Skyscraper Sunflowers

[l008com]

Due to annoying circumstances, I keep growing these plants late in the season, and they start to die once Summer rapidly turns into Winter here in the North East

After 2 months or so, the flowers kind of die right? But what about the rest of the plant? If I were to plant them bright and early and May, would the main plant with it's giant leaves stay standing tall all summer? Or once it flowers, and the flowers start to die, does the whole plant also start to die off?

The reason I ask this is because my shed is positioned in such a way where it gets baked in the sun all day long in the Summer. It is annoyingly hot inside and the heat radiates out and bakes the lawn around the shed. All in all, very annoying. So I was thinking of planting a few sunflowers around the shed to block a lot of the light from hitting it. And they'll also block a lot of the reflected light off the shed from double-baking the lawn.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I don't know about the sunflowers, I take mine out after flowering, but I have trellis up my shed and grow sweet peas and morning glories up it. Looks a lot better than the beat up old shed, and might serve your purpose. I dead head the sweet peas, or pick them for indoors, and they go on all summer.

 

[redback]

These are my sunflowers ready to plant out now in mid spring. I recommend you plant them early in spring and keep them in that hot shed of yours until the frosts retreat. After I plant these I will sow another planter for succession cropping.
I fully agree with Oliver's suggestions and add that chokos could be planted in summer once the sweet peas have finished flowering.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

in summer once the sweet peas have finished flowering.

Dead headed regularly they go right on into September.

 

[redback]

Half your luck. Ours die back when the real heat of summer hits (December).

 

[Meadowlark]

...Or once it flowers, and the flowers start to die, does the whole plant also start to die off?

Yes, that is exactly what happens to the Mammoth sunflowers I grow but fortunately the flowers last a good while before starting to die.

Did you know they are a legume? ...and also sunflowers are allelopathic plants? For that reason, I like to use them as borders on my garden and insect traps.

 

[redback]

These were my sweet peas from a few years back. They really light up the indoors in the way that sunflowers brighten the outdoors.

 

[NigelJ]

Did you know they are a legume?

No they're not they're in Asteraceae not Fabaceae. They may fix nitrogen, but technically not legumes.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Half your luck. Ours die back when the real heat of summer hits (December).

Your luck, you have a hot summer

These were my sweet peas from a few years back. They really light up the indoors in the way that sunflowers brighten the outdoors.

This is true, but it is the scent that freshens up the whole house I love. The early ones make better picking though, as the stalks get progressively shorter.