Can you get sunflowers to grow without plowing? I see volunteer sunflowers all the time at the side of the road. I'd like to plant some, but neither I nor the landowner have a tractor, plow, or ATV.

Take an old gate that has a cattle panel on it. You can hand-cast the seed, then use a pickup/chain to drag the gate over the area. This will work if you have a somewhat barren patch of ground; if all you have is thick grass, you'll need a different approach. You can also check with the local feedstore. There are likely several custom farm services in your area that could plow for you.

Dirt has to be disturbed. Animals feeding and distributing soil will bring up sunflowers. If you can just drag and scratch the soil the best you can, when the soil moisture is right, and the right time of year you'll get some to come up if they were there in the past. But plowing is by far the best way.

Sunflowers need to be covered well, but they also can take a while to germinate. I planted 50 pounds 1 year in good soil and they didn't come up until the next year.