PLANTING every tourist's favourite flower just got easier.
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While the tourist season in the Liverpool Plains has drawn to a close, commemorated by a sunflower-throwing competition, it's never too early to start thinking about planting.
A couple of farmers were keen on the idea of sowing sunflowers, but all they had were big planters for broad acre farming, retired farmer Ian Saunders said.
The time spent setting up the planter just to sow for five minutes and unset it, didn't make sense to him.
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His friend Ian Carter told him he had the material to make a planter just for sunflowers, and Mr Saunders said he'd happily make it.
The Liverpool Plains is like a food bowl, Mr Saunders said, it'll grow anything. And sunflowers are a big tourist attraction.
"They just grow beautifully most seasons, and just because they're different, and people just love them," he said.
The planter can be moved from property to property with a 4x4 vehicle. Mr Saunders cleared with the highway patrolman that it need not be registered.
The retired farmer will take the contraption to properties and supervise its functioning. He drew up plans for the hydraulics, but made the rest up as he went.
"It keeps your brain pretty active, and I like that," he said.
People in the Liverpool Plains wanting to use the equipment can message the Sunflowers on the Plains Facebook group.
Sunflowers on the Plains helped local business grow 20 per cent in the latest tourist season, Liverpool Plains Business Chamber said.
The early sowing window starts in mid-late August in areas north of Gunnedah and closes at the end of October.
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