Troy Scott Smith on his vision for Sissinghurst<\/a><\/li>

How to protect grass seed from birds<\/a><\/li>

How to plant bulbs<\/a><\/li><\/ul>
But nowadays, gardeners are choosing an easier and quicker method \u2013 just letting the spent flower heads to fall to the ground, covering the soil surface like confetti before they rot down into the soil<\/a>.<\/p>
<\/div><\/figure><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/podcasts\/talking-gardens-troy-scott-smith\">Troy Scott Smith<\/a>, head gardener at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/gardens\/country\/sissinghurst-garden-summer-roses\">Sissinghurst<\/a>, favours this \u2018chop and drop\u2019 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. \u201cWe chuck them straight into the border,” he explains. “It feels like it\u2019s 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\u2019s all extra processes,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>The chop and drop method is similar to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/features\/cut-cover-composting\">cut-and-cover technique<\/a> that some gardeners now use when cutting back the dead stems of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/plants\/perennial-plants-best\">perennials<\/a> 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/garden-advice\/how-to\/attract-wildlife-garden\">wildlife<\/a>.<\/p><p>Here’s more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/garden-advice\/how-to-compost\">simple composting without the faff<\/a><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discover the easy deadheading technique that is being picked up by head gardeners as a way of saving time and helping the soil <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":40987,"template":"","categories":[1,17,51],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/chop-and-drop-watch-the-easy-way-to-deadhead-that-helps-cut-time-in-the-garden.png",1419,778,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/chop-and-drop-watch-the-easy-way-to-deadhead-that-helps-cut-time-in-the-garden-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/chop-and-drop-watch-the-easy-way-to-deadhead-that-helps-cut-time-in-the-garden-300x164.png",300,164,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/chop-and-drop-watch-the-easy-way-to-deadhead-that-helps-cut-time-in-the-garden-768x421.png",768,421,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/chop-and-drop-watch-the-easy-way-to-deadhead-that-helps-cut-time-in-the-garden-1024x561.png",800,438,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/chop-and-drop-watch-the-easy-way-to-deadhead-that-helps-cut-time-in-the-garden.png",1419,778,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/chop-and-drop-watch-the-easy-way-to-deadhead-that-helps-cut-time-in-the-garden.png",1419,778,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Discover the easy deadheading technique that is being picked up by head gardeners as a way of saving time and helping the soil","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/40986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}