Topic: flower seeds in compost

[gwynnethmary]

Next week we're going to be clearing our runner bean/flower border (sweet peas, sunflowers, cornflower and marigolds).  It's been a joy and delight for months on end but I picked the last few flowers yesterday and it now has to go.  My question is, can the dead foliage go on the compost heap or will this result in flowers popping up all over the lottie for years to come where we don't want them?  I did keep finding tomato seedlings this year, I presume from when we cleared the grow bags in our garden last year after our first attempt at tomatoes.

[small]

From my experience they will already have scattered seeds all over your plot - I compost my marigolds and californian poppies, I can't guarantee that all the seeds get killed but it doesn't matter, I either hoe off or transplant what Nature pops up in spring.

[pigeonseed]

I'm having exactly the same dilemmas, pot marigolds, leaf beet, buddleia - lots of typical prolific self-seeders which produce tons of branches full of seeds.

Sometimes it seems obvious to me they have to be composted seperately and sometimes I think 'naa, don't bother' and put them in the compost bin.

It's probably not too bad, unless you want to use the soil for sowing seeds which start as puny seedlings in which case lots of weed seedlings are a menace.

I suppose you can buy in compost for that, or bake it in the oven??

I think we had a thread on here a while ago, where someone remembers people baking soil in the fields, in metal containers with fires underneath?