At a rough guess I would say that about 1/4 of my time in the garden is spent removing self sown seedlings which pop up in places where they are unwanted. Chief culprits are aquilegias followed closely by verbena bonariensis which I try to keep to certain borders rather than letting it take over the whole garden. Another nuisance plant is Geranium pratense which seeds very prolifically.
Yesterday we got spades, trowels and wheelbarrows and managed (with some considerable difficulty because the ground was so hard) to remove all those plants from 2 borders. I think we had 4 wheelbarrows full of this ‘weed’. I do like it but not in my garden, it looks good in roadside verges and ‘wild’ areas. I laboriously transplanted some to a patch of ground which had grass cuttings scattered around so the soil was damp underneath. The planting method was to dig as small a hole as I could get away with and then cram several clumps in and roughly firm the soil back round the plants. We did this because rain was expected and I stupidly assumed they would get watered in. Apart from a little drop today it, the rain that is, has passed us by. That will teach me to listen to the weather forecast.
Now there are quite a few gaps for new plants, not sure yet what to plant but I shall enjoy thinking about it!
I have one garden in particular that I couldn’t do without all of the self-sown plants as the clients have a habit of ‘doing’ the garden and weeding my plantings out…So without double feverfew and rose campion, aquilegias etc.,it’d be a pretty sorry affair. These seedlings they recognise. My plants they don’t. Which is why I often leave labels in by the plants.
I love your blog. As it goes, it’s mostly you who ever says anjything about mine. Otherwise it’s spam. Plus a client who is only interested in anything I write about here garden.