When most of us head out into the garden to do a spot of deadheading, we take a pair of our favourite secateurs and a bucket or trug in which to collect the spent flower heads with us. These flower heads then hopefully find their way to the compost bin or heap, or green waste bin.
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But nowadays, gardeners are choosing an easier and quicker method – just letting the spent flower heads to fall to the ground, covering the soil surface like confetti before they rot down into the soil.
Troy Scott Smith, head gardener at Sissinghurst, favours this ‘chop and drop’ method of disposing of spent flowerheads - mainly as it saves time for him and his team when removing the dead flower heads from perennials and roses throughout the famous garden. “We chuck them straight into the border," he explains. "It feels like it’s wrong but actually, they dissolve so quickly and I suspect do a little bit of good for the soil as well. But for me the key is time saving. If you have to trim these, put them into a bucket and then deal with them, it’s all extra processes,” he says.
The chop and drop method is similar to the cut-and-cover technique that some gardeners now use when cutting back the dead stems of perennials in late winter or early spring. Instead of being composted, the spent stems are left on top of the soil as a mulch that will gently rot down into the soil. This low maintenance method not only means fewer trips to the compost heap, but also adds nutrients back into the soil. The cuts stems can also provide shelter, food and habitat for wildlife.
Here's more on simple composting without the faff