It's a wise gardener that makes room for the unexpected, and the rewards this can bring. Leave an area of soil bare and something will grow...
Not everything in my garden is carefully planned, and I make no excuses for having it this way. It's a wise gardener that makes room for the unexpected, and the rewards this can bring. Leave an area of soil bare and something will grow, and while this may often be a weed, you never know what might pop up.
And this is where self-seeders - flowers you love, and deliberately let go to seed - come into their own. By resisting the temptation to snip off every faded flower in sight you give some flowers a chance to show their real worth. Every May and June I enjoy displays of aquilegia, or columbine, a short-lived perennial. After the petals fall I leave the seed-pods to develop and ripen. Later in summer they'll dry and split open, releasing hundreds of seeds onto the surrounding soil.
Of course I could collect the seeds, and sow them in pots to raise young plants, but self-seeding cuts out the legwork. I just let them 'do their thing'. Plants have a marvellous ability to flourish without us, much as they've done for millions of years without the helping hand of gardeners.
Seed falls, and sows itself, and before you know it there are seedlings. Often you'll end up with too many, but any that aren't required can be forked out, or even transplanted to plug gaps elsewhere.
Favourite self-seeders in my garden include foxgloves, hellebores, honesty, scabious, Alchemilla mollis, calendula, nigella, nasturtiums, and even crops like rocket and chives. I wonder which flowers others find self-seeding in their gardens?
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