Siamese twin sunflower?

I've never seen anything like it, but when my sunflowers came into bloom this week, one of them was double-sided (see image above).  At first I thought it was just two blooms that were really close to one another, but upon closer examination, I realized they were actually fused together.  Is this common with sunflowers, or any other flower, for that matter, or is this just some sort of genetic aberration.  Any insight on this would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

July 2014 Garden Update and Inspiration for Next Year

Butterfly Garden

Sunflowers are growing like crazy, probably about 6.5 feet now.  Just added a top dressing of additional Mel's Mix soil and sprinkled some free coffee ground compost thanks to Starbucks.  Can't wait for all the flowers to be in bloom; we've had a few butterfly sightings, but not too many yet.  We officially registered the garden as a "Monarch Weigh Station" through the Monarch Watch website.  I thought that would be an added incentive to maintain and continue to expand the butterfly garden over the years.  

With the success of the sunflowers, I started thinking ahead to next year and what we might grown when I came across the idea of creating a "sunflower house", basically a little shelter created by sunflowers where little ones can sit out of the sun (see Sample at savvy housekeeping).  That seemed like something my three year old would love, as she already likes playing hide and seek with the regular cluster of sunflowers. 

If that goes well, perhaps in another two years, might try making a more permanent structure like willow hut as seen on Earth Play.

Veggie garden is doing well.  Had to restake the tomatoes; next year I'm going to try and experiment with trimming all the side branches so that they don't get so wild.  Still battling with the bunnies who have effectively decimated the strawberry plants :(.

June update: Mel's mix paying off

The sunflowers are growing like mad!  They are almost five feet tall now (fence is 4ft).  I think they have been growing ~4in a day lately.  Their stems are almost as thick as the trunk of our cherry tree.  Can't wait for the buds to open.  Also, the violas and sage have grown bushier than I have ever seen violas or sage grow (see close up below).

The Health Kick tomatoes from my parent's neighbor are also doing well and I finally started staking them with bamboo.  I always have trouble staking tomatoes--I never know if it should be more like a lean-to kind of support, or if the tomato vines should be tied directly to them, so I've just sort of rigged up a tippee-like system.

(If someone can tell me how to flip photos on Picasa, it would be much appreciated.)

Even Maddie's fairy garden is bursting our of it's pot--check out the columnar basil and lemon thyme spilling out.

Also, we have currently been able to harvest a few a strawberries before the rabbits have gotten to them, which has been nice (see horizontal pic above).  We have 12 strawberry plants, which seems like that would be enough, but we only are able to get 3-4 berries per day.  Any tips on recommended # strawberry plants per person?

I think the secret to the Mel Mix soil is that it's not like as soon as you plant things they just sprout up like crazy, rather that it works slowly over time to develop better roots so that eventually the above ground plant grows into something amazing (assuming the birds or rabbits don't get to first...).

We've actually put up a bird feeder to help distract birds and bunnies (who eat the cracked corn that falls to the ground) away from the garden.  They ate all the feed in 1 day.

Since some of the wild flower seeds didn't germinate, we planted a few milkweed plants and joe pie weed for the butterflies  (see sunflower pic above).

Garden Update May 2014: some successes, some failures...

Well the plants are finally starting to fill in.  The strawberries are looking great, tomatoes in back are doing okay, but some plants never really amounted to anything, namely the baby carrots, scallions, and snap peas...maybe I planted them too late in the season (mid April).  May replant something else in those squares.

Below is the butterfly garden.  I've spotted robins pecking around there, so perhaps that's why many if the wild flower seeds didn't sprout.  Again, may fill in those squares with something else. 

On Thursday, Maddie and I replanted her "fairy garden".  It has columnar basil, lemon creeping thyme, sedum, and curry plant (white leaves).  Maddie specially picked out the fairy and named her "cherry berry".

Also wanted to post updates of the grafted cherry tree and the lawn with microclover filling in the bare spots.

Square foot garden beds

Put together SFG recipe for "Mel's Mix" (1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost) this weekend. Very hard work.  Would not recommend attempting to build boxes, make soil mix and plant the same day.  Started to rain, so I didn't actually attach the grid (just laid it over the top), but I guess the smells from all the compost proved too irresistible for our dog.  That little garden girl got caught "black pawed"!  It's a good thing I hadn't put any seeds yet!  I just wanted to be sure the soil was ready to go since it is supposed to rain for the next few days and I thought it would be good for the soil to be thoroughly moistened.

Also, just got my shipment of micro clover from Bailey Seed.  According to what I've read, over-seeding with micro clover will help provide nitrogen to your grass ( clover is nitrogen fixing), is more      resistant to drought and pet urine, will blend into grass and stay green year round .  It's a little expensive (~$25 lb), but hopefully it will pay off in the long term.  We're supposed to have the lawn undergo core aeration next week, so I plan to seed the backyard with clover afterward.  Anyone else have any experience overseeding with clover?

Snow in April?!

Our poor cherry tree---wasn't expecting a snow storm in the middle of April.  Wasn't sure how best to protect the buds, so I just covered it with a garbage bag...any other tips?  Oh, also upon closer examination of the individual graft tag, I found that there are actually 5 grafts--there is also a Van cherry graft --a nice bonus.

4-in1 cherry tree now planted

Picked up the tree over the weekend and planted it in the backyard.  Couldn't put it in the spot in the corner that we had originally wanted since in digging the hole, we found the neighbor's tree roots extended into our yard about 15 feet, which was disappointing.  However, hopefully this spot will work out okay; gets at least 6 hours of sun and can be seen from the playroom.  The tree includes grafts of bing, Montmorency, Royal Ann, and Rainier cherries...now we just have to wait another 2-3 years to harvest, so by then the kids will actually be able to help pick the fruit.