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You can then sow it where you want to or even swap with friends and neighbours.
Or if you have as much time as Monty Don, you can sprinkle the seed onto prepared seed trays and grow them on to plant out next spring.
He does that with foxgloves, whereas I just cut the dried stems off and shake them where I want them to grow.
Plants like alchemilla mollis, for example, will have done a sterling job of covering the ground and sticking their frothy flowerheads out over paths, paving and lawns. But be warned – if left to go to seed now they will only creep forward and commandeer those spaces.
You have to be ruthless with the secateurs – similarly with herbs, although if you cut these back in stages you will stagger the regrowth and still have fresh herbs to use going into the winter.
Seedheads like fennel are stunning now, and add interest to the garden at this time of year but if you are not quick with the chop, they will also self seed as though their life depends on it – which of course it does.
If you want to take advantage of particularly stunning seedheads, in someone else’s garden, then why not join a day-long painting and drawing course at Trostrey Lodge, Bettws Newydd, near Abergavenny NP15 1JT next month.
Greta Hart is the ‘Artist in the Garden’, and
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artists – aspiring, perspiring or otherwise – are encouraged to come along and capture the magnificent surroundings on a postcard.
‘Art on a Postcard’ is being held on 5th, 12th and 19th September from 10 am.
It is all wonderfully relaxed and informal, so please take your own equipment and sandwiches.
There is a small fee of £4 for admission, and contributions will be made to local charities, Papillion in Abergavenny and Bees for Development in Monmouth.
What a lovely way to thank the bees for providing the poppy seed heads, wildflowers and numerous other splendid plants that you will be inspired by.
For more details please contact Frances Pemberton on 01873 840 352