[GreenDavie]

Hi all

I've been given a fair few large pots full of compost which I've positioned round my allotment, because I have so many I cannot really afford to nor dont really want to go and buy plants for them from the garden centre. I wondered what seeds I can buy and just chuck in and allow to grow a mixture. I like the idea of the randomness of it but what variety of seeds/plants would be suitable and long flowering if poss

Cheers

Davie

[Trikidiki]

Anything with an open type flower bellis daisies, marigolds calendula, poached egg plant etc.

These will all attract hoverfles which are one of your greatest insect allies. They and their young stages will eat hundreds of times their weight of aphids etc throughout the season.

Marigolds around your carrots will help disguise the smell of carrots and hopefully reduce carrot fly attack. They will also help in keeping whitefly off your brassicas I grow them inside the greenhouse to keep whitefly at bay.

[chimaera]

Also things you can bring into the house, either as cut flowers or in the pot ; try cosmos, cornflowers, dahlias (you can get tubers very cheap in some DIY shops) and for next year get some cheap bulk buy daffodils, or why not take some cuttings from pinks, lavender, woody herbs etc from a friend's garden and they will root and grow on in no time.

Charlie

[tosca100]

Herb cuttings are a good idea. Also I use any supermarket herbs bought over winter...parsley, mint, thyme. They are seedlings and I split them and pot them to get them going, plant them out April/May. Cosmos are great and they come in loads of colours, you get loads of seeds to a pack and they are brilliant for attracting insects. Flower till frosts.

[rhythmvick]

I'm growing nasturtiums because you can eat them as well    and I'll be growing nicotiana from seed this year, along with marigolds, for the wildlife.

What about mixed wild seed packs - I've seen them at the garden centre and they sound like you can just chuck them in and head off 

[Spana]

What ever seeds you decide to sow mix in a pinch of gypsophila.  The white of the flowers shows off the other colours and you get a lovely billowing affect