We've just returned from holiday to find our sunflowers to be absolutely massive!

My daughter Leyla, aged 5, and I started these off from seeds planted in pots back in April.

This was for a London-wide young gardeners competition which Leyla's school, Brampton Primary School, was participating in.

So many had come up nicely during early May that when we went on holiday for two weeks I transplanted many of them to the garden, only leaving a few pots of strong looking ones so that Leyla would have something to present for the competition.

With such fantastic summer weather it was clear that they were going to be big by early July but no-one realised just how big!

Leyla and I have just returned from three weeks in Turkey to find that our neighbours have nicknamed them "the beanstalks" and that our sunflowers are now at least 15ft tall and possibly more.

By Karen Ucar