Clearly, the sunflowers in the above photo are not doing well. Zucchini plants overtake them. Every season I make some miscalculation in my intensively planted raised beds. Last year it was the bell peppers overwhelmed by cucumber plants growing up a trellis.

Here’s this year’s garden goof. I was hoping for the same effect as last summer when glorious dwarf, branching sunflowers grew to two feet and mingled at the edges of the zucchini. Sunflower bouquets graced our dining room table for weeks.

Last year I separated the zucchini and sunflowers by almost three feet. I also direct seeded the ‘Junior’ sunflowers about two weeks ahead of the zucchini to give them a jump.

This year they were only about two feet apart and were planted at the same time—zucchini from seed and very small starts of the sunflowers. Lesson learned. Today I removed the four struggling sunflowers, overshadowed by zucchini leaves, rather than be reminded daily of my garden goof.