COLLECT YOUR OWN

COLLECTING seeds from your own herbaceous plants is a great way of increasing stock and spreading your favourite plants around your garden.

Whenever I cut back the tall foxglove spikes, I always shake the seed out into another part of the garden where I want to encourage them to grow. Similarly with granny bonnets and poppy seedheads – just shake them, like little pepper pots, into beds or borders that you want to fill up. Or you can shake the seedheads into paper bags and transfer to little envelopes to give as gifts.

I love adding a little envelope of my cottage garden seeds to a birthday or Christmas card. Last week I collected allium seed and will do the same with the phlox and rudbeckia as they go to seed too. Collect on a dry day and when you see the pods or seedheads are ready. You can also cut the whole seedhead and leave to dry on a drying rack before shaking into a bag.

Some seed heads will be much appreciated by the birds too. Sunflowers are the obvious ones but I always grow teasels in my own garden too, for the little goldcrests, which adore them.

And don’t be afraid to experiment – it’s all free seed and you might be surprised what you get. Mici and Tony found this rather lovely and unexpected seedhead on top of a carrot in their veggie bed and the sunflowers behind them grew from bird seed discarded from the bird table.

As Mici said, “I watched a bee pollinating the sunflower that grew from seed I had put out for the birds and will in turn become more food for them, and thought that really is the circle of life.”

It is a beautiful circle. Nature will never cease to amaze, teach - and impress – me.