lol ..

pps: on the other hand.. it probably time you got yourself a machete .... i know they are a usual item in your rural area ... peeps walking around like crocodile dundee.. with them strapped to their belts ... rotflmbo ...

I'd agree with Ken on all counts. Make life easy for yourself, m'dear.

THe birds will thank you for leaving the seed heads.

The years I grew them, I just leaned the plant over and the root ball lifted out of the ground. Then it has to be chopped up a little to go in the trash can. Or try sawing them off midway.

Brings back memories..... I grew up on a farm in Missouri and I have cut many many sunflowers out of the soybean field. I had a corn knife, some people called it a machate..... mine was old a held together with baling wire..... I think I am getting blisters just thinking of it.....

Well, DH - wonderful man that he is - went out there yesterday afternoon with an ax and cut them down for me. They had to go -- were so darn tall, leaning over and shading the new planting of sunflowers, which are forming flower heads now, and one was leaning over the working path. I wrote myself a note to remind me these varieties are just too tall, I need to choose something else next year; will check the seed packet first - I don't know if I inadvertently chose monsters or if the info on the seed packets is just dead wrong in terms of height. If that's the case, an email to Johnny's is in order.

Where do you think I live Ken - the jungle? LOL! Anyway, machete is a good idea regardless of the images you have in you head - will have to investigate that.

i know where you live.. that is why what i said was hilarious .... love to see how far you would get strutting thru downtown birmingham mi ... dressed like that ... omg ... lol ..

you are living your dream.. enjoy every minute of it ....

ken

ps: of course... you would probably be pushing a tree cart with an 8 foot tree on it ... and they probably wouldnt even notice the machete ... lol ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=nursery+pot+dolly&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

I used loppers on mine this weekend. They are tough! But I just started at the top and worked my way down, yanking the last two or so feet.

ETA: after the birds have taken all the seeds. None left to overwinter! Very happy goldfinches