Do These 5 Things if You Want Your Garden Flowers to Reseed
Allowing your plants to reseed offers numerous benefits for both you and the local ecosystem. Join gardening expert Melissa Strauss to discuss these advantages and how you can encourage your own garden flowers to reseed this year.
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There are numerous benefits to allowing your garden flowers to reseed. If you’re thinking about trying it this year, I’d love to share the wonderful things you can accomplish. I’d also love to share some tips on how you can make this transition in your own space.
In my first year of allowing my garden flowers to reseed, the results were modest but delightful. Zinnias are lovely for this purpose because pollinators love them, and they self-sow nicely without being overly aggressive. Native plants are ideal, as they are well adapted to your climate.
Allowing and encouraging your garden flowers to reseed creates a natural, effortless look. Plants emerge in natural settings, mirroring the harmony of nature. It also saves money on seeds and plants in the years to come.
Self-sown plants tend to be stronger and better adapted to their locations. This means they require less work and fewer resources to thrive. Allowing your plants to reseed naturally will cause them to germinate at different times, resulting in a longer bloom season. You’re sure to get many pleasant surprises.
Finally, allowing your garden flowers to reseed is excellent for supporting pollinators. It also supports other valuable wildlife. It will bring new life into your space. The enhanced blooming cycle will keep those pollinators and animals fed and bring balance to the garden.
Getting started on this project is not difficult. In fact, many of your garden flowers will reseed just by ignoring them at the end of the season. There are a few ways to expedite the process, however, so you can see significant results sooner rather than later. Let’s talk about encouraging those plants to self-sow.
Choose Self-Sowing Plants
The first way to promote garden flower reseeding is to choose the right plants. Some plants are naturally adept at self-sowing, while others are not. Several factors contribute to determining which ones are best suited for the task.
Good self-sowing plants produce seeds abundantly. Some seeds will be unsuccessful, and birds and animals will eat a significant number. The more abundantly a plant produces, the more likely you are to have success.
The next factor involves what a particular plant requires to germinate. Some require cold stratification or scarification, which have their own natural requirements. Others are so tiny that they wash away easily. Those that germinate easily are optimal.
Plants that mature quickly are also best for this task. The faster a plant establishes after germination, the more likely it is to survive. Goldenrod, milkweed, and black-eyed Susans are great in this way. The more adaptable they are, the better.
Finally, open-pollinated plants have an advantage over hybrids. Many hybrids are sterile, while others do not breed true. Open-pollinated heirloom plants tend to perform best.
Let Plants Go to Seed
If you’re familiar with how this works, skip on down. If you aren’t familiar, here’s the scoop. Plants produce seeds in a process that begins with pollination. It culminates in the development of seeds, typically inside a fruit or pod.
Seed-producing plants form flowers (and sometimes cones). Inside these structures are the reproductive organs. Pollination occurs when pollen moves from one flower to another.
The pollen from one flower (sometimes from the same plant, sometimes from a different plant of the same species) reaches the stigma. It travels down into the ovary and fertilizes the egg cells. These cells become seeds. The surrounding covering becomes a fruit or a pod that protects them while they mature.
For those seeds to germinate, they must mature. Then, the fruit or pod releases them. They’re dispersed by air, water, animals, or simply gravity. If they land in a space with suitable conditions, they germinate.
To put it another way, if you want your plants to self-sow, you must allow the seeds to mature on the plant. Stop deadheading before the last flowers bloom and leave them on the plant for their full bloom. Make sure they release their seeds before you cut anything back.
If you’re ambitious and want to go the extra mile, you can help this process along. Once those seeds are ripe, it’s fine to go around and give your plants an extra shake or take a handful and spread them around. I’ve been doing this with Goldenrod for a few years, and it’s worked beautifully.
Map Your Yard
I would consider mapping an optional step, depending on the amount of space you’re allocating for the project. Additionally, if you’re meticulous about your garden, this will help you better predict your outcome. If you’re going all in and re-wilding your garden, there’s no harm in simply letting it happen.
If you want to ensure that you don’t accidentally mow over any important plants, a map is helpful. You can create a visual representation of which plants are located in which areas. Then you know what to expect and where.
This is especially valuable if you have a partner or other person who contributes to the yard work. This spring, I had what I thought was a decisive conversation with my husband about where to mow the lawn. Or, more importantly, where not to mow.
Lo and behold, the next time he mowed, he took down a significant number of black-eyed Susan plants. It broke my heart a little. In retrospect, a visual map taped to the mower may have saved some of my flowers.
So, for these reasons, creating a map or key to denote the garden flowers you want to reseed is helpful. It eliminates some guesswork when spring arrives and it’s time to get back into the garden.
Skip the Winter Mulch
Mulch serves many excellent and helpful purposes in the garden. However, when it comes to this particular venture, it’s best to skip it. Many seeds need light to germinate. So, covering them up will stop the process altogether. Most need loose soil, which makes it easier for delicate seedlings to break through.
In spaces where you want garden flowers to reseed, avoid using mulch or opt for a lighter mulch, such as a light sprinkling of straw or grass clippings. Leave your seed-rich areas exposed, especially if you’re working with native plants. Native plants are well-adapted to natural weather patterns and will germinate best if left undisturbed.
If you want to use mulch to suppress weeds in the spring, wait until you can see where the desirable plants are popping up. Then, if you must, mulch around them. Otherwise, leave the area undisturbed and let Mother Nature work her magic.
Proper Spring Care
Once spring rolls around, there’s not much left to do except let nature do its thing. Most of this is simply practicing restraint. Most self-sowers benefit from the cool, moist conditions of spring for germination. Given this, it makes sense that we should take a more hands-off approach than we would with intentionally sown seeds.
Hold off on cleaning up old seed heads and stems, as some won’t release their seeds until spring. Avoid digging or tilling in the places where you expect your garden flowers to reseed.
Try to disturb the soil as little as possible. If you want to tidy up, you can lightly rake the soil, but avoid turning it over. Those that need light to germinate need to stay close to the surface.
Again, avoid using mulch until you know where your new plants are emerging. Keep an eye on the area and watch for signs of life. When you see those sprouts, weed lightly around them to prevent competition and know what to care for.
A light sprinkling of compost won’t hurt if you want to beef up the soil, just keep it light. You only want a thin layer for the same reason that you don’t want to turn the soil over and bury potential seeds.
Only water lightly during dry spells. The cool, moist spring weather in most places is most conducive to germination. Don’t overwater, or you may end up rotting your seedlings before they have a chance to establish a strong root system.
